…Linarii progress report…

Coming into the Bookish Knitters Society knitalong, I was brimming with optimism. Straight off the back of an eight book month, I’d sewn my bag and knitted a cowl in the same week. How hard could one shawl and one audiobook be? I’d have it done so quickly! Sometimes, I really have to wonder what July Me is thinking. September has been one of my busiest months for the past 16(!!) years, and yet, July Me still seems to think a three month long knitalong, spanning no less than all six of our birthdays, our wedding anniversary, fathers day, two drama performances, and (hopefully) the start of our house build, was a good idea.

Which is to say – I am way way behind where I expected to be. I didn’t even slot progress reports in to my blog plan, thinking I would be done within the month. Instead, here we are, closing in on the end of week six, and I am only 9 repeats of 23 into the body of the shawl. It’s been a big month, sapping my mojo, especially of an evening. Instead of sitting down to knit and listen to my audiobook and knit, I’ve instead been bingewatching Chuck on Prime and playing stupid games on my phone.

When I do get my shawl out, though, I am completely in love with how it’s coming together.

Look at all that beautiful, squishy, cozy texture! I will confess there have been a couple of rows I have found myself out by either one stitch too many, or one stitch too few. The first couple of times, I didn’t discover the error until the end of the row. In those instances, I was able to adjust the finishing stitches to end up with the correct amount. After the second time, I paid much more attention to how my pattern was lining up on each row, and adjusted my increases and decreases across the row as needed. It’s only been a handful of times, and I don’t think the slight tweaks are overly visible. Once it is done and blocked, they should be even less visible, so I’m rolling with it. Humility errors, they’re called, right?

I’m 300% obsessed with how it’s coming out, even knowing by the time it’s done, it will likely be too warm here for me to wear it. Summer is predicted to be cool and wet, though, so I may still get a chance. The year I turned 21, we had a frost the morning after my party, and that was early November. I have photographed a wedding, higher into the tablelands, where I needed a jacket the first weekend of December. After two summers of rains and floods, a third La Nina isn’t something to overly look forward too, but I will claim the shawl wearing as a silver lining.

It’s so pleasant and satisfying, to sit and stitch and count. I’ve done enough repeats now I only really need to check the pattern at the start of the row, and then I’m away. Knit, knit, decrease, yarn over, knit. Then purl all the way back. Normally I hate purling, but in this project, I am enjoying the rhythm of a “rest row” after a lace row I need to count and pay attention to.

I always feel so much better when I knit of an evening, rather than scroll my phone. My stupid brain, on the other hand, likes to procrastinate and stall on doing things I like and enjoy doing. Brains are such silly creatures. We have a busy few days coming up, so I have listed “knitting” on my to-do list, to ensure I prioritise my crafting time, and make some progress while grounding myself and taking time out to rest in amongst the craziness. Before I can do that though, there’s a cake to finish baking and get decorated, and presents to wrap. Birthday season is indeed in full swing! Cake counts as a major food group, right? Two down, two to go…