When Will It End???

Wild 'n Wooly in Lexington, MA, is one of my favorite yarn shops in the world. I only get to visit it in July while I am in Concord for my three weeks, so it is a full Saturday visit for me. Jackie and her wonderful staff let me wander, drool, fondle, and pet all the yarn in the shop, all the while offering me food, drinks, and a chair. I love visiting them and always come home with a nice selection of projects for the coming year, which is delish as we have no local yarn shop within a two hour drive.

Let me introduce you to my friend, the Dragon Melody Shawl.

I started it two summers ago and have worked on it since. Reportedly, it is a "quick knit" but apparently I have hit the knitter's hole. You know --- that place where you knit and knit and knit only to discover that you haven't made any progress... The first part went quite easily -- straight stockinette for 12 inches and then a knit lace edge. But, then the real fun begins. All the end stitches are kept "live" as a knit lace edging (35 stitches) is added along the bottom. According to my math (and remember, I teach English) there are about 600 stitches to pick up along the bottom, one every other row, in a 12 row lace pattern. This translates to 93 repeats of the lace pattern to pick up all the stitches.

I have knit through Lost Horizon, Jesus Christ Superstar, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, Aladin, Terror of Tiny Town, Zoolander, Sleepy Hollow (okay, I drooled a lot during that movie and did little knitting), and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Bugs Bunny's Cartoon Collection  and still seem to be making no progress. I even added markers every 36 stitches to give me some kind of "check point" to indicate that I really am making progress. I wake up thinking about getting it done before I go back to work next week. I knit during supper. I have even awakened myself, holding the sheets as if they were needles and mumbling to myself, "just a few more stitches...." I am exhausted.

That being said... any suggestions on where to block what the designer calls a large shawl? I am thinking the front yard...