Five more lessons learned from the Liesl

This time, non-yarn related. That's a plus, right?

I was happily knitting along yesterday in Bowling Green, (nice cloudy day, awesome diffuse light for knitting. Was just bright enough, but no directional glare. Perfect) and just happened to screw up an entire row.

So I tinked (which means unknitted for my dear non-knitting friends) about halfway back on the row, massively screwed up the tinking, and ended up ripping out about six rows back, so as to skip one of the lace rows. (I have actually ripped back to a lace row, and had to deal with picking up all the yarn overs, and let's just say that although I was successful, it was one of the most nail-biting experiences of my life) At 187 stitches per row, and ripping out about seven rows (six full rows and the row I partially tinked) this comes to a whopping 1,309 stitches. (I know the knitting peeps aren't going to be impressed, because I've heard some horror stories, but I'm just trying to put the pain-in-the-ass factor in perspective for the non-knitters).

Ok, so,

Lesson 1:

Don't try to pick up stitches in a hurry.

Lesson 2:

Don't try to pick up stitches while standing up.

Lesson 3:

Don't try to pick up stitches in a high-wind.

Lesson 4:

Don't try to pick up stitches in a hurry while standing up on a subway platform (which is very windy) while a train is coming into the station, and have to rescue your yarn from rapidly closing subway doors so that your entire project doesn't get ripped out and you lose all your hard work.

Lesson 5:

Doing all of the above tends to raise the heart rate a wee bit.


I can only be thankful that my baby zen master (that would be my almost-four-year-old, Georgia) wasn't involved in the situation. There's nothing like attempting to concentrate on knitting while having somebody attempt to kill themselves by jumping off the back of your couch on to you lap while you're holding something sharp (like, say, knitting needles).

Or attempting to do yoga, and bending myself into the still-painful downward facing dog pose, while she beats me about the head with an umbrella.

I can hear the universe while these things are going on: "You focused now, Virginia? Oh yeah? How about now? You focused yet? Hee hee hee"

Awesome.