Morning knitting

I usually knit in the evening, but this morning I woke up with only 7 rows left to knit on the center square of my lace shawl. So I made a pot of coffee and began knitting. I was certain I could finish those few rows easily before starting my day. I knitted a row of the fir cone pattern, then sipped a cup of coffee. I purled a row, sipped another cup of coffee. Those purl rows are the backside rows, with no pattern, just 153 stitches of plain purl. They seem endless. After each I sipped another cup of coffee, but I soon had to cut back on the coffee, or I would have overdosed on caffeine.

This is just the center square of the shawl, and the back of the unblocked fir cone pattern has an interesting bumpy terrain that reminds me of a picture I once saw of a knitted pineapple. I’ll be happy to see it smooth out when blocked. Now that the center square is done I’m to pick up 153 stitches times 4 around its outer edge, for the first rows of border lace, to be worked in the round. That will be over 600 stitches per row.

I’ve decided lace shawls are monuments to the patience and tenacity of knitters, and should be classified as marathon knitting.