Halfway point

For my time, not the shawl.

I started around the middle of June. The deadline for the Knit-along is September 15th. I should be at the halfyway point tomorrow.

I. Am. Not.

I am almost to the halfway point of the body of the shawl, without the ruffle.

This doesn't look good, and is starting to look more and more ominous.

Short of a debilitating injury that relieves me from housework, legal work and child care, but still allows me to knit, I am starting to have serious doubts about the deadline.

Today, it is all about the fractions, and what the definition of "half" is.

And, it's official,

I am totally screwed. In spite of diligent efforts, knitting monogomy (not even tempted on this project, I swear, totally faithful to the shawl), carrying it around with me EVERYWHERE in case I will have an unexpected few minutes, staying up entirely too late some evenings (especially considering that my littlest guy is STILL not consistently sleeping all the way through the night), and measuring entirely too often, I am officially behind schedule.


According to the schedule, I was supposed to have reached the center spine by now, and started the decreasing rows.


A digression to explain the shawl's construction. It is worked side to side. So I start on the right side with only a few stitches, then increase one stitch every fourth row. When I reach the midpoint, I start decreasing every fourth row, until I am back down to the original few stitches. Then I add the suicide ruffle.


Right now, it is hard (Ok, impossible) to stick to the schedule, because the rows keeping getting wider, so it takes longer to complete them. The decrease rows will have the opposite effect, so I will start accelerating my progress.


Right now, each row takes about 6 minutes to complete. That may not sound like much, but the schedule calls for 24 rows per day. That is 2 1/2 hours per day. I am not knitting 2 1/2 hours per day, which means that I am falling ever further behind with each new day.


But all hope is not yet lost! There is the decreasing acceleration factor to consider on the later stages of the shawl. And I may have completely overestimated the time requirements of the suicide ruffle. (Really, I MAY have.)


So far, I am 16 3/4 wide. (The shawl, that is, not me personally.) The pattern calls for 20 to 24 inches wide. Kate is about half a foot taller than me, so I calculating that I am on the shorter end of the desired width. (I am at the shorter end of everything else, so it would be a cruel irony not to be short when I really need it.)


Plus, there is a round trip drive to Chicago this week (picking up my brother et al from O'Hare) and Mom will be doing most of the driving. Lots of knitting opportunity. I am primarily going for company and to serve as navigator.


And in the worst case scenario, failure to finish by September 15th only means that I will not be considered for the knit-along's judging. I will still have a lovely shawl, no matter when I finish it.


Today, it is all about the optimism. (Or delusion. I write, you decide.)

Maybe, maybe not

The question of the day: Am I on schedule with the Duchess Shawl? The answer: Maybe, maybe not.

Techinically, according to the schedule, I am way behind. I have 25 repeats completed as of today, which is what I was supposed to have done by last Wednesday. Not a good sign.

However, the pattern calls for the center spine to be 20-24 inches. My schedule was based on a 24 inch estimate requiring 46 repeats.

I have over 13 inches completed. Which means that . . . .wait a minute. . . slightly more than half the inches and half the repeats.

Oh, this doesn't look good.

Maybe, I won't really want 24 inches. Maybe I won't really need a month to do the suicide ruffle. Maybe I will miraculously finish the increase stitches in 8 days, and on schedule.

And while I am at it, maybe we will hit the lottery this week. And maybe I will be given a time turner, so I can repeat hours of the day. And maybe someone will invent a pill that allows people to forego sleep.

Today, it is all about the maybes.

Already behind schedule

Ok, this is not a good start. I am almost at my goal for Wednesday. Which is not good since it is Friday. This may not sound very much behind, but as I increase stitches, my 24 per day rows is actually getting bigger and harder to meet.

Not only that, but against my better wisdom and uanble to resist, I did a rouch calculation of stitches for the ruffle: around 60,000. A month doesn't sound like enough time.

Who is the masocist that set three months for this Knit-along? Obviously not someone with a full-time job and young children.

All hope is not lost. We are camping this weekend. So there will be four hours of driving time. Driving for my sweetie, knitting for me. Then there is always nap times over the weekend, without the distractions of laundry and vaccuuming. I see an opportunity here.

Mickey Mouse CLubhouse is on for the moment, so I think I will take this opportunity to do a few of yesterdays rows.

Today is is already about the optimism, and the pessimism.

I'm on a schedule here

I worked out a little schedule for my Duchess Shawl. I have to complete around 24 rows per day, and have been sticking to it, so far. It may be a bit of denial to believe as my shawl increases by six stitches per day, I will somehow continue to be able to knit 24 rows a day.

I am roughly 1/3 finished with the body, by width, not by total area.

I have a long trial tomorrow, set for almost all day, so something tells me that I won't be able to do much knitting during the day tomorrow. That just leaves the evening. I have all the time I want to knit, read, and do anything else I want to do between 9 pm and 6 am. Except for one problem: that is when I clean house, do dishes, and fold laundry.

This doesn't look good, and I am starting to question my own sanity in choosing to do a pressured Knit-along when I have two children three and under and work full-time

Today, it is all about the denial and insanity.

Better Left in Ignorance

While on hold the other day, I started doing some Duchess Shawl Math. Estimating that the ruffle is about 30% of the work, and each side of the body 35%, with a little more than three months left before the KAL deadline, I estimated that I needed to complete 1 1/3 pattern repeats per day. I smiled in confidence at my ability to meet this self-imposed deadline, and started feeling pretty optomisitic that I would finish the shawl in time.

The next day, I realized the flaw in my math. Each repeat increases by four stitches, to an end goal of 192 stitches. If I was meeting my goal at 42 stitches per row, it was only going to get harder as the stitches increased to 80, and 120, and 160. A little ball of dread landed in my stomach.

So yesterday, I thought maybe if I tried to exceed my goal now during the shorter rows, it would give me some cushion for the later longer rows. Ok, optimism returning. I can do this.

This morning, apparently NOT having learned a lesson with my math calculations, I remembered a little geometry to calculated the estimated stitches in my suicide ruffle. Using the Pythagorean theorum (which I can't believe I even remembered), I was able to estimate how long all my sides would be. At 8 stitches per inch, and an estimated 200 inches in circumference, that leaves . . . around 1600 stitches. Which I double in the next row.

I am half considering comparing the total estimated stitches in the ruffle vs. body of the shawl, to see if my original percentage estimate was even in the same universe as reality.

Someone, please save me from the math.

Today, it is all about the numbers.

Fit for a Princess

I started the Duchess Shawl over the weekend, with Size 2's. After it was about the legnth of my thumb, I decided that it was too dense. By this time, I had found my Needle Measure thingie, so I knew I had a Size 3 cicular, and started in that one. By the time it was about the legnth of my thumb, I was starting to have my doubts that it was too dense. So I started again in Size 4's.

Now I have two different starts to the same shawl. And I keep asking everyone to feel them, and give me their thoughts.

And I do mean everyone. To mixed and non-knitting opionions. I am going to have to make a decision soon. The more I think about it, I think the answer might be in yet another swatch.

The ruffle is knit one size up from the body of the shawl. So now I am thinking that I need to knit a little on Size 5's to see how it will look for the ruffle.

I hate swatching.

Today, it is all about the testing.