A journey of a thousand stitches... ~ a post by guest blogger Morgen

...begins with a single stitch.  In my case that single stitch is usually knit over and over and over until it is as I like.  You know how when the pioneers crossed the land headed west, and it took them forever, and sometimes they ended up eating one another?  Instead of a covered wagon, picture a clown car and you have the start of my Prairie journey.  My covered wagon left Missouri got about 50 miles out and discovered it had left the toilet paper behind and had to turn around and start again.

The night before our official KAL-start I swatched on size 4's.  Perfect!

Day 1:  I cast on (repeatedly because I'm a perfectionist) and knit the requisite 6 rows.  Then I saw the note about slipping the first stitch of every row.  Tore everything out back to the cast on row and painstakingly picked up those cast-on stitches so as to avoid actually having to cast on again.  Left all until...

Day 2:  Decided I really didn't care for the loosey-goosiness (Mel, your use of loosey-goosey in a recent post has that phrase stuck in my head.  Thank you. :)   )of the picked up cast-on row, tore everything out and started again.  Got halfway through before I thought the re-re-re-re-re-cast on yarn was looking a bit worn, tore out and started with fresh yarn.  Happy with result I knit the first 6 requisite rows slipping every stitch before I saw the note about the option of eyelets in the edge on row 4.  Well of course I want eyelets.  Tore back to row 3 and added the eyelets.  Much better.  Got to row 4 of pattern A last night and set aside to work on it this morning.  Opened up browser to see Mel's beautiful nupps and that she is on Row 23.

Sigh.

I think this year for Christmas I shall ask Santa for just one project to start without any errors.  Just one.  It is my M.O.  Every single project takes days for me to get off the ground and then smoothes out.  To anyone who thinks maybe I should have READ the pattern before I started, I know. I know!

Actually, I have really been looking forward to this KAL.  The symbolism of it means so much to me.  My first name, Morgen, means "of the sea" and indeed I was born in Bellingham in sight of the salt waters now known as the Salish Sea.  My middle name, Sylvia, means of the woods and indeed much of my childhood and youth was spent growing up in the Northwoods of Minnesota.  And inbetween the two lies the vast prairie with endless rolling hills and blues skies and it is in that place that my heart resides.  I have driven across that land so many times and have loved it every time.

Oh, and the fact that we are starting at the top of the shawl and decreasing stitches as we go doesn't hurt either.  Oy!

Hugs,
Morgen

P.S.  If any of you enjoy watching movies while you knit, this shawl reminds me of a movie I saw some years ago and loved:  Glenn Close and Christopher Walken in Sarah, Plain and Tall.  It's a children's movie, but worth a watch!  I believe there were one or two sequels as well.