It seems that the Knitting Gods feel I need a lesson in the benefits of embracing the act of ripping out my knitting.

First, there was the Stonington Shawl “lesson”.

Remember that the Stonington Shawl had been my “mindless” portable project. I was in desperate need of a simple project to knit while we were out to dinner with friends. I had planned on starting over with my new square shawl plans.

Then I remembered that it was a bit difficult to see the tiny lace yarn strands in the dimmed lighting of restaurants. Umm, maybe I should go to Ravelry and review the Queue that I so carefully cleaned up a few weeks ago.

Ta Da!!! The Simple Yet Effective Shawl by Laura Chau. And, thanks to my stash organizing I was able to quickly find my collection of Gloss HW in Doe. A perfectly neutral color for a particularly comforting shawl.

But, the Knitting Gods were not finished with me yet. I began the shawl and knit about twelve inches. I realized that I didn’t like the Stockinette bands. They seemed boring on the “right” side and not very attractive on the “wrong” side. Refer to my illustration. Rip!!

I decided that a nice reversible Seed Stitch would be better. I cast-on and started knitting. As I made the transition between sections, I must have been distracted. I ended up with a couple of rows of Stockinette Stitch making a flat line of stitches. Umm, I suddenly felt like a bit of plain fabric between the garter segments and the seed stitch segments. Without the “clear” area, they bumped into each other rather ungracefully. Refer to my second sketch. Rip!

Alright, one more time!!! Success!!!

Love, love, love this shawl!! I knit on it through the dinner, the Masters and while I read an excellent mystery – Maisie Dobbs. It is moving along very quickly since the yarn is heavy and I am using a #9 needle.