Running the Race Slowly

Knitting the edging of this Sampler Stole is like running a lap around a track. Slowly. One stitch at a time. With the right amount of moisture, a slug might be able to complete the circuit faster than it is possible to knit the edging. One thousand sixty rows is a lot to knit, even if the rows are fairly short. Then there's *turning* the work that many times. Yes, I can knit back backwards ... but this would be purling back backwards, with a yo and p2tog to boot. I like working socks on dpns, and I like working lace edgings by turning my work.

After a stress-filled adrenaline-inducing start, the edging has gone quite well. True, I did have to frog back to the end of the first repeat once I got halfway into the second repeat and saw a misplaced yo. And I've had to frog back twice for other errors -- but no more than 3 repeats. That's liveable. I'm on the home stretch now, and at last count have only 27 repeats plus one corner plus grafting plus tails and blocking left. Yay! When I compared the weight of yarn left in the ball (18g) when I was done with the borders and center panel (roughly 66%) to the weight of the original ball (60g), I realized I might finish this in one ball, or might need a few yards of the second, or a good chunk of the second. Time will tell. I have a second ball, so the worst case scenario is getting a 25g, 550 yd BLURP of yarn out of the middle when I try to find the end -- and only use 10 yards of it.

The traveling knitting is going well. Another pair of Renee's socks are done, and I am amusing myself with a Koigu Neck Cozy before I start the last pair of socks. Some unloved sock yarn came to me in the mail yesterday, as well as an unloved knitting book on mittens, so I can ponder what to do with those while I knit.

It has not escaped my attention that I have not even thought about making a pair of mittens this month yet. I *will* get one done, God permitting, but there should be plenty of time to make a pair after the stole gets finished. In fact, I have hopes of finishing off the stole by Saturday. We shall see if I can exercise due diligence and attend to my knitting instead of fritzing away time around the house.

The Puritan Reading Challenge book for this month is The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. It's a great book. (It's also not escaping my notice I've said that about every book except for February's book, which was The Mystery of Providence.) What Burroughs has to say about self-denial has been in my mind lately. Partly because it has such an obvious application, and partly because it appeals to my sense of humor. I'm not sure he meant it to be humorous, though. Let me see if I can share a snippet without butchering the author's intent.

"The lessons that Christ teaches to bring us contentment are these:
1. The lesson of self-denial... (snipped the explanation of that) ... Now there are several things in this lesson of self-denial. I will not enter into the doctrine of self-denial, but only show you how Christ teaches self-denial and how that brings contentment. (snipped the first six points) If we perish, it will be no loss. If God should annihilate me, what loss would it be to anyone? God can raise up someone else in my place to serve him in a different way."

And to bring this post back to the title ... it is thoroughly unlike me to spend a whole month reading a book. I much prefer to dive in, read it, and be done in a day or two. Or maybe three, if it's meaty or over 1000 pages. This business of reading 10 pages a day is new to me. But I am enjoying it, enjoying the discipline of it, and probably learning more. Slow and steady wins the race!