Counting, Counting, and More Counting

I've been counting today. Counting in the car, counting in the house, counting in the store, counting while awake...and I'm sure I'll be counting in my sleep tonight. Next time I decide to make another shawl, *please* remind me how much counting and intense concentration is involved.

No shawl progress was made yesterday, nor was I able to attend our ladies Bible study. I was in bed most of the day with an intense headache. So, today I decided I'd make up for lost study and knitting time. Well...

The knitting on my grandmother's alpaca shawl was progressing slowly, but steadily, until I tried to knit at Border's with their choice of music playing in the background. Each row of the shawl has over 300 stitches at this point, and keeping count of all the yo's, k2tog's, ssk's, and other intricate stitches became quite a challenge for my ability to concentrate without becoming distracted. Before my stint of knitting on the Border's couch was completed, I was tempted to track down whomever selected the music (sounded like some poor lady yodeling *Lady of Spain*!) and see if they could find my *now missing* stitch! : (

After fretting for a couple of minutes and feeling faint (knitters will understand this feeling), I tinked back 1/2 of row 3 of the chart and found the error of my knitting ways. Thankfully, row 3 was corrected and completed, followed by row 4, and I'm now ready to proceed on to row 5 of the tiny and quite complex chart.

I'll definitely be bringing the shawl to Sit 'N' Stitch this Thursday night, but, I don't think I'll be able to work on it during our group. Well, I might if someone could loan me a *cone of silence* (remember this from *Get Smart*?) so that I could totally block out all noise and distractions and only hear myself counting...aloud, of course. Under these circumstances, I may be able to complete a row without having to repeat it; or to have a brown, paper bag handy for any possible hyperventilation episodes secondary to incorrect stitch counts at the end of a row! : )

I'm definitely using a lifeline in this project. And, I'm placing a new lifeline every other row. I do notwant to have to frog all the way back to the beginning if/when I make a mistake.

Does this remind you of life? It sure reminds me of how life goes. I'm so thankful that we don't have a *chart* of our life laid out before us to have to follow. I'm so relieved that we don't have to perfectly perform every tiny square exactly as written for us to have a worthy result in the end. I am so very thankful for our loving Heavenly Father and for His grace he freely gives. I'm thankful that we are not bound by having to follow the law as presented in the Old Testament, but rather to just accept the gift of his sacrifice and grace toward us to have an eternal relationship and life with Him. His faithfulness and forgiveness can remove our gravest mistakes and make all things brand new...no matter how many mistakes we have made. He is our ever present lifeline.

I'm going to spend the rest of the evening counting my many blessings and give the stitch counting a break. : )

Your Friend,

Shelly

KJV
Psalms 103:12
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

KJV
II Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.