Progress... of a Sort

We loves the summer sunshine, Precioussssss.....

Knitting progress! It's been slow, but relatively steady. I tore through THB's first Last Chance Sock while I was in Portland at the end of April, and I'm a bit into the second one, although it's going to take longer because I am b-o-r-e-d with the pattern:

Pattern: Charade

I've also made it to row 145 of 180 on my cousin's wedding shawl. It looks much like before, just bigger, so here are some frothy lace close-ups instead!

Gaze into the void...

So close, and yet so far!

So just in case you are thinking that I'm nearly done with this project, allow me to disillusion you so that we may be disillusioned together. Circular lace shawls like this one are knitted from the center out to the edge. This one in particular has 8 sections, and at last count (about 10 rows ago) each had roughly 111 stitches. That's almost 900 stitches per round, which is why each pair of rounds (pattern round and plain round) takes me over an hour. So even though there are only 35 rounds plus bind-off to go, that's a MINIMUM of 35 hours worth of work left on the shawl - and that assumes no additional stitches are added, which simply isn't going to happen. If there's one thing a knitter can count on when knitting a circular shawl, it's that there WILL be more stitches.

Let's look at it another way. The pattern calls for 1969 yards of yarn, which weighs out to roughly 222 grams of yarn. I have so far knitted 126g, so I'm only slightly more than halfway done with the yardage of knitting required.

Are you feeling for me yet? Oy!

But there are good books to listen to and I'm enjoying myself - there's just a mind-boggling amount of knitting - and washing, and blocking! - to do before I leave for the wedding on May 26!!

Part of the reason I didn't get much shawl knitting done in Portland is this:


THIS is BabyBean #2, and his uncle Pohaku. BabyBean is ten months old in this picture. Po is still significantly bigger than the 'Bean. Observe:
That is one big cat, and he's SUCH a love. One of my favorite kitties of all time, if I may be honest. But back to the "new" arrival, who you may recall as the recipient of this little thing I whipped up.

How can you resist that face? Many cuddles were required, and it is not recommended to cuddle bebehs when knitting complicated lace. And thus, I am behind. /dramatic sigh!