Hot. Cool. Yours.
Let's get this out of the way first. The problem with the FYA shawl was that I miscounted/added an extra stitch/forgot a stitch/whatever in the first few stitches on the first row of Clue 3. The way the pattern is written, you start the chart over at each stitch marker, and I managed to read it/knit it/whatever it correctly the next two times. Which is how it was wrong in one place and right in another. Since, however, I messed up within the first few stitches of the very first row, I had to frog all the way back to the beginning of the clue. I was not happy about this. In fact, I ragged on it so long and so hard to The Princess that, once I had made the correction, I managed to knit back on the wrong side row instead of purl back. We will draw a curtain here, now that I've successfully knit Clue 3.
One could argue that, until Clue 5 is actually released, I am now on schedule. I have a chance to finish Clue 4 before Clue 5 (the final clue) is released on Monday.
I have other plans.
I'm not joining the Ravellenics. Technically. I'm not on any team. I haven't tagged any project. I missed the cast-on moment by hours and hours. However. The Lord Protector is still waiting for his college blanket. We have gone back and forth on patterns for a while. I was going to try to knit intarsia cables on a Knitspot pattern until I counted the number of bobbins of yarn I would have to juggle to achieve the width he wanted. Thirteen. I pondered knitting it in panels, and then remembered how good I am about assembling blankets that are knit in pieces. Over break, we found another pattern: the Walt Painted Chevron Baby Blanket. Okay, so it's written as a baby blanket and there was MATH, but it was pretty straightforward MATH and I did it.
Then we looked at the yarn and compared it with THE MATH and concluded it wasn't going to make it. The yarn we'd planned is from the stash. Very old Sweet Georgia Yarns Superwash in Nightshade and Silver. Sweet Georgia Yarns is not always consistent within dye-lots (it is hand-dyed after all). At this late date we figured there was no way we could match what I already had. We are clever and creative people, however, and when scanning Ravelry projects, we noted that the blankets, by and large, use three colors. I tried, really I did, to persuade the Lord Protector to add some color to this blanket. A nice, deep, wine, red perhaps. Maybe an old, antique gold. Or a profound forest green. He chose another, darker gray.
Those who live in most of the Lower 48, have you looked out the window? Do you know what is heading our way? Do you realize what it will be like to knit navy, gray and darker gray in February in Chicago? I'll tell you what it will be like. It will be like knitting a perpetual winter twilight, that's what it will be like.
I call that a challenge of truly Olympic proportions.
I have, therefore, built in a respite. Sort of like those moments between events when the commentators drone on and on and the only purpose for them is to break up the main action. In a flattering turn of events, someone admired my Color Affection Shawl so much, she asked, if she bought the yarn, if I would make her one, "just like mine." I knit mine in Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply. Miss Babs has been out of stock on the Flaxen and the Navy for a while, but since mine included a one-of-a-kind colorway, I wouldn't be able to duplicate it anyway. Besides, that would be boring. I think this will get close enough.
It's Shalimar Yarns Breathless in Oyster, Cephalopod Yarns Bugga in Frog Legged Leaf Beetle and Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in Polar Sea. I do believe that when the dim and dark of the Lord Protector's blanket begins to overwhelm, this project should restore me.
Citius-Altius-Fortius.
