Perseverance

It's a lazy Friday morning over here.  I had a good sleep in, then stayed in bed catching up on my favorite blogs and checking email- one of my favorite things to do.  I know I have other things I could and should be doing, but to be frank I really didn't care.

I haven't made all that much progress on my Drakar socks.  I've just finished the gusset and I'm moving onto the foot of the first sock.  I've been distracted because I picked up a new project on top of the socks and it's hasn't going so well.  *sigh*

I started the Supernatural MKAL (Mystery Knit-A-Long for anyone who's not up on the lingo) which kicked off with the season premier this week. I've been SUPER excited about it, counting down the days, selecting and buying yarn, petting said yarn in anticipation and now it's here.  I picked out this SUPER cute yarn, a 100% merino lace weight in this brilliant green color that practically glows.  Despite the basic pattern info calling for fingering, I decided I could make lace work and I found this on clearance.  PERFECT.  And it doesn't work. 

Well, let's be fair.  I've knit in lace weight approximately 2 times, I have never made a shawl in the round- I'm not even really a shawl person so I don't have much experience there to start with, so it really could be my inexperience that's giving me such a hard time. 

I'm only including the image because I'm so close to the start.
Sorry, the color is WAY off here.

On second thought, let's blame the yarn.  The first clue came out mid-week and I had tried countless times to get at least up to round 10.  SO. MUCH. VULGARITY.  So I think to myself if I switch to some lace weight cotton I've got lying around, maybe the sturdier fiber would be easier for me to control, but again no go.  I only have metal needles in the size I need and the yarn is slipping all over the place.  So the cotton's not going to work.  The only fingering I have on hand are in amounts that I have been meticulously selecting and hoarding bit by bit for sweaters in my queue.  Sweaters which have been carefully vetted over the last, oh, nine months or so.  After a lot of belly-aching at my husband (who despite trying to be supportive really couldn't care less), I break down and cake up the fingering while watching my project planning circle the drain.  But it works.  I'm knitting at such speed it's amazing I can still see my fingers moving, but I still have that horrible feeling in my stomach.  That horrible feeling that I need to stop and stop now before I get too invested in the project to back out.

I finally listened to my gut.  It was killing me to use that beautiful yarn that I so painstakingly selected and invested in and I wasn't crazy about the color for the mystery project either, so I thought I'd try it one more time.  I know I have this thing where I expect I'm going to pick up a medium I'm not used to working with, attempt a technique I've never used before implementing tools I've never used before (a new cast-on! Yippee!) and I have this ridiculous notion that I'm so fantabulous that the project will be flawless.  I will make no mistakes and there is no margin for error.  I know this about myself and I'm trying to recognize and work around it.  So one more attempt was not only reasonable, but I owed that to myself.

And it worked.

HAHA!  It totally worked.  I'm now on round 21 and going strong with a new tool to boot.  Balance has been restored and all in my world is right again.  It's amazing how good this feels!  Now I'm going to go toss in a safety line before I jinx myself.