I’ve been working on the beautiful Rock Island.

It all seemed to be going so well.  I finished knitting the mile long strip over the weekend.  I had my assistant help me take a picture of the strip.  He bravely balanced on the porch railing so we could demonstrate the strip’s length.

I thought I was ready to begin the next part of the shawl.  I was very excited.

Not so fast.

At one end of every row, there is a yarnover.  After I finished the strip, I began picking up stitches by picking up each yarnover.  I was moving merrily along when all of a sudden there were no nice yarnovers to pick up.  Inexplicably, my yarnovers were all of a sudden at the wrong end of the row.  For about 30 rows.  The other end had a nice scalloped edge, except for these 30 rows, where it was a straight yarnover edge.

Good grief.  Then I also didn’t have enough stitches to pick up.  Also inexplicably.  It might have had something to do with where I messed up those approximately 30 rows.

So I had to rip it back.  Davey is smiling cheerfully as he demonstrates my drastically reduced strip.  I am not feeling quite as cheerful about the situation, but I enjoy his optimistic smile.

I don’t have the gumption to continue on it right now.  I learned a great term from a knitting friend – Time out.

I will try again soon.