The Long and Short of Things

My time to knit has been quite short this week as I have been submerged in the research for my dissertation. But as I mentioned in yesterday's post knitting on the Hidcote Garden Shawl has been a bit frustrating because the stitches are so crowded on the needles. I despise knitting in a crowd! LOL So after working on my research into the wee hours of the morning last night, I was a bit brain-dead when I woke up this morning (it *was* still morning, but not by much). I grabbed my Diet Coke and the shawl and resumed knitting where I left off last night on row 5 of Chart 8. After 3 or 4 repeats I realized I was adding double yos in between the ssk and k2tog sts. where, of course, they didn't belong. Shame on me for not looking at the chart to verify the pattern before starting to knit! I decided double yos were a lot of extra yarn, so I grabbed a 16" circular and slipped my way back to where I started and proceeding to drop the yos and pull up the slack. I knit a couple more repeats when I realized I was decreasing a lot and not adding enough sts to compensate. Yes, only then did I *look* at the chart and realize that I was omitting the 2 single yos in each repeat. Can you say wake up!!! So I frog back a second time (no easy task in the crowd) and fix the mistakes.

Once the evil row 5 is finished, correctly, I start the hunt to find my 24" Addis. I can't find them, but I did find my 32" 4s in the Shetland Tea Shawl which has been languishing in a basket while I knit Hidcote. Oh duh! No wonder my stitches are so crowded--I'm using a 24" needle! Talk about senselessly clueless, I had no idea I was working with a short needle. So the STS got put on a big long lifeline until I can go back and finish the edging and Hidcote got a chance to stretch out a show off for the camera as I transitioned between the 2 Addis. Talk about feeling stupid!