The 5 stages of a Knit-along

1. Denial: oh, what a beautiful shawl! Three months is plenty of time to knit it. Fingering weight would give the shawl divine drape. Three months. No problem.


2. Anger: For the love of all that is wooly, will people just leave me alone so I can knit! I am on a deadline here!


3. Bargaining: Ok, if I play a Mickey Mouse DVD and give you some cookies, can you two boys stay quiet and let Mommy knit?


4. Depression: What's the use. I will never finish this shawl in time. Why should I even bother?


5. Acceptance: Sigh. I gave it my best effort, but I think it is safe to say that I am not going to finish the Duchess Shawl in time for the deadline. Last Thursday.


I estimate that I have knit on it for 60 hours, and have another 20 hours to go. Plus the ruffle.

Today, it is all about the acceptance.

P.S. It does look great. I am having techinical issues so pictures will have to wait for another day.

Meet me in the Middle

I am officially at the halfway point of the body of the shawl. (Happy dance.)

I did the center spine row, and have started on the decrease rows.

From this point on, the rows will decrease, and my pace will accelerate.

So in spite of the fact that it took seven weeks to complete the increase half, the remaining decrease half and ruffle will certainly be finished in the remaining five weeks of the Knit-along.

No problem. The end of the knit-along is within my grasp.

I also have several bridges and the crown jewels of England for sale, if anyone is interested.

Today, it is all about the denial.

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.