Monday, May 11, 2009

Perseveration

–noun
1. the act or process of perseverating.
2. Psychiatry. the pathological, persistent repetition of a word, gesture, or act, often associated with brain damage.


On Saturday, I took the lace pattern book to spinning class with me and allowed the women there to twist my arm in respect to starting the Cap Shawl. The store owner, a registered nurse herself, completed the job by offering nurses a 15% discount on supplies during nurses week. How could I resist? The yarn is Fino from Alpaca With a Twist in color 3001. The sheen is from the silk-the luscious is from the alpaca. It's incredibly soft.


With yarn and needles in the bag and keen on getting started, I went to the local Kinko's downtown to have the pattern copied and enlarged 200 percent. The little snip behind the counter refused to do it for me because the book is copyrighted. Never mind that permission for readers to copy the patterns for personal use is printed just below the copyright-she was having none of that. When she began to lecture me about copyright law, I left and went to a Kinko's 4 miles away. The young man there had no such problem reading the permission and taking care of business. I mounted the enlarged patterns onto a foam board and bought markers to highlight my progress. I've smudged out the bulk of the pattern here because of copyright issues, but I wanted you to see my project board.

Now I was in business. Not.



Sunday night, I cast on for the project using the recommended lace circle cast on. I messed it up. I cast on again and in no time at all, made a mess of things again. And again. And again. I tried a different cast on and made it to the second row only to discover I was knitting the stitches with the tail of yarn and not from the ball. Far be it from me to lie about how long it took me to knit 13 rows. It was 3 hours-2 of which were spent trying to cast on and join the stitches in a circle. Oy. I think my behavior fits definition #2 from the dictionary.

Here's hoping the rest of it goes a little more smoothly.

16 comments:

SkippyMom said...

Amazing the chick worked at kinkos and couldn't read....LOL...

Glad you are started! Have fun and I can't wait to see the finished product [love the color...looks familiar :D]

Jane said...

the rest will fly by without a hitch now

Cynthia Pittmann said...

Rudee, it sounds like over-eagerness had to be worked out before you could settle down to work. And that copyright police Kinkos worker needs to get perspective...that's what set you off in the directions not favorable to your project.

A victory that you got started, to be sure, and that you finished what you did. I'm certain the rest will go more smoothly...love to you <3

Rose said...

I know how you feel; I started a toe up sock last night and haven't made progress; so I cast on for a lace trimmed hat and had to do the lace 2x so far. Plugging along at 11 p.m. Wonder why I didn't want to get up this morning? No fear that you'll conquer though!

debra said...

I look at the pattern, I think about the pattern, and I sweat. You, however, persevere. Good on you, my friend. It will be amazing.
Happy Monday.

Betty F said...

That's a beautiful yarn Rudee. I can almost feel how soft it must be. Don't you just want to SMACK people like the woman at Kinkos? Just once to be able to reach out and smack em? I do :)

Stephanie V said...

Some days we're meant to just get out in the garden. Hope that your knitting goes better today. The yarn is beautiful - love the color.

Rudee said...

Skippy- I think she could read-it was more that she stubbornly would not read the permission to reproduce the patterns.

Miss-I hope so.

Rose, if the cast on has got you down, try this one: http://www.spellingtuesday.com/circular_co.html
After what seemed like 50 attempts, I finally got it!

Cynthia- it was funny, but I was so determined to begin that I didn't even realize how long I spent attempting to get just 9 stitches to connect.

Debra- I have studied and studied this pattern. Right now, I am reciting The Little Engine That Could.

Betty- Yes.

Rudee said...

Stephanie-it's such pretty yarn. I would have like a little more halo, but the price was right for this one. Kidsilk Haze would have been $70 more.

As for my real garden-I almost bought plants this weekend, but we had an unexpected frost advisory last night. I'm so glad I didn't!

sandy said...

I hope it goes smoothly for you too, because it will be a beauty when it's done!

Can't believe about the girl at Kinko's, wow.

Jane said...

Good for you Rudee. That yarn is 'to-die-for' and the colour is amazing. It will be beautiful. I love your project board too. Great tip.

Rudee said...

Sandy-so far, so good.

Jane, this is the best way I could think of to keep my patterns together. The last thing I want to do is go back to Kinkos. For the main part of the pattern, they had to use a huge machine to get it to 200% so a regular copier would never work. It's so easy to differentiate the lines of the pattern. I think that'll be important when I get to the busy part.

Rositta said...

Hats off to you Rudee, I am deathly afraid of charts. Love the color, it will be beautiful...ciao

Kathleen said...

So when you finish that, will you be climbing Denali? Nothing stops you, does it? You just blow me away!
Oh, and I've always loved that word, perseveration. It comes in handy a lot our home!

Winifred said...

Looks like the copyright police are alive and well. Shame they have a low IQ though. You get these jobsworths everywhere now. Pians in the bum.

Never mind you got it done. Best of luck, the wool looks great.

Brenda said...

Behind on blog reading again. The yarn is really pretty. Your story about the copy gal reminded me of a youngster at the grocery store that tried to tell me how to write a "proper" check. I forget what her gripe was, but I looked at her and said "Sweetie I have been writing checks and cashing them for at least 3 decades past your life. I think this one will go through."