Once Upon a Time

I was on the Knitty website and I absolutely fell in love with the Seascape Shawl.  Oh, it is lovely to look at and every day that I didn't knit it, I so wanted to.

The thing is, nothing about actually knitting it was what I expected:

Trust me when I tell you, it really is a lovely shawl, really - especially if I could have gotten it already knit up by someone not me.  Apparently, I only skimmed over the part where it said to 'knit this chart 8 times'.  You want me to knit how many rows 8 times?  Not possible.

So I knit until I wanted to rip my eyebrow hairs out with my bare hands and ended up with this:

Oops!  You knew that was coming, didn't you?  Honestly, I had no idea it was going to end this way, but the 8 repeats was more than my fragile knitters mind could handle.  Too much math ... too much ... boredom.

But I'm a hopeful sort, and I did promise to get this done - last year.  I'm working on a new plan for this yarn, and it looks like this:

You can't really show you what it is, but it'll eventually become the Triangular Summer Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush.  The chart is in three parts, but it's triangular so there's decreases which keeps the repetition to a minimum - kind of.

Either way, this shawl is serving double duty. It's a gift and it's part of my 10 shawls in 2010 obligation.  If I'd waited a few more weeks, it would also have been my Ravelympics competition piece.  I'll have to come up with something different for that.

The nupps (pronounced 'noops', I'm told), are a pain in the rear, but I'll complain about  my inability to make them as soon as I knit enough of them for you to see.

OK, I'm off to figure out how I can make an entrelac hat, a cardigan, a shawl and a pair of socks all at the same time.