Two steps forwards, one and a half back...

This week hasn't been great for knitting; while I did finish a cardigan on Tuesday (minus the buttons), I did have several days where progress was definiely in the wrong direction.

My Dotted Rays shawl that I cast on before going to Joeli's retreat wasn't perfect - the i-cord tab at the start was a little messy (possibly twisted?), and the i-cord edging had the odd error, but nothing too untoward, so I merrily added a few more rows one evening, then did a stitch count and it was all wrong! I had totally forgotten to do the increases. Normally I would have carefully unravelled the work to get to the last point that I knew was correct, then rework what had been unravelled. I tried the careful unravelling, but the short rows made it impossible, and before I knew it the shawl had been returned to a ball of yarn. Ah well, at least it was free of errors!

I started the Dotted Rays again and my second attempt is much tidier. And I'm paying a lot more attention to the pattern, so there shouldn't be any more mistakes (probably tempting fate there). It's growing a lot faster now as I understand the pattern, and have started using markers to work out where to turn the work. I think it might now get knitted quite quickly as the yarn is lovely and I'm certain I am going to love the final shawl.

The pink socks I showed you last week are also no more. The lace pattern was perfect for the leg, but required a lot more work on the foot section. I've unravelled them and will put them back on the needles this weekend once I've rewritten the pattern.

Thank goodness I've had some lovely plain vanilla socks on the go. My SockmaticianSockalong socks are progressing really nicely. I have just finished the first sock and it looks great. I decided to make them a bit 'Sockmatician-y' by working 2 x 1 rib for the cuff, which is what Nathan said he uses. I am trying to make the second one match, but this yarn has a lot of short colour changes, so it might not happen...

I am off to Edinburgh for the yarn festival this weekend. While I'm there I'll be trying to keep up with a special photo an hour (#EYFphotoanhour) on Instagram (I don't think it's the official date for March, but I thought it might be fun), and I'm certain I'll have lots to post here next week. This week has been a tiring one, so while I am giddy excited about going to a yarn festival, a huge part of me is looking forward to being able to sleep on the train! I do have a shopping list so I avoid getting carried away: 200g red semi-solid to make a huge squishy garter stitch shawl (I need one, I decided yesterday), some dark wood buttons (and some featuring cats; the request of a small child), and a second Portuguese knitting pin so I can do colourwork. If you see me there, feel free to say hello. I'll be the tired-looking one!

And while I remember, anyone waiting for the books read in February post, it's not happening; I read one Famous Five parody in February, and that's not really worth a whole post - I'll tag it on to March's.