Phoenix Rises Again...and Again

Like the mythical bird for which it's named, my shawl has undergone multiple deaths and resurrections since my last post. Unfortunately, this phoenix does not regenerate itself but instead requires a helping hand out of the ashes.

I should have seen it coming. My knitting was going way too smoothly and I was getting way too comfortable.

BAM!

The knitting fates struck first late Thursday night. As I worked my way across the 500+ stitches I realized that two of the pattern sections were off by one stitch. Never one to tink or frog if I can help it, I carefully laddered down two rows and reknit purls and repurled knits and YO'ed and SSK'ed and K2TOG'ed until everything was right. Then I carefully worked across the rest of the row and went to bed, like a good little knitter.

I woke up refreshed and resumed work on my shawl while I contentedly sipped my morning tea. It didn't take me long to get back into the rhythm and I purled my way across the next row without incident. The next row was a little trickier and involved periodically slipping three stitches onto a cable needle and wrapping them before returning them to the working needle. Eventually I reached the end and gratefully purled back across the next row, feeling great satisfaction in having completed the first of three 16-row border repeats.

BAM!

About a third of the way across the next row I realized that I had wrapped the wrong stitches in one section. I could not bear the thought of undoing almost 1100 stitches one by one, unwrapping the wraps as I went, but the prospect of laddering down two rows and rewrapping the correct stitches was equally daunting, since it also involved repositioning various other pattern stitches, including yarnovers and decreases. In the end I chose the latter option but it didn't go as smoothly as it had the previous night. Finally, though, after several hours of fumbling and cursing and gnashing of teeth I had the stitches reassembled in their correct places and I am hopeful that blocking will remove any obvious signs of surgery.

After all that stress on Friday I was ready for a night out. Trooper put on a free concert in Hope and I'm happy to report that after all these years they can still "Raise a Little Hell" and assure us that "We're Here for a Good Time".

The next evening we helped to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday and I finished my Wavy Scarf while we sat around the table after dinner and talked.

I had a perfect Mother's Day. I slept in, knit to my heart's content, and didn't have to cook supper! I received some lovely gifts from Cameron and the kids, including some roses from Colin in an interesting yellow-green colour I'd never seen before.

Aren't they pretty? And I was touched beyond words when one of Matt's friends dropped by with a red rose for "Mom".

With all that knitting time I was able to get a lot done on my shawl and have almost reached the midway point of the the third border repeat without further problems. (Although it is now apparent that I will indeed run out of yarn before I do the beaded edging but I'm not concerned because Make One is providing extra to those who need it.) All I can say is that Phoenix had better behave itself from now on or it may literally find itself reduced to ashes, never, ever, to rise again!