Picture this. Friday afternoon. I get off early after an impossibly busy and, it has to be said, trying week, race home, throw a bottle of wine in the fridge and get down to soaking the finished pi shawl in the sink in readiness for blocking.All is well with the world and a few minutes online shows someone else is also soaking knitwear for blocking. Cool!
Let the pinning begin. Good God I had no idea pinning out a reasonably large round shawl would take so long! I pin my stuff onto towels laid out on the large rug in the lounge room and it works well, but those pins, sinking stiffly into the rug, well it takes its toll on your finger tips. Note to self: buy thimble.
You know the other thing I've learned, now that I've pinned out my first circular shawl? It's not as easy as it looks. I muttered to Sean at some point, I see now why the Yarn Harlot gets a friend over and makes an afternoon of it. She does do that, right? I'm sure I read it. The really hard thing? Making it stay circular. Those things distort like nobody's business! Good grief!
Not that I'm complaining about any of this, mind. Not one bit. That's all been fun and fruitful stuff, honestly.
The bit to complain about is this.
Many's the time I've seen bloggers post photos of holes mysteriously appearing during the blocking process. Many's the time I've thought, shit, I hope that never happens to me. But it's happened and I survived.
I was calm and cool. Sort of. I took a fine crochet hook and a darning needle and I did a very dodgy bit of patching up. Couldn't quite determine what had gone wrong, but the patching is done and the shawl is satisfyingly dominating the lounge room floor. And I'll never post photos of the patching job. Ever. I don't think it's very good but it'll hold.
That bottle of wine that went into the fridge on arriving home? It was poured soon after fixing the hole. I needed it.
Bells
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