Thursday, November 13, 2014

Getting there...

I'm still way ahead of schedule--just over 8 days at this point. I also surpassed the 50,000 stitch mark yesterday. I've completely 53,008 sts, which is 68.82% of the total. Not too shabby!  No picture today. It just looks like a bigger pile of yarn. I'm still hoping to be able to start the edging by the end of the week--which is tomorrow. I completed 5 rows this morning, and have 9 more rows to go before starting the edging. Maybe I'll get an edging repeat done before the end of the day tomorrow. If not, definitely Saturday.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Halfway

I hit the halfway point (of the stitch count) for my NaKniShawlMo project over the weekend. I haven't been taking pictures daily because, frankly, that would be really boring for all involved. Here's where I am at the end of Day 9. See what I mean?
You can tell it's bigger than it was on Days 1 and 2, but you still can't tell how much progress has been made. So, let's put it this way:

I am 7 days ahead of schedule.
I have completed 53.76% of the shawl (based on stitch count).
This means I've knit 41,408 stitches so far.

I'm pretty impressed with myself, if I may be so bold. Right now, the rounds are 580 stitches long. That's quite a slog, but I'm persevering. I think by the end of this week, I'll be able to start working on the edging. Honestly, that's where I usually fall apart when knitting shawls. I knit a couple of repeats of the edging, and I'm ready to be done. 71 repeats of anything is tedious. 71 repeats of a 16-row edging that is 224 stitches per repeat is exhausting. I just get bored after knitting a couple of repeats. That's going to be the big challenge. Can I do it? Sure! Will I enjoy it? Well...... I'm trying to have a positive attitude.

Monday, November 3, 2014

NaKniSHAWLMo

Hello again! Long time, no see. Just 3 months, right? A lot has happened. I've lost a total of 33.8 lbs so far, I've been knitting a lot, plus all the same ol', same ol' of work, kids, family, etc.

A couple of years ago, I participated in NaKniSweMo--National Knit a Sweater Month. Designed after National Novel Writing Month, it requires participants to knit a sweater of at least 50,000 stitches during the month of November. (Novel writers write a novel of at least 50,000 words.) I skipped it last year, but on Friday (October 31), I decided I wanted to do it again this year. Nothing like planning ahead, right?

Here's the problem: I've been on a sweater-knitting hiatus since I started my weight loss journey. I'm hesitant to spend time, energy, and good yarn on a sweater that might not even fit me anymore by the end of the winter. So, I started looking for patterns for very loose-fitting sweaters, which really aren't my style...  and I ultimately decided I'd create my own challenge:

NaKniSHAWLMo.

National Knit a Shawl Month.

I chose Leaves of Grass, designed by Jared Flood. It's a shawl that follows Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl construction, uses fingering weight yarn, and has more than 77,000 stitches. Perfect!

Here's the other thing: Progress photos of sweaters are much more impressive than progress photos of shawls. With a sweater, it's very obvious where progress has been made. With a circular shawl, it just looks like a bunch of yarn scrunched onto a circular knitting needle. See?
That was at the end of Day 1. Despite knitting more than 7,000 stitches on Day 2, it doesn't look much different:
(The color difference can be attributed to the fact that the top pic was taken at home, using incandescent and natural light. The one on the bottom was taken in my office, lit with fluorescent lights. The color is actually more accurate in the top pic--olive greens.)

So, anyway, Day 1 looks like a pile of yarn, and Day 2 looks like a slightly larger pile of yarn. Not very impressive.

To really see the design, shawls have to be stretched and blocked. When I stretch this bit (end of Day 1) over my hand, you can see one bit of the motif. 
Still not particularly impressive. Sigh. You'll just have to trust me as I report back on my progress.

I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday putting together a spreadsheet of how far I need to get each day. At this point, I'm a couple of days ahead of schedule. But, I worked an entire row wrong this morning before work. That will teach me to knit lace before I'm really fully awake.

Are you participating in NaKniSweMo? Would you like to join me for NaKniShawlMo?