Heaven Scent - a lament

​​My knitting mojo kind of deserted me for a while over the summer.  That wasn't a big surprise but it's always a little disappointing.  I did loads of sewing just to keep making but I always miss knitting.  Anyway now that Autumn is on the way I am all about knitting but it is still really warm here so I've done a lot less than I'd like.  Still I've found plenty of time for dreaming up projects and planning my queue and I can safely say that it is looking like it's going to be a winter of shawls this year.  I've spent far more time than is good for me recently keeping up with the Fiddle Knits fiasco that has been bubbling away on Ravelry which has done nothing but put shawls in the front and centre of my mind.  I did a couple of Fiddle Knits MKALs when Lissy was tiny and I liked but didn't love the first shawl and really wasn't feeling the second one at all so I pretty much gave up MKALs from there on out.  However, in between all of posts from people who have been disappointed by late yarn and late patterns with incorrect yardage were a lot of recommendations for well run MKALs which led me to sign up for the Boo Knits Halloween MKAL, Taboo.

I'll do another post about that once it gets going in October, but of course I decided that it would be a good idea to try out one of her other shawls before then just to get my eye in.  One reason I've never knit any Boo Knits shawls before is because they are all quite lovely and I could never decide where to start, also I knew that once I'd started I'd never know where to stop!  In the end I chose Heaven Scent, just to ease myself in with a pattern for 4-ply rather than laceweight.  I pulled some light blue DROPs Alpaca that had previously been frogged from a FiddleKnits pattern out of the stash and paired it with clear sparkly beads for a subtle shimmer.

All went well (and there's a phrase which lets you know that at some point it's all going to hell!), I was enjoying the lace, had mastered beading and was pleasantly surprised how quickly it had all knit up.  I started to cast off yesterday afternoon and was beginning to think I might have a shawl to block by the end of the day, until the reality of the picot cast off began to hit me.  Geez, I have never known knitting take so long!

Picot? Pic-NO more like!

During one little break from the never ending castoff of doom I popped my project down next to me just as Felicity jumped up on to the sofa. I quickly warned her to wait until I'd moved my knitting before she started to clamber all over me, but she paid me no mind and stepped right on it and I swear I watched in slow motion as this caused the cable of my circular needle to pop right out the back of the join leaving about 20 stitches dangling in the wind.  20 beaded lacy stitches that I was just about to cast off.

The enemy of knitting needles everywhere!

When I stopped feeling sick I pulled myself together and decided I could probably fix it, after I transferred all of the stitches on to another circular.  My fatal error at this point was to jam the cable back into the join and start transferring rather than popping the loose stitches on to a holder.  I don't really need to describe what happened next do I?

I'm now looking at about half of the live stitches flapping loose at this point and I don't have the heart to deal with it.  I tried to frog but the fuzzy alpaca yarn + picot cast off was a flipping nightmare so I've put the whole thing aside to chill until I can look at it with a rational set of eyes and decide what to do once and for all. Ugh.  What more can I say?  Have a Cassie pic so I can end on a positive note!

Adorable!