naughty and nice

OK, today I need to talk about Icarus.  Icarus was one of my Vacation Knitting projects.  The pattern starts out simple enough and then ends with beautiful theatrics.  Simple on vacation, theatrics at home.  Great plan., except it appears that I am unable to count to seven while in the company of other people.  Fine.  Shawl ripped back more times than I could count and then shoved back into the suitcase for a cooling off period.

Back home I try it again.  It is great!  Why was this so hard 1500 east of home?  I knit along, happy as a cow at the vegetarian picnic. .  This was the ONLY project on needles.  Yes, the only one, not even a sock to temp my attention.  So this shawl has been knitting up in a hurry.  It became too big to be a take along project, but I had no other project, so I took it along anyway. 

As I prepared to begin the edging I decided it would be a good idea to see if my stitch count matched the pattern.  I did not expect an exact count, but a count that was close enough to keep me from running to the liquor cabinet.  Shit, wouldn’t you know it, I was having such a good time counting to seven I managed to knit an extra 25 row repeat.  Now might be a good time to insert a picture, only the pictures do not begin to show the hugeness of this shawl.

This thing is gignormous and there are still like 100 rows of edging left to do.  The original pattern calls for lace weight and size 3 needles.  I chose fingering weight yarn and size 7 needles, so I knew my finished shawl would be bigger than the original pattern, but really.  I completely underestimated my results.  Right now the thing measures 32 inches down the back and over 80 inches across.  These measurements were taken while the shawl is still on needles and WITHOUT BLOCKING!

OK, so it is time to begin the edging charts.  Two rows away from finishing chart 2 (there are 4 total) it is obvious I am going to run out of yarn.  Yes, I ordered more than I thought I would need, but this thing is BIG, I need more yarn.  Not a big deal, I open the computer and proceed to Knit Picks.  They say no.  The yarn is not currently available.  They give me a date, but I know from experience that this is a date meant to placate, not to deliver.

So not only am I not able to order more yarn, but the fact that they are out of yarn tells me there is no way in hell I will find the same dye lot. I have almost one skein of yarn here at home, but I will probably need to alternate it with whatever new yarn comes into the house to make the new dye lot work.   So all knitting on Icarus has ground to a halt. 

In order to keep myself from dwelling on the set aside Icarus, I have turned to holiday knitting.   Yes, holiday knitting.  Making a list, checking it twice...