I am still knitting

I had fallen out of blogging because I was still dealing with a dial-up connection. Now I have broad band so I intend to get back in the swing of this. I have been busy for the last 4 months. There has been much knitting done with a few actual finished objects. I will post my photos of these as I can. I think I am somewhat frightened of finding out how many things I have going with so few finished.

I have taken the plunge and am trying to knit a lace shawl. Adamas designed by Miriam Felton. This has proven to be quite challenging for me. I chose to start this on Monday, I knew I would have a nice block of time that would be uninterrupted (and inconvenient for me to be working on my lectures for the fall, thereby lessening the guilt factor). Perfect knitting time, a surgical waiting room. (A dear friend was having a small procedure done, it went very well, thank you.) What I didn't count on what how much focus I was going to need on this. I spent two hours and had ripped out the first 5 rows so many times I can't remember. When we left I had nothing. Nothing. Spent some more time on it Monday evening, and finally got to the upper chart. Then had to frog it, again.

Yesterday, things improved and this evening I have completed the upper chart. 20 whole rows after 3 days. And these are the short rows! I might finish this in this decade.

Here are the details: I am using KnitPicks Shadow in Redwood Forest. The yarn is very soft without being too 'fuzzy' for me to tell which stitches I have missed. I am still struggling with which needles to use. I started with Clover Bamboo circular then changed to Crystal Palace. The sharper point and polish of the bamboo allows me to more freely manipulate the yarn with the Crystal Palace circular. However, the metal ferrule keeps catching the yarn. I've switched back to the Clover Bamboo for now. I've considered trying to sharpen the tips. I've never done that before and am not sure exactly how to do it without creating more problems.




Here it is. I've since added a lifeline and have completed 6 rows of the body. I welcome any suggestions.