[RUSTYME]

There are free patterns for download on www.knitrowan.com .
You just have to join , which is free .
I thought that would be good for me , no money for patterns , but the downloads are pdf , and my phone won't do pdf , and it isn't a smart phone so won't download software to convert .
But others may find somethings they like on there .

[Bionic]

Maybe its just as well you can't download the patterns. Rowan have lovely patterns (very expensive yarn) but I think a lot of their patterns are quite complicated.

[ellied]

Been at the group again this morning and reached the last 20 rows - tho they're still expanding obviously so each row is 2 if not 4 stitches longer than the previous right to the end

Trying not to overdo it as when my fingers (and arms/shoulders/back) get stiff I tend to make mistakes, but I am just a wee bit excited at the prospect of actually finishing, tho I've no idea how to stitch ends in or block it or all the things the others talk about!

I've decided the next shawl I knit will be made end to end so it increases the first half and decreases the rest, rather than start at the back and work up to the long neck drape pieces!  I will do this way again but it is neverending to do 'just one row' at this point!

[Bionic]

Ellie, you are so very nearly there and at the begining it seemed like you were about to give up. I know you will feel a great sense of achievement when its finished.   

[Lesley Silvester]

Well done, Ellie.    Don't forget to post photos.

[Dogwalker]

When are we going to see a picture of it?
Do you like the way it's turning out?

I'm really impressed with your perseverance.

[ellied]

Photo posting is a complete nightmare on here as I have to email the phone picture to myself, pick it up on a decrepit laptop, download it, manage to upload again on photobucket which hates me and keeps evicting me, and then post not just links but the right kind of links for the picture to show and then usually redo the whole thing if it's too big, too distant, too something else..  I've usually reached breaking point long before succeeding but I will try when and if it is completed and laid out flat. 

At present it's so bunched up on the needles it is hard to imagine what it looks like and I have been loaned a circular needle the same size to try and see if that helps with stitch counting (rows of 200-260+) and takes some weight off my wrists/hands while I finish as that, along with time to complete a single row without interruption, is slowing the progress now by a fair bit.  I am aiming to try and complete at least one if not two rows a day but ideally I'd like to finish the 20 by next Tuesday morning so I can a. show it off and b. get help with the finishing off and find out how to block it properly

[SallyintNorth]

Ellie, I've sent you my email address and offered to make your pics ok for TAS for you - I want to see this shawl too!   

I know what you mean about the mega-rows.  One shawl I'm making for a neighbour is nearly finished - but the last two or three rows, and the bind-off row, will take about an hour each!   

[ellied]

Thanks Sally, I will take you up on that

I managed to do a row transferring the whole lot to a circular needle that one of the group loaned me, so there is less bunching of stitches and the weight of it sits better against me when I'm knitting rather than dragging on my poor old hands and wrists.  So I have managed 3 rows today already and might finish by Tuesday or even earlier

[Lesley Silvester]

Well done, Ellie.

[ellied]

Gah!  Reached the half way point on row 117 of 122 and found a problem, an odd stitch when doing a lace row of knitting 2 together followed by a yarn over!  I had the right number at row 99 when I did the last lace row, and checked again at 111 and it seemed fine, so somewhere in the last 5 rows there is a mistake and I can't find it for the life of me!  They're straightforward knit and purl rows with 2 knit stitches at the start, middle and end of every row, but I was SO careful and didn't watch TV when doing them for exactly this reason.  I'm so gutted not to have the end in sight after all..

Rows 117, 119 and 121 are all lace rows, with a very plain knit row between each, so I need an even number at this point and being on the round needle I can't get the counts the same so I don't even know if I'm short one or plus one.

Gah and again gah!  Tuesday morning required asap, but the week after the group is away to see the Tapestry of Scotland at the Scottish Parliament (I won't go, too much for me) so there isn't a meeting that day if I finish in between.  Means no celebratory moment for at least 3 weeks and it could have been 2 days if I hadn't MESSED UP!

Frustrated of Fife

[SallyintNorth]

Oh, how frustrating!

Ideas that *may* help...

If you can identify which *side* (of the central 2-stitch panel) is the one that's over, could you do a single 'knit *3* together, yarn over' (instead of the 'knit 2 together, yarn over') to 'lose' that extra stitch?

If that isn't going to work, are you able to 'frog' back to row 111?   Either by 'reverse knitting' - unknitting each stitch one by one - or by threading a 'lifeline' through the stitches on row 111 and then just ripping it back to there.  If you can make the lifeline be a circular needle, you're ready to knit away, or if you use a thread for the lifeline, you would need to pick up all the stitches held on that thread.

[Dans]

I hate it when something like that happens. I've not mastered the lifeline but I find myself unknitting more often than I would like. End might still be in sight!

Dans

[Lesley Silvester]

If you can't see it then no-one else will be able to either so I would do what Sally says. count the stitches either side of the centre and either do a knit 3 together yarn over or knit one yarn over to gain a stitch.


PS Don't do what I always do when I make a mistake that I don't think people will notice. I can't help myself from pointing it out to everyone.

[ellied]

Its one short not one too many if I recounted right.

I plan to take it to Tuesday group as I am not sure I'd spot what my expert friends can!  But will probably rip it back under supervision anyway in case I lose more! 

OA in hands and visual field defect in a 30 year non_knitter just starting over..I'm not the most likely to spot things or fix them! Very good at messing up tho!!