i just wanna cry

I’ve been furiously knitting away on a little lacy shawlette (one that has beads on it too) trying to get it done for my friend Rebekah’s wedding on Saturday. I’m working on the border, which is knitted on sideways. In truth, the border is only 8-stitches wide and is a 4-row repeat – how hard can that be? I can memorize 32 stitches, no problem.

Except.

I was knitting away Monday night when I suddenly noticed a dropped stitch. I think a bad 4-letter word came out of my mouth at that time. It had fallen about 3 rows down. With great calm and poise that even surprised me, I placed the knitting on the table, pulled out my crochet hook and started trying to figure out what went wrong (okay, that’s not true – I didn’t really care at that point what went wrong) and more importantly, how to fix it. An hour later I ended up with *something*, though I’m not sure what I really did. Who cares? It is 100% noticeable, but only if you’re looking for it. *hopefully*

Onward I went, knitting happily way.

Until.

Another dropped stitch was found.

*sigh*

Into time out the project went.

I went to bed, slept fitfully and woke up determined to fix it. Which I did. And it looked much better than the first attempt the night before. Much better. So, onward I went. Keep in mind that by this point I’m nearly 3/4 of the way through the border when this happened the first time. I mean, like the first 200 rows went perfectly, so why all-of-a-sudden am I facing these dropped stitches?

Determined to get some knitting done on Tuesday morning, I fixed the mistake, placed it out of my mind and then carried on…paying close attention to my knitting, determined to NOT.DROP.ANOTHER.STITCH.

Well, that didn’t happen. I mean, I did. Drop another one. Yes, yes I did.

This morning I picked up my knitting and had a successful morning of it. I have, quite literally, 8 repeats left to do. I CAN DO THIS. No more dropped stitches!

(I keep repeating the mantra “there’s no crying in knitting…there’s no crying in knitting…”)

normalcy?

I keep waiting (and waiting…and waiting….) for life to return to normal, but it hasn’t happened yet. This has been one crazy year for me – first with the knee injury and then with work overload and church-work overload -and- school. I have been knitting during all this time, but every so slowly.

First off, I completed my Sunset Shawl. Finally. It has been a wonderful little shawl so far – I wear it nearly every day at work, so it was definitely worth the wait. I had knit this pattern before for my mom, but I decided to make mine larger, and by larger, I mean that it took for. ever. to knit. That and I had to purchase extra yarn twice, should tell you how much larger this thing is than my moms. I think I will take it home with me at Christmas and take a comparison photo.

Right now, though, I’m working on a beaded shawlette for my friend Rebekah’s wedding. Just a little something to keep the tops of her shoulders warm. The beads are driving me crazy. I knit some last night and dropped a stitch and had to perform surgery and then this morning I did the exact same thing. Ugh! Can you tell I’m ready for this to be finished? I’m hoping that I can get it to blocking by Thursday night so that I can give it to her on Friday night for the rehearsal (I’m reading at her wedding, so I get to go to the rehearsal and dinner). Come to think of it – this is the third wedding I’ve read for. Kristin’s (my sister), Julie’s (my former roommate) and now Rebekah’s. Does the same theory about wedding “readers” hold true as for bridesmaids? You know, always a bridesmaid but never the bride? Hm…

So, I’m still here. And still knitting. And still waiting for my life to return to something resembling normalcy. Unless this is the new normal and no one ever told me. Is it?