Almost there

Well, I've been knitting madly and am on row 19 tonight. Two more rows and a cast-off and I'll be done, done with knitting that is. When I wrote my last post the other day I figured I had knit all the tough stuff and was on the home free stretch. Yeah right! Then I came to the little box with the 4 in it at the beginning of the last several rows. What the ***? Here's another tip ya'll: Knit 3 together first, slip the stitch you just made back on to the left needle, pull the next (4th) stitch over the slipped stitch (thus making it the 4th stitch in the cluster), and finally move the new stitch made back to the right needle before proceeding to create yet another one of those omnipresent double YOs. I'm a fairly loose knitter, but even that wasn't enough to make it reasonable for me to knit 4 stitches together as a cluster all in one maneuver. I've bypassed lace patterns that call for bunches of 5 or 7 st. clusters, deeming them too frustrating to do, thus interfering with my joy of knitting (the Trellis Scarf in IK last year comes to mind).

Anyway, thanks for all your kind comments from the other day. To those who are progressing at a turtle's pace I say knit on! Sanity breaks are a good thing, so take them as needed. And remember, the turtle did eventually win the race. Oh, and I think that knitting this shawl as a heirloom for your mother is a perfectly wonderful thing to do (was it Cheryl???). I knit a Kiri shawl for my Mom for Christmas and she simply oozes with joy every time she puts it on (I know 'cuz we live together ;-)

I ordered a set of bona fide blocking wires--I knew this big shawl wouldn't block to my satisfaction without them. It'll be at least a week before they arrive, but I'll let you know when I get those "magic" pictures. I think blocking lace is magic!

{{{hugs}}}
Kristina