National Knitting Week

So it's National Knitting Week and we are enjoined to knit. It's not all that hard for me to knit. I mean:



washing up, or



knitting?

Knitting or washing up? It's so hard to decide.

What's hard to decide is what to knit - not if I should knit or not.

Finish Rosy Fingered Dawn?

Finish clue 2 of Mystery 2?

Finish the Button Wrap?

Start something new? (That really would be in the spirit of National Knitting Week, now, wouldn't it?)

I decided to finish Rosy Fingered Dawn. I've had more than enough of the last "ball" of yarn. You thought it ended up as six (6) balls of yarn? You'd be wrong. I discovered another knot in one of the plies. So it finished as seven (7) balls of yarn. The yarn also broke twice - once when I was digging in to two stitches to do a double decrease. I had to take back half a row of the border. Not really a big deal but just a bit of a pain.

The other time the yarn broke was far, far worse. The knitting was finished. There remained only that which requires:



Yes, you knew what was coming - chocolate and alcohol.

Why?

This is why:



Grafting.

There are a few reasons why these two are required together and one of them is the dreaded grafting. Now it's only 15 stitches on the border. It's made slightly more complicated by the fact that seven of those stitches are garter stitch and eight of those stitches are stocking stitch but the instructions are clear (apart from "the yarn should be coming from the right end of the top needle". So would that be the front needle or the back needle? I assume the back needle. Naturally, my yarn is coming from the front needle but that actually didn't make all that much difference.)

I took a deep breath. I took a bite of chocolate, I took a slug of raspberry beer. I followed the instructions to the letter. It all went very well. The tension was slightly wonky (technical term) but that is often the case. I gave the thing a slight tug to even out said tension. And the yarn broke. In the middle of the graft. This is when I polished off the raspberry beer in one gulp and ran into the garden, screaming. It wasn't even swearing - there were no discernible words - it was just one, long, primeval scream of anguish. I had to get as far away as possible from Rosy Dawn and all her Fingers, lest I bundle her, uncerimoniously, and without a second thought, into the fiery furnace of the Rayburn in my kitchen.

I stood in the garden, in the murk and the rain and did very deep breathing and chanting. "In with love, out with hate. In with love, out with hate. In with love, out with hate."

When I calmed down, I did it all again. It came out perfectly. Rosy Fingers and her Dawn is done:



This is #1 daughter, obscured by Dawn and her Fingers, all Rosy.

What's next? The Blocking. I am so much looking forward to The Blocking. How many more times can the yarn break? What about if it breaks right at the beginning? What about if it breaks in the middle of the most complex pattern panel? What about if it breaks anywhere at all?

What about ordering up a case of Champagne? A kilo of chocolates? What about having a lie down in a darkened room??