Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Four stitches!!!
Take one down, as I knit them around -
Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Three stitches on the shawl!
BIG BREATH
Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Three stitches on the shawl. . .
I have decided to knit a shawl for a bride that I am close to. Dollface says, "You took this on, Mom. I am fine without a shawl...," and she probably is. But I need to make her a shawl for her wedding. . .because her dress is sleeveless and the hall is air-conditioned. . .because I want to show my love for my daughter in a tangible form. . .because I think love can be represented well in tens of thousands of tiny knit stitches in squishy-soft, lace-weight wool-and-silk. . .because I knit, I must knit my love for my daughter.
I have chosen the Bella Capelet, and you have seen a couple of pictures along the way. I don't have a new picture of it for you, but here's a gratuitous shot of the Peanut. . .
Ain't she cute?!? I am NOT at all biased. Honest. I'm not. SHE is seriously adorable! Back to the shawl. . . I am making really good progress, and I was pretty happy with the knitting (about 300 sts in each row for the past 60 rows or so), and then I came to these lines in the pattern:
---Knit 1, *YO, K1 repeat from * to end (599 sts)
---Repeat previous row (1198 sts)
---Knit the next 5 rows, then bind off with larger needle.
OK, those who know me might say I am a pretty quick knitter, and I would generally agree. My standard sock (64 sts around) takes me 3-4 minutes to knit around. OK, then let's do the math for those last 5 rows (here is where you should look away, if you are faint of heart when it comes to "the maths"). . .
1198 stitches x5 rows=5990sts. . .let's say that I knit 64 sts in sts in 4 minutes (lace-weight moves a bit slower for me), so 64 stitches/4 minutes=16 stitches a minute. . .back to high school here. . .5990 stitches for those 5 rows, at 16 sts/minute. . .5990/16=374.375 minutes. . .there are 60 minutes in an hour, so 374.375/60=6.24 hours to finish these last 5 rows! Argh! That means that it will take me 6.24/5=~1.25 hours FOR EACH OF THESE ROWS! Then the bind off, which will take even longer. . .I soooo should have read ahead and done this math before diving in!
Then again, I do love Dollface a whole bunch. . .and I think she is worth it! Besides, I have already completed 2 of those 5 rows. . .sooooo, all I have left is
Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Four stitches on the shawl!
Thanks for stopping by, and for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers through these last few thousand stitches. Oh, and Knit in Good Health!
I'd be happy to knit it for you . . . if she wants to get married in a couple of years. I'd be done by then! You know it's going to be 110 degrees on her wedding day. She darn well better have the thing stapled to her because in my book, if you knit anything with more than 1,ooo stitches, the person wears it all day, every day!
ReplyDeleteAhh that is why you don't do that sort of math...it will make you crazy....you should be thinking at 1 row=1.25 hours..at Knitting Thursday(4 hours) I will be ablt to get about 5 rows done!! It will go MUCH faster when knitting with your friends!!
ReplyDeleteShe is BEAUTIFUL! What a cute baby!
ReplyDeleteOkay, driving across the Dumbarton Bridge over the San Francisco Bay, you can see all the way north and south and to where you're going, and there's this feeling at times of, that's too far away, I couldn't possibly get there! But you just keep on driving, and about 45 minutes later you're in the Oakland foothills.
So. If it helps any, on Tuesday, trying to finish Penny's shawl in time to block Wednesday night, I did 22 rows of 365 stitches. That's 7920 stitches in one day. You can get to Oakland! Go Pam go!
Cute baby! And no, you don't sound bias to me. Simply stating a fact.
ReplyDeleteI try not to count total stitches in an item. Actually hadn't even though of it. Hmmm. Naw probably not, but you keep rockin on and counting if you want.
You know, so long as you finish the stitches before you start taking down the bottles of beer from the wall and passing those around, you shall be fine!
ReplyDeleteThat baby - so cute!!! That little miss is going to be a personality plus! And of course you are biased. It's your job. It's your duty. It's what you're supposed to DO.