Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Everest Base Camp

Well, I've picked up the Stole of Evil again, after a week-long hiatus.

This was my plan of attack. First, I gathered together all of the necessary equipment:

stitch markers
thread
needle
row counter
waste yarn
project yarn
pattern
post-its
lace circular needles

Amazingly, no sherpas were required, as everything fit neatly into my Lynyrd Skynyrd bag. I re-did the provisional cast on. I am very good at the provisional cast on now due to the numerous times I've cast on this project. I purled the first row and carefully threaded a life line through the stitches. I made sure to leave lots of extra thread at each end to avoid any accidental stitch dropping.

I started the pattern slowly. I said each stitch out loud as I worked it. I read somewhere this was a good idea, so I did it, even though I felt like a fool. It did force me to focus on the pattern. I was pleased to see that the first row of the pattern appeared to be correct. Just to be sure, I counted each purl stitch in the next row. Perfect.

I took another piece of thread and carefully threaded it through the stitches, leaving lots of extra thread on either side. I repeated the process. 4 rows done! I started to think maybe this project was going to get done. I completed the next pattern row and it appeared to be correct, but then, TRAGEDY. As I was purling across the row, I dropped a couple of stitches. I did my best, but when I counted, there was one extra stitch. I couldn't figure out where the mistake was, so I ripped back two rows and redid them. Success! Six rows! It only took me two hours.

I put it down and went out to dinner. I started it back up this evening and managed to add another 4 rows in 2 hours (lots of ripping back, though). Due to the fact that I'm now putting in a life line after every two rows, I have 10 rows that are good. Two more rows and I will have finished an entire pattern repeat. Then I will have only 33 more repeats to go. By my estimate, if things continue as they've started, I will have the center of the stole finished in about 165 hours, give or take. If I can work on the stole 2 hours a day, it will only take me about 85 days to complete. Woo hoo!

Since this stole is my personal Everest, I'm hoping that the first couple of pattern repeats are like Base Camp. When climbers go to Everest, they spend weeks at base camp getting acclimatized to the thin air. They make numerous trips part way up the mountain, only to return to the base camp on the same day. Naturally, I'm slow at the pattern during my Base Camp stay because I'm getting acclimatized to the way of lace knitting. I'm making progress, but in baby steps. Once I get acclimztized, I'm sure (pretty sure) that I'll be moving along much faster.

At least, that's what I'm telling myself. My goal is to finish the stole before I go to Rhinebeck in the fall. No way am I letting a ball of yarn and a 12 row pattern kick my butt. No way. Now, it's personal.

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