The Long Slog Along the Forest Path

After the pure pleasure of the Swallowtail I got back to the Forest Path Stole. As I worked on the project it reminded me more and more of the stages I'd go through back in the day when I was training to run my first marathon. (I have since sadly stopped running and would probably keel over at an attempt to run for a bus -- but that's a whole other topic)....

Anyway - when you are training for a marathon the cornerstone of your weekly schedule is the long slow run, which is designed to get your mind and body ready to for the long hours on your feet a marathon will require. (And as I was never a particularly speedy runner -- I was going to be on my feet for a while.)


You start the long slow run feeling pretty motivated and the running feels easy (well, as easy as running feels) as you are starting at at your slowest running pace. And that's how I started on the FPS. Keen ready to tackle the entrelac lace. Confidently working my way through the 3 lace panels.

You plod along, tunes in the iPod making steady progress - and then you start to think, "I've been doing this a while - I must be over halfway now." And you check your crazily complicated running watch/distance monitor which tells you you've almost reached the 1/4 way point. Hmmmm.

This is when you start negotiating with yourself. "Go on, make it to the end and you can join the others in the pub for lunch." Unfortunately as you are on both sides of the negotiating table you reply, "of course you could just head straight to the pub now."

But you plod on. Or, in this case, I knit on. Because this is where I know that if I cast on another project I'll never ever ever come back to the Forest Path Stole.

The Forest Path Stole becomes a bit repetitious. And because of its size it seems to go on an on. And I have found myself once or twice pondering making a shorter version. But I know that I won't do that because I think the 'wow' of the stole comes not from the lace (which is pretty basic) but from the entrelac pattern and its scale of the thing. Completed as written it is a whopping 30 inches by 80 inches.


And on I knit. And, as with running, the closer I get to the end the more my enthusiasm returns. My pleasure at reaching the end keeps me going making the last few miles as fresh (almost) as the first.


It was with great joy this morning that I realised I'm about to begin the final of the 23 Forest Path tiers of lace panels. WooHoo! The finish line.




.....or almost.....


And like one of those cruel cruel runs where you think you are almost at the finish line only to discover that you calculated wrong.....I soon realised I've got a squillion miles of seed stitch edging to follow.


Sigh.