574

574 stitches, oh my!  The first increase rounds and the first two charts were a breeze … then the sixth increase round came along and now there are 574 stitches to work with.  Progress has slowed considerably.

Though I do love the hollyhock contrast color.

This has been my main coffee shop knitting for the past 3 days or so.  I knit, sip coffee, watch the hipsters (so. many. beards!), and think about reading.  I’ve got to start actually reading soon.  But this place plays good music and these shawls are addictive.

I’m worried that it might be on the small side — I’m a tight knitter and I only went up one needle size — but it seems plenty stretchy, with lots of lace to open up, and I still have one more big chart to knit (twice!).  Yesterday, I thought about ripping it all out and starting over with slightly bigger needles.  Then I came to my senses and decided that a slightly smaller shawl was not necessarily a bad thing.  Besides, that would be just too much work to reknit for no very good reason.  And I knit for fun, not perfection.

Then there’s the yarn to consider: the lace-weight Malabrigo does not hold up well to frogging.  I’m trying to handle the yarn as little as possible, but I hope it can stand actual wear.  Because I want to wear this a lot.

Happy Fourth of July to those celebrating!  I hope the day is filled with all kinds of fun and fireworks, pie and barbequed everything.