recovery

Yesterday afternoon with a couple of friends I headed down to Tacoma for a few hours at the Madrona Fiber Arts 2010 Winter Retreat. I was, alas, underwhelmed. I didn't take any classes so cannot account for those but the marketplace and teachers' gallery in the evening didn't hold much interest for me. It was lovely though to be out and about, to go out for dinner and to chat and laugh with friends.

And I knit two rows on something long neglected - the faux prussian stole. The last time I worked on this was on the train on the way to Sock Summit (notice a pattern here? I can't afford to wait for knitting conventions to get a few rows done on this!) and I ran out of yarn. I had put another ball into the project bag but yesterday evening found myself without a darning needle with which to make a Russian join.

Luckily I was surrounded by knitters - I think that half of the restaurant could have lent me one. So, join made and two rows knit - small victories.

What always worries me about going back to a project after a significant pause is that I will not be able to recover where I left off, or understand where I was up to. This apprehension actually puts me off picking something up again and so the pause becomes a break becomes a full-blown holiday. Thankfully I had worked out a good method for keeping track with this project - the edging repeats every 12 rows but the lace motif repeats every 96 rows (yes, really) so you need to keep track of both which edging row and which pattern row you are up to.

It was fun to knit this again and I am going to make an effort to keep at it, even if just bit by bit.