Starting a Shawl

Sometimes, learning a new skill can be a frustrating experience. Starting my first-ever shawl is proving to be so ... but I am determined!

A beginning ...

Stephenie (who is an amazing knitter) wrote a great post recently about challenging oneself over on her blog, The Awakened Soul. This shawl is certainly challenging me. No less than six times have I cast on and no less than five times have I pulled it all out! But, sixth time lucky, I have managed to get past the points that were the stumbling blocks for me and now I simply have to repeat many times over, what I've spent quite a few hours learning, to make the most lovely edge of the Cicely Shawl by Courtney Spainhower. (Here is the Ravelry link for those wanting to see what it should look like when it's done.)

When I am choosing something new to knit now, I am looking for things which include stitches I'm confident with and also something new to learn. In this shawl, there's a M1 or Make One stitch which is a way of increasing the number of stitches. I've never done that before and so, of course, that was where a major stumbling block was. That and a lost stitch in a later row! Once this pretty edge is finished, the next challenge will be picking up stitches from those cast off. Thank goodness for YouTube videos (see links) that help me to see what I am supposed to be doing! I consider these online tutorials the next best thing to having my Grandma or my Mum at my shoulder.

I've also had to let go of perfection. That lost stitch in one of the later lacy rows simply disappeared and I could not find where it went. I should've had 19 stitches at that point but I had only 18.  I made the "executive decision" to use my newly acquired M1 stitch to make one so that I had the right number of stitches to go on with. Perfect? No. But considering this stitch fell off my needles after the sixth time I'd cast on, I figured that it was the only way forward!

Another repeat to be followed by another and another!

Now, I am this far into my first-ever shawl. Progress! Perhaps, you are an experienced knitter and you'll be able to see my mistakes but I am hoping most people won't look that closely. First attempts are sometimes clumsy, a little wonky or even a lot wonky but I think that is what learning is about. 

I'm not sure I'll finish this shawl before this Autumn and Winter are done but I am sure that, by the time it's complete, I will  have learnt a whole lot more about knitting!

Meg