Ishbel is the Scottish form of the English name Isabel, which is derived from the Hebrew name Elisheva, meaning, “my God is an oath.” Just as Esther, a Hebrew woman who was married to the King of Persia, defended her oath to God in front of her husband, thereby saving her people, so too this pattern melds the beautiful colors of Persia with the steadfastness ideal of staying true to your beliefs.

Cast on and I am super excited about it. As I always am excited with new projects. I am knitting the large size in stockinette stitch and the small size in lace to make a medium-sized shawl. Also, according to kataish, in our Ish-ing the Bel KAL, I can repeat section “D” if I still have at least 20 grams left by the time I finish that section the first time ‘round. Good to know. The needle size I am using is a size 6, but actually 4.25 mm, as the size 4.0 mm needles I own are shite.

By the way, it took me extra long to start this project because I got side-tracked by Ysolda’s suggestion of using a safety pin to mark the center stitch. The consummate stitch marker maker in me thought “eep!” and I promptly spent two hours designing and making several different types of clasp stitch markers in an attempt to find the perfect one for my purposes. Then in the end I decided to use two stitch markers, one on either side of the center stitch, to mark it. eyeroll

Thirteen rows in, I’ve discovered that I screwed up my yarnovers in a couple of places. I frogged the whole thing and began again.

Also, I just found out that Ysolda Teague is coming to my local LYS on Saturday night, so I can take Esther’s Oath along! The event was a blast - if you are interested, photos on the right, me talking about it is here.

Hating. I lost a stitch somewhere in the stockinette. A field of perfect stockinette and I have an even number of rows. When the rows should be uneven. Hate. Update: I did not lose a stitch, I actually gained a stitch somewhere, causing the stupid stretchy merino wool to stretch and give me a strange eensy hole in my knitting that made it look like there was a dropped stitch when there wasn’t. Of course, I realized this after I had counted a billion times, dropped a yarnover in my anxiety, frogged several rows, knitted several rows, and then tried fixing the hole and created a ladder so that I had to frog it more. UGH. The best part is that because that piece of the yarn was stretched, it created the same exact hole all over again later. I am ignoring it. It does not exist. It will disappear when I block my shawl. (A-ha-ha! So there!)

I knit my heart out for a few rows and then decided to count. I was worried when I got to the very end of the row because I had used up all of my stitch markers (placed every 20 stitches like miniature mile markers). I desperately did not want to frog. Miraculously, I had exactly 219 stitches - only one more row to go and I will be ready to start the lace section! Yippee!

New depths of hatred every day. I knit half a row of the lace portion, and tink. I knit two more rows, and tink another half a row. Two steps forward, one step back. eye twitches

ARGH! I have knit and frogged the lace on this damn things so many times! I cannot get my numbers to come out right! It is being shelved right. this. damn. minute.

UPDATE: I pulled this out after a 2013 moth attack and discovered that it was so well-chewed that I couldn’t rescue anything. So I frogged it. Wha-wha.

Mosiac art by Lilian Broca