Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
This behavior is exemplified by people who continually push elevator buttons in the hope of getting the elevator's undivided attention. Had you been in my kitchen a few weeks ago, you could have watched while I performed the knitting equivalent with the Blasted Triinu's Shawl.
The pattern calls for casting on 11 stitches. Which I did... over and over and over... because I couldn't get the first row to work out correctly. Turns out you need to cast on 12 stitches, but it took me an hour of Einsteinian insanity before I stopped and actually counted the required stitches for the first row. Jet lag. Um.
For some reason, the pattern doesn't gel for me--big leaves, small leaves, central leaves...
Without the help of this Yahoo group, I probably would have frogged the thing after ten rows. The Yahoo group also has information on ordering the pattern.
I am working it on #4 needles in Handmaiden Seasilk, mostly because I fell in love with the color, but also because I adore the way the stuff feels. My version will be quite a bit larger than the original, which was worked in a mystery laceweight.
In other news, I have finished all but the edging of the Bling shawl and decided I couldn't bear to work a knitted-on edging. I found an integrated edging in an old Burda book and I hope to be finished with it in a week or so. I want be done with this thing already.
And finally, I award a Platinum Star to Cashlana, a cashmere/merino sock yarn from Fleece Artist. This stuff has become my very favorite sock yarn--it is super-soft but still sproingy--an effortless knit. I am not wild about the color selection or the short color runs that result in Morse Code-esque socks, but the quality of the yarn is so fabulous that I can easily overlook (and overdye) this shortcoming.
