Temporary loss of sanity...

I think I've had a temporary loss of sanity.

I decided to be a test knitter for a shawl. I have made one shawl in my entire knitting lifetime. It was a feather & fan shawl...it took me damn near two years to complete but that was because it was boring as hell to knit. It was an easy pattern.

Anyway, this pattern doesn't look extremely difficult on the surface...and then you look at the pattern. First of all, you CO 377 stitches. Yes. You did read that correctly. Three hundred, seventy-seven stitches. It takes me over a half hour to get through one row. It has 64 rows, plus the i-cord border. So, let's do the math. One row = one half hour. So, two rows = one hour. By this logic, this shawl is going to take me at least 32 hours to knit...and that doesn't include the i-cord border.

I'm supposed to have it done by September 10th. Today is August 20th. There are thirty-one days in August. So, I have twenty-one days to knit this shawl and I'm on row two.

Let's do more math. If I have twenty-one days left to knit this shawl and it takes me an hour to do two rows and I'm only working on it for an hour per day...well, I'm going to have twenty-two rows left by the time the due date comes up.

Luckily, after the first thirty-four rows, it's stockinette with wrap & turns for the rest of the shawl. I can knit stockinette faster than I can knit in pattern (and it's a really interesting pattern so I have to keep looking at it, which just takes more time).

So, what am I going to do?!

I think I bit off more than I could chew. I'm going to work on it and see how things go and if they start going badly, I'm going to contact the designer and talk to her about it. I'm also going to have to employ a lifeline. That's practically a requirement until I get to the stockinette part.

So, I should have a WIP Wednesday post this week...if I remember to post.

Did I mention that I had a temporary loss of sanity?