Bleh

I think the combination of the short, gray days and living on the edge of sleep deprivation is finally catching up with me. I have been knitting away on the shawl edging, which seems interminable! So the edging is 12 stitches wide with an 18 row repeat. All the even rows are identical. The odd rows are very nearly identical. Except for row 1, all the odd rows are the same except that some rows pick up two shawl stitches and some only one. I haven't had any problem with those, once I found my rhythm. The crazy-making part is row 1, which is the same as the other odd rows except that it does a wrap stitch thing. After the third stitch, a loop is pulled between stitches 7 and 8. I have stitch markers on the shawl itself to mark where the 18 row repeat restarts. I take the marker off after knitting row 17, hold it in my mouth while I go back to the edge with row 18. Then row 1 goes something like this: Stitch one (okay, this is row one...got a wrap coming up here pretty soon), stitch two (it's coming, it's coming, gotta watch for it), stitch three (okay, it's right after this stitch), stitch four, stitch five, stitch six, stitch seven, stitch eight. Realized that I sailed right past the wrap (AGAIN), swear quietly, tink back to stitch three, do the wrap and then carry on. Repeat every 18 rows. I think I have gotten the wrap on the first pass on maybe a half a dozen of the 60 or so repeats I have done so far. It has gotten kind of demoralizing. On the one hand, I'm almost halfway around the edging of this huge, gorgeous, yummy-soft shawl. On the other hand, I still have probably 80 or so repeats of the edging, which means tinking back on row one about 72 more times. *sigh*

Since the knitting of this edging is not my finest moment, I have been distracting myself with more spinning than usual. I am almost done with an ounce of merino/rayon blend on my Turkish spindle. It's pretty lightweight and I'm planning on making this into a two-ply. Hopefully, there will be pictures of the finished yarn before too long! I am also slogging away on about 6 ounces of alpaca. I'll have to see what the finished yarn looks like, but I am imagining a shawl or wrap of some sort. If it ends up bulkier than I hoped, maybe a hat, scarf, and mittens. It is wonderfully soft and is supposed to be very cozy and warm. Considering that I spin in about 5 minute intervals on a drop spindle, six ounces is a LOT of fiber, so it could be a while!