…Fry, fry a hen.
This is a spoiler alert (because I am being just too impatient to wait any longer). If you are the person this is for, if you already saw the new shop model at Purlescence, if you had a hand in that shop model’s creation but it was too small for you, go away and don’t read this for a day or two, okay?
Two days ago, I went to block this: I rinsed it gently in tepid water and went to lay it out in a circle. Some yarns, some fibers, I run my wires through to get them to behave; some just need to dry patted into shape. But either way, first you have to lay it out the way you want it to look. The lace stitches magically fall into place when you add a little water–there’s this marvelous transformation from crumpled tin foil to actual, pretty lace.
And when I did, I found that having carried it around on errands during the cast-off row, having it on a 7mm needle while working it with a 10mm straight needle as I cast off, had been a big mistake. I had dropped a stitch and not noticed and it had run.
And then, at the other end of the cast-off row, I found another spot, although I rescued that one at an earlier stage in its bungee jumping. Dropped stitches in the cast-off? I have never done such a thing before. And to have done it twice? What was I smoking? (Oh. Right. The city’s compost pile.)
What bungee jumps down must bounce back up. But that blew my plans for delivering the thing yesterday. Crum. At least I did get to see that working on an unfamiliar scale with a somewhat unfamiliar yarn, I’d guessed it right and the shawl and the neckline had come out the size and fit I wanted it to be for whom it’s going to.
I had another shawl that had been plodding slowly along in the background while other projects with bigger deadlines had come and gone, and in a huff at the blue one, finished that off yesterday instead.
Today I go bounce back up on the bungee cord here. Part of me is urging myself to rip out multiple rows and not fuss with fixing, just go way back and then peacefully reknit it; I like this yarn, I like looking forward to making (you know now who you are) happy, and rescue work is a bear.
I’m going to do the rescue work. It’s good practice.
So I spent yesterday waiting impatiently for it to dry, and then tinked the cast-off before it was probably entirely ready for it, got it back on the needles and now, finally, not only is it ready, but I am too.