H^H

I'ma complain about knitting, so if you don't care about knitting, or about complaining, this is one to skip for you.

I started a laceweight scarf as a present for my mom yesterday, my first lace project. The pattern is Halcyon on Knitty. The beginning bits were a bit frustrating because there were a couple of rows designed to make holes so that a ribbon could go through the scarf, the knitting of which involved the instruction "tbl," which I had not encountered previously. It's not that scary ("through back loop," for any non-knitter who might be reading), but was new. So that was entertaining. The first lace repeat didn't go too badly until I picked it up again this evening, to see if multitasking knitting and psych reading was doable. The answer is sort of. WS rows? Totally doable while reading. The trick is to make sure that you put them in the right place. I failed at this slightly. Apparently I hadn't properly marked where I was in the pattern, so I ended up with two WS rows in a row. I didn't notice because I was reading. I did three rows, up to the end of the repeat, before I did in fact notice, at which point I cried a little inside. I'm not a super speedy knitter at this point, and I don't have lots of time, so having to undo and reknit three rows takes me a bit.

I tried ripping out those rows, and realized that while I am quite capable of tinking back yarnovers, knits, and purls, decreases are more difficult to keep track of. I lost stitches that I could not find, and decided that perhaps ripping out the repeat was the proper action to take, so I didn't waste more time and frustration on trying to figure it out.

I still need to put the scarf back on needles. Right now it's sitting on a stitch holder that I stole from home. I'm more grumpy that I don't really have time to work on it more tonight than anything else, because I really want to get a repeat done and see how the pattern comes together.

Also I have had no dinner, because there is no food. Except carrot cake. Which I ate.