Fall down seven times ...

Nana korobi ya oki
translated from Japanese: Fall down seven times, get up eight.

It's exhilarating knitting this little shawl. My fingers and toes are crossed and I'm barely daring to breath. If it turns out well, it's going to be fantastic. And if it doesn't turn out, then I'm going to try again, and again, and again, until it does. After three false starts, I'm at the eighth repeat of the budding lace pattern. It's so pretty.

Gavin looked over the pattern. "Are you mad?" he asked. "Why put yourself through that?" Because to do this one little shawl opens up a whole world of lace knitting, that I've been afraid of up until now. As T.S. Eliot said " You have to risk going too far to discover how far you can really go".

a start on lace

So that's the second one, then. Lovely, comfortable socks. The Koigu wool is great to knit - no pooling, no striping, just a nice stippled texture. Although the colour and texture both overwhelm the lace pattern somewhat. But, all in all, a bit too easy to suit me at the moment.

With all the practice of the last year of knitting, I've had about enough of socks, mittens and hats. Now, it seems to me, I ought to try knitting lace. Like this lacy Swallowtail shawl pattern. Quite a challenge I think - not sure I'm up to it. I've started and frogged three times and have finally made it past the beginning chart and worked the first repeat of the main chart. Already I've learned lots:

... lace weight yarn is mind-bogglingly thin. Scarily thin.
... dark green makes it very hard to see my stitches.
... my HiyaHiya needles aren't nearly pointy enough for lace.
... my stitch markers are all much too huge to be of use.
... much of the final appearance will depend on blocking.

Before I go any further I need to protect what I've already knit. This project definitely calls for the prudent use of life lines.

my left sock

I hadn't planned to bring my knitting on our visit friends at their cottage. My feeling was that they might think it rude, that I wasn't paying my full attention to them. But Gavin thought I should bring it - there are knitters in their family, they won't think anything of it, he reasoned. So I brought it, and knit a bit on Sunday morning as we sat around drinking coffee and watching a chilly drizzle fall steadily outside. But it was on the three hour drives there and back that I knit a great deal. Finished the leg, turned the heel and knit the gusset. Just the foot and the toe left to knit. My guess? My left sock'll be done by this time tomorrow.

heading north

That's my first Kai-Mei done - thanks to Gavin for the photo. I've cast on the second sock and have worked a third of the leg. And luckily, I stumbled across the errata for the left sock just in the nick of time!

We leave early tomorrow to spend the weekend in cottage country. Not sure if the weather will cooperate. The skies were threatening this evening, and we've had scattered showers for the last few days. But whether on a deck chair at the edge of the lake, or on a sofa in front of the fireplace, I plan have my nose stuck firmly in my new book, The Book of Negroes, which came in the post today. The second sock will have to wait until I come home Sunday.

that was awkward

So far the hardest thing about Kai-Mei is getting a good picture. As many sock knitters know, it's awkward wearing an unfinished sock that's still on dpns. And, in this case, the lace pattern travels from the outside of the heel across the top of the foot, which makes photography even more challenging. When I couldn't turn my leg and foot far enough to get a good angle with the camera, I hopped down the hall to the full length mirror. Then plunked down, staged the sock, deactivated the flash and tried to hold steady for a good photo. My cat thought this was good fun - she disrupted several photos by nuzzling the needles, circling between my foot and the mirror, and bumping my hands to beg for attention. Thank goodness for digital cameras! One half decent photo from more than a dozen attempts.

the gusset begins

I really should shower and get ready for work now. Instead of knitting the first lace repeat at the gusset of my Kai-Mei. But I wanted to see how the pattern works. After reading the chart I couldn't see how it would turn out symmetrically, but having knit one repeat, I can that it works. Making and dropping yarn overs - it's very reminiscent of the blanket I just finished. Good thing I've had all that practice. Adding back all those stitches with backwards loop cast on is slow work, particularly when I come to knit the new stitches in the next row. Now, no more excuses. Work awaits.

starting Kai-Mei

It's amazing what a difference blocking makes - the wavy pattern is really well defined and open now. After blocking the blanket finishes up at 26"x 32"... small, but not too small. The pattern was really easy, although I had to consciously fight the urge to purl the wrong-side rows. Had to do a fair bit of tinking through the first few pattern repeats until I got the hang of it.

Back in June, when I saw this stippled colourway of Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino at Lettuce Knit, I couldn't take my eyes off it. So yesterday, while waiting for large file downloads at work, I cast on my first Kai-Mei sock. Weeks ago I abandoned this pattern in frustration when yarn after yarn pooled. But now, with this yarn, it's knitting up beautifully. With a K3P3 leg it's bound to fit well and be comfortable. And with the travelling lace pattern that starts at the gusset, the knitting is bound to get interesting. Hurray!