"Ophelia, you're breaking my heart.
You're shaking my confidence daily" *



"Using the long-tail cast-on, Cast on 626 stitches." ** The next step was to join the stitches and knit in the round. I thought that if I used a provisional cast-on, I could then graft the stitches at the end and avoid a seam down the middle of the shawl. After five rows, I decided it wasn't going to work.
I went back to the original design and cast on 626 stitches with the long-tail cast-on. I joined them in a round and started knitting. Five rows later, I checked to make sure that the stitches weren't twisted. You know they were.

Again I cast on all 626 stitches and started knitting again. I pinned the cast on edge onto a pillow so I could be sure they weren't twisted. I knit, I increased stitches and after two days I checked.

They were twisted again. I don't know how. I don't know why. They should have been straight.

I forced them into the right direction and continued on.


I have been knitting this shawl for ever. It never ends. It needs some time out in the basket.


Aeolean had been rescued from the basket but it is going back until I can get more beads. I have knit one and a half tubes of beads so far and I have ordered more. The last half tube of beads will be kept until the new ones come in and I can mix them together if there is a color difference.

The only thing I can do now is start a new project.

*with apologies to Simon and Garfunkle.

**Ophelia is started at the center, knit in the round to the outside edge and then seamed in the middle.