House-Sitting and Shawls

I have been house-sitting for my dad and step-mom, Lolita, for the last week. 

I lived here with my dad and Lo for a short period of time after my divorce and before moving in with Thomas, so it's like a second home. 

Gray Cat and Black Cat are great company.

  

I started working on this shawl the other day.

The pattern is one that I knit a few years ago. For Lolita.

I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Lolita's shawl. 

First off, it was a kit I purchased from Knit Picks. I was still a pretty new knitter at the time. I couldn't understand why anyone would spend more money at the local yarn store down the street when one could easily attain boxes of mass-produced yarn online. 

// In later blog-posts, I will get into more detail of the importance of buying locally. For now, think of it like food: You can easily purchase conventionally grown fruits and vegetables from SafeWay (or Vons, for my Fresno friends), or you can support your local farmers, buy organic produce, milk from happy cows, etc. //  

Another bummer about the shawl is that the pattern had a few issues. There were mistakes in the first chart, so the website put out an errata to remedy the situation. Unfortunately, the errata also had errors.   

Third, shawls grow. Constantly. Every other row, stitches are added to the garment. This means, every other row, minutes are added. By the time I was at the end of Lolita's shawl, it took me about an hour to get through one row.

On the plus side, I ended up with one of the most beautiful garments I had ever completed. And Lolita loves it. After blocking the piece, I told myself that I would probably never make another shawl ever again. 

So here I am. Starting another shawl.

  

With Gray Cat by my side.