That’s what I’ve just signed myself up for. Well, it will be more like three, since I’ve been knitting lace for the past month as well. Let me back track and tell you why.
My best friend in the world, Kassie, is getting married. She’s getting married in December. In Cincinnati. In an aquarium. Sounds chilly right? Well, besides the high likelihood of cold air in skimpy dresses, there’s the whole best-friend-in the-world aspect. I just don’t know how else to express my great affection for someone without using handknits. Especially when I am 2,400 miles from where the bride lives and where the wedding planning is taking place. As a bridesmaid, I feel like I need to contribute something to the process and I am no help at venues, catering, shopping expeditions, or all the other crazy wedding-related planning.
What I can do? Knit. I picked out a shawl to knit, picked out a yarn, even mostly picked out the color scheme for the wedding because she was too busy and overwhelmed. And then I started working. Early on in the knitting, I thought how great it would be if all the bridesmaids could have something special like this for the wedding. I thought about it for probably what amounted to two minutes before I was online offering my services to my friend and the other ladies. It was heartily accepted and I had added 4 more shawls to the list.
If I had thought about it at all before I made the offer, I might have reconsidered. It was then early September, I was just getting into the first shawl and it was very slow going. Lace can be that way, especially for someone who hardly ever knits it. But I was excited. They were excited. I offered.
First mistake whole-heartedly made, I immediately hit trouble. Color choices are hard. Kassie is not terribly color savvy and wasn’t sure what colors to choose. I put it up for discussion, but got mixed responses. Finally, I made an executive decision due to the realization that time was dwindling quickly. Then I went to order that color, and found that just about every store everywhere was sold out. Who knew gray could be so popular? So I had to re-evaluate and choose another color. This led to a week of dead time. I don’t know why I bother to count that week as I was still busy knitting away on the brides shawl and wouldn’t have been able to start another anyway. But I do.
So I have a 3/4 finished shawl, and yarn for 4 more on order. My brain is filled with time calculations that I must meet in order to finish by December 12th. I think I worked it out to a shawl every 2 weeks. Can that even be done? I don’t know! There are other variables which I keep trying to factor in, like will I speed up because the pattern will become etched in my brain by the 3rd or 4th? Or will I slow down because I am super bored with repeating the same pattern in the same color this many times? These are the exciting things I am wondering as I knit as fast as I can every spare moment.
Can it be done? Stay tuned to find out!
