RRrr RRRrrr RRRRrrrr... ip.

I've been working on the Serena Shadow Shawl since early October. It's not a project I work on every day. It's more of a project that I pick up in between other projects. Or when I just need a break from what I'm currently working on. 

I was pretty tired the other night and so I grabbed the Serena Shawl to work on while the girls and I watched TV. The TV in Finland is something we are still getting used to. Some shows are a year or more behind. Only a handful are current. We've been watching more of the Travel Channel and NatGeoWild than we ever have, although some of the blood and gore animal kills have been too much for poor Sophie to handle. I keep telling her... "Cycle of Life Sophie, cycle of life." But it doesn't help - she always runs from the room. Helen and I are fascinated.

If the shows are in English they all have Finnish subtitles which you CANNOT turn off. Even though I can't understand the Finnish, it is always amusing to try to pick out words that I do understand... numbers, certain verbs, names of foods. And of course keeping my eyes trained to the TV isn't always beneficial to the knitting project, especially if it's one you need to pay attention to.

But the Serena Shawl is easy: 3 rows of knit and one of purl, with a four YOs every other row. Simple, right? Well the other night I looked down and found a wonky stitch about 13 rows down. Crap. I hadn't fully worked the stitch properly. It wasn't really noticeable, but it was something I could easily fix. So worked over to that stitch, dropped down, fixed it, and worked back up. Done.

About two rows later, I noticed another inconsistency in my knitting. It was on the same side of the shawl (left side) but this time about 24 rows down. And it was not something I could drop down and fix. It was a mistaken YO that I had actually knit, thus increasing one stitch. 

I looked at it for a while, close up, from a distance, in the light, in better light... Yes it was noticeable to me. But it was so slight that I knew nobody else would see it. So I continued on, feeling a little guilty that I had made such a silly mistake AND that I was letting it go! But what's that old saying about mistakes in your knitting... that they are your personal signature?

I continued on for several more rows. At this point, the rows were getting quite long. Every 2 rows you are increasing 4 stitches per row. I was nearing the end of the first 2 skeins and took time out to wind skeins 3 and 4. And then I saw it.

Another mistaken increase. On the same left side of the shawl. Again, it wasn't even noticeable to anyone but me. But this one I could not overlook.

So the rest of the night was spent ripping back.It was painful but I know it was the right thing to do!