Back to the Math

I should apologize to my faithful readers.  Both of them.  I have been a very neglectful blogger.  Busy, work, kids, blah, blah, blah.

But my needles and knitting juices have not been idle.  Quite the contrary.  I found myself all alone at Knittervention.  I had arranged a sitter, and was determined to enjoy myself.  I ended up finished and binding off my Mother's scarf.  A Christmas present finally finished in June.  Now there is something to be proud of, right?

 My Annis Shawlette is blocked, and I have learned to charmingly drape it around my neck.  Just in time for the 80 degree weather.  May was more like July in Indiana, certainly not shawl weather, not even a small one.  I stubbornly wore it a couple times, then carefully folded it away until autumn.  Or a freak cold snap in July right after I finish a cotton/linen tank top.  Such is my luck.

    I have been knitting quite a bit on the place-mat.  The pattern is nice.  Easy, but just enough to keep me interested.  I am looking forward to having these place-mats in my kitchen.  Then I realize that I currently have eight place-mats.  There are only four diners in my family, but two of them are still dodgy about their fork abilities, so the place-mats are constantly in the laundry rotation.

That is a lot of place-mats to knit.  What have I gotten myself into?




Lastly, since realizing that the Jane Eyre Shawl won't work with my pretty sage mohair, I have returned to my original concept: a wrap with Celtic-inspired design.  Of course, I searched Ravelry endlessly, and couldn't find EXACTLY what I was thinking anywhere.  Making up my own pattern seemed incredibly ambitious.  I mean, I am not an inexperienced knitter, but following a lace pattern with minimal screw ups is a far cry from creating one.  

This weekend, I started cutting and pasting, almost literally.  I took the central motif from one pattern, the border from another, then started cutting out the portions, leaving something close to what I had in mind.

Then started the math.  How many stitches wide?  How many rows tall?  I had to balance the border repeat  with the central motif and desired overall size.  Each time I thought I had the math cornered, I reviewed it one last time, and found one more thing I had missed.  Over and over, until I started coming up with the same numbers, repeatedly.  The planning was infuriating, but every time I caught another omission, I reminded myself that it was far better to catch it now, rather than with my tears staining the mohair.

I just hope that I haven't forgotten anything.

Today, it is all about planning the math.