I had a satisfying yet frustrating week of knitting.

Firstly, I finished my mom’s socks. Sometimes, on that second sock, the distance from the heel gussets to the toe decreases seems like it’s a mile long. This is most obvious when just doing stockinette in the round isn’t distracting enough from the things bothering you in real life. A few nights that I picked up this sock, I don’t think I finished an entire round before I wanted to shout “It’s too boring, I *can’t* do JUST stockinette”. Mind, there are times that I crave it, and times that it seems like the simplest, most relaxing thing on the planet (like last night), and it’s during these times that one makes progress.

When the stockinette seemed too much to bear, I picked up my Janet Lace Shawl. I’m up to round 63 and I feel like I’m slowly being driven nuts. I do love working on it…when the pattern makes sense. Round 63 does not make sense. I’ve been emailing someone on Ravelry for input as they’ve finished this project, and she didn’t encounter any problems. The thing is, maybe the pattern IS right, but a little pattern note saying “this may look odd, but please trust us and continue knitting” would make a world of difference. Basically, the problem is, everything looks like it’s going to be a stitch offset from what I’ve already done. I feel that this is wrong. But I’ve counted, checked, and rechecked, and the stitches I have in the row below are correct. Undeniably. If the pattern is meant to shift, couldn’t they just say so? The main issue I have is that no decent picture of this thing seems to exist ANYwhere, so I have nothing to compare it to. This is a horribly zoomed in part of the low-res version they have on the Knitpicks site, highlighted where I’m having issues:

It *does* look like that bit of the petal is offset a tad. But the directions don’t lead me to believe I that it’s going to look like that. It’s hard to explain. I’m going to follow the advice of the woman I was emailing and put a lifeline in, and just trust the pattern. Maybe I’m just missing something. Or not. We’ll see!

I have ordered Kate Gilbert’s latest mitten pattern, called Bird in the Hand. I think they’re so lovely – I have always been attracted to things that are vine-y in nature. Mine will be in purple and white, using Berroco Ultra Alpaca. I’ve been wanting to try a mitten pattern like this, and I think a 2 colour pattern is a good start.

I’m definitely still in my “small projects” phase, but the idea of getting started on one of my cardigans is becoming appealing. I have this idea that I’m going to be ready to dive in to a big project after Christmas, even though I’m not doing any holiday knitting. Things are just busier this time of year, so doing things in small steps seems to be easier, while at the same time giving you that lovely sense of accomplishment.