Well, That was Unexpected....

London (and indeed the rest of the UK) are enjoying a very odd spring holiday season.  First - we get 2 four day weekend IN A ROW.  So office type workers were treated to an 11 day break for the low low one time only cost of 3 vacation days.  Insane.

If that wasn't enough. (And it was.)  We have had the most gorgeous weather for the last week. Sunny and a very warm 26 degrees.  Heaven.  It's cooled down slightly today but the sun is still shining so no complaints from me.

On the knitting front the 6 km of yarn for the Princess has arrived.  It's called antique silver - grey to most of us - and has a lovely sheen.  I dug out the needles and got ready to cast on, and then realised the Princess is built upside down (or inside out) (or something...).

In my experience (which isn't vast - but heh it's all I've got) - shawls like this are generally constructed like this:
1) knit the centre piece (triangle for triangle shawls, square for square shawls)
2) pick up stitches around the centre piece and knit the broad border and then
3) knit the mind numbing never ending narrow edging around the whole thing

Now the ONLY thing that keeps you going on the horror that is step 3 is the sight of the finish line.

So imagine my mood when I realised that the Princess is knit like this:
1) knit the mind numbing never ending edging
2) pick up stitches along the edging and knit the broad border
3) knit the centre triangle, joining it to the border by picking up stitches as you go along

This put me off for a day or two.  I mean - really.  What's all that about?  That means starting with the worst bit.  And to add insult to injury, when you finish that you can't even console yourself with "Oh well, at least that's the boring edging done" because it isn't.  You still have to knit the final edging along the top of the triangle.

Finally though I picked  up the yarn and needles again and cast on.

And then proceeded to make a mistake.

In every single row of the first repeat.

Every.
Single.
Row.

And worst when I finally got to the end of the first repeat, exhausted from the ordeal, I accidentally pulled the needle out of the stitches.  Frogged the repeat and cursed the Princes.  Loudly.

Taking a leaf out of Anne of Green Gable's philosophy - I awoke this morning and decided it was a new day with no mistakes in it and I was ready to try again.

So I cast on again - and here it is - the first of a gazillion edging repeats.

At this rate I expect to be done by June.

June 2099 that is.