How I Spent My Monday Night

On Sunday evening, I went from 288 stitches to 576 stitches, or at least I thought I had. After work yesterday, I started the Feather & Fan section. The first pattern row left me six stitches short. I improvised. I knitted a knit round, putting in stitch markers at every 100 stitches. I counted 578 stitches. I knitted a second round, re-counting every 100 stitch section. By the end of the round, I had the right stitch count. I knitted a third round, removing the stitch markers. I started the next pattern round and, by the end of the first pattern repeat, found a mistake. Arghhhhh!!!

I put the whole thing down for a while and stared at the tv (I have no idea what was on... CSI or the news, probably) while John was preparing dinner. I knew what I had to do. I picked it up again and studied it. I came to the realization that picking up the final stitches of the previous section would be fairly simple as they were slightly "separated" by the yarnovers of the increase round. So, I dug out a needle and some waste yarn and began picking up stitches. Hmm... yanno, there's not a lot of difference between gray and cream when you're trying to see which stitch you're supposed to be picking up! It wasn't until after dinner that I had all the stitches on the waste yarn. Then, I gingerly pulled out the circular needle (with John watching what I was doing, a puzzled look on his face); no problem so far. I started frogging. It went quite well, actually. The yarn only stuck in one or two spots and not too badly (I'm liking this yarn more and more).

So, now, the shawl (which still has no name) is off the needles, on waste yarn, waiting to return to the needles. It does give me a perfect photo opportunity. Here's where the shawl is at right now...

Obviously, I haven't stretched it out as much as I would have if I'd been blocking it, but it does give you a pretty good idea of what's happening to this point. Now, though, I'm re-thinking the Feather & Fan pattern. It may be too wavy for a nice edging. F&F looks best with a very simple finish, like a plain cast off. However, a plain castoff on a round shawl isn't a good idea as it won't block nicely. It just wouldn't have enough stretch.

Any opinions? Suggestions? I had been considering a continuation of the vine pattern with a round of the batwing lace pattern towards the end of the shawl, a few knit rounds and then a lacy edging.

In the interim, I'll get it back on to the needles tonight, work the increase round and a couple of straight rounds, just to make sure I have the right number of stitches. And then I'll work on John's socks.