Applied Tedium

Working on the last piece of the Highland Shawl, the outer edging.

After I worked the inner border, I put the stitches on hold, to have an edging applied to them. All 186 x 2 + 2 of them. That's 372 stitches in total.

It's a few. But that's ok, I'm not afraid of a few stitches -- see my post about ruffles.

And then there's this little edging you apply. It's pretty simple, an 8 row thing you attach to the inner border every WS row. Easy-peasy. It varies from 5 stitches to 9 so it's not like it's a lot of knitting.

So 372 sts divided by 4 is 93. 93 repeats of the edging pattern.

That's ok, 8 rows. Easy. But here's the problem... the repeat is oddly difficult and time-consuming considering how small it is.

R1: Sl1, k2, yo, k2.
R2: k2, p1, k2, attach to last stitch of shawl (I'm using a k2tog).
R3: Sl1, k3, yo, k2.
R4: k2, p1, k3, attach to shawl.
R5: Sl1, k2, yo twice, k2tog, yo, k2.
R6: K2, p1, k2, p1, k2, attach to shawl.
R7: Sl1, k8.
R8: Cast off 4, k3, attach to shawl.

I'm finding two problems with this: it moves so quickly that I forget where I am -- "I can't already be casting off, I just did that." And I keep mixing up the position of the yo in R3. It's just not sticking in my head for some reason. So I have to keep looking at the pattern.

This means that a repeat takes about 4 minutes.

4 minutes times 93 is 372 minutes. Which is 6.2 hours.

And I have to be careful about how I hold the needles, because the shawl is heavy, and all that turning means I'm at risk for stitches slipping off the needles.

It's both horribly fiddly and horrifically dull at the same time. Whee!