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Stay Focused on the Outcome

I promised the lace shawl knitting would suck up most of the knitting time for the month of October and I was right.  In fact it was so all consuming that it also took away from writing.  But the three of us, Pam, Tena and me, we stayed true to focusing on the outcome.  Each of us can see the finish line of our shawls.

First, we were all relatively new to lace knitting.  And as I have outlined here before, for a beginner lace knitting can be very time-consuming, expletive-causing, make you wonder about your sanity type of knitting.  Why you might ask?  Every stitch has to be correct because in the finished product you block the poor thing into much less than an inch of its stretchability, and as you stretch you also show off every single stitch.

Second, each of us for different reasons wanted to complete the shawl this time around.  Tena was completing a shawl she started 8 years ago.  Pam had never knit with circular needles before and she needed to learn how to work with them; she also picked up new skills in chart reading and how to M1 (make one).  And Pam is disciplined so she does not start a new project until the old one is completed.  Me, well,  I wanted to finish a shawl because there have been at least one false start already with the Little Arrows shawl.  Read about it here.  Each of us was doggedly determined about this project.

Alison, the instructor, was able to help us by finding the mistakes we couldn't locate on our own and most importantly she set an example.  She started a shawl the same day we did and she finished hers to the point on the fourth night of class her shawl was stretched and blocked into shape so we could see how it should be done.  Her knitting with us was a good motivation from my POV.

Amazingly, we revealed to each other each of us had come to the conclusion at the end of week three's class we would knit our fingers off trying to complete our first shawl during that final class.  And we did just that.   Tena had questions about the final reverse I-cord bind off, Pam planned a garter edging and wanted to incorporate beads somewhere and needed a bit of help, and me, well I hadn't read about the bind off for my shawl and was pleasantly surprised to find it was very easy.  I spent the entire two hours binding off and of course taking a few photos.  So we all worked to get it done and here are the results.

My Ashton off the needles this time because it is done.

Pam's Elder Tree shawl stretched so you can see how pretty it is

Tena's Brandywine shawl (those ¨pins¨ on the left help track repeats)
Yes, as for my photo above, after knitting frantically all week ones eyes do grow quite squinty or more accurately I selected a poor photo of me, but a pretty good one of the shawl.  (Don't fear there will be more.)  We all are right at the finish line.  In fact as soon as I am done writing this I must block my shawl using the blocking wires I picked up yesterday so on Tuesday I can hand those wires to Tena so she can block her shawl.

As we drove home from class on Thursday we admitted housework had been neglected the week before so we could finish our shawls.  Each of us independently decided it was a necessity to finish.  We each also had some sort of break through during that last week too.  Both Pam and I figured out a system of reading our knitting that helped make the process easier and Tena bought a task light, something she found made everything easier.

And because I can, here's a couple of photos of my partners in knitting working away on that first lace shawl:
Pam taking a moment for a picture

Tena on the left and Alison on the right figuring out the reverse I-cord bind off


So we all worked to get 'er done. Veni, vidi, vici--we came, we saw and we conquered--the lace shawl.  Alison said ours was the first class she'd taught where everyone finished a lace shawl during the class.  Of course, we were probably the first class she taught made up entirely of retirees too.

Now each of us can move on to something new with a distinct air of confidence because WE DID CONQUER this lace knitting challenge.




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