I suck at lace...

It's sad, I know. I've tried and tried but I just can't seem to knit lace! I mentioned my current project, the Surplice Camisole, in a previous post. It's pretty. It's easy. The lace portion has a two row repeat. "No problem" I think. " Even I can knit two rows!"

Wrong!

After picking up 90 stitches, working the foundation row where I increase one stitch to 91, I start. I complete one two row repeat and I now have 88 stitches. What? 88? Impossible. I know I have a short attention span, but how can I lose 3 stitches in 2 rows? Ahhhhhh!

So I "unknit" stitch by stitch for 2 rows. Nope did everything correctly, I think. But now I've managed to drop several more stitches. @#$$%%$#%^! I can't take it! I ripped everything out and stuffed the project back in my knitting bag.

I've been knitting for over 10 years...I can complete a pair of socks in 2 days (when I put my mind to it). I can do intarsia (albeit slowly and with much swearing) and complicated aran patterns (without a cable needle! Not that I'm bragging). What's so different about lace?

Maybe it IS my limited attention span. Maybe it's because I'm used to knitting in front of tv and movies. I don't usually have to watch what I'm doing. Maybe I need to lock myself in another room and try to concentrate for more than 30 seconds.

So here I am again, relegated to "practicing" a pattern before I put it into the actual project. Granted, I've ended up with some pretty nice scarves as gifts from this practice, but really! Some days I feel like I've had a stroke!

Here's my Practice Project. I'm trying to work with lace weight alpaca. It's beautiful, soft stuff (I looooooove alpaca), but it's like anything with the word "lace" attached freaks me out. Maybe I need a valium and a therapist!



Last night, after several attempts, I managed to finish 2 rows.

*sigh*