Saturday, March 28, 2009

As God Is My Witness, I'll Never Frog Lace Again!

The Civil War Shawl went down with the South last night.

I do have excuses...

My first alma mater is Michigan State. They got to the Sweet Sixteen and were up against the University of Kansas. The Jayhawks were kicking Spartan butt, so I was knitting away, not paying too much attention. (I'm not a big fan of pain or humiliation.) Then the tide turned and the feathers started flying. It was neck and neck down the final stretch. Michigan State won by 5 at the buzzer!

And the crowd went wild!

The TV went to the UNC, Gonzaga game, which, since I'd lived in Chapel Hill for several years, could have been interesting, except for that UNC was blowing Gonzaga out by more than 20 points, so I looked down at my knitting and realized that instead of knitting pattern rows seven and eight, I'd knit rows one and two.

Evil Language!

No cure for it but to frog the two offending rows.

Now I'm sure you're all are thinking, "She's a thinking woman's knitter, so I'm sure she had a life line." And it's true that just last Sunday Susan had demonstrated life lines in the shawl knitting class. But my excuses are: I didn't have any crochet weight cotton to make a life line with, and, besides, it's a simple lace pattern, easy to tell where you are, and I check every half row, making sure I come out even and I count stitches on all of the purls rows.

Here's where you find out why I'm the Clueless Crafter...

I decided tinking back two 200+ stitch rows was just too time consuming, so I pulled my circular needle out and started unraveling. When I was almost to the end, there was a sudden explosion of cat on my lap.

"Ohai Mom! Whatcha doin? Can I halp? Ooh, yarn!"

It's amazing how much damage can be done in under two seconds.

Three quarters of the shawl is back on the needle in passably good shape. The last quarter, however... excuse me while I shed some tears... is not a pretty sight.

But I swear, however long it takes, the South shall rise again!

And when I'm out at the grocery store this afternoon, I'm going to buy some cotton crochet thread.

3 comments:

Iron Needles said...

Oh. A Michigan State fan?

Well, I still call you my friend...

KC said...

That is a sad story. I am convinced if anyone can save it, you can. However, just when I thought I was starting to understand knit jargon like tinking and frogging you come up with "a life line"...what the heck?!@

Wunx~ said...

Actually, Iron, the game was kindof a win/win situation in terms of upcomging games. I'd have rooted for whichever team won in the next round as I like both. The Engineer, however, got his PhD at University of Michigan, so I've, got to cheer for MooU (MSU) in order to annoy him.

KC, a lifeline is a line of lightweight, usually cotton, yarn that you run through the loops of a row of knitting. If you have to frog, it stops you from accidently frogging farther than you want to.