Well, I didn't participate in the Knitting Olympics, but I am going to award myself a Knitting Merit Badge for this:



This is Indian Cross Stitch, or, as I like to call it, the Eight-Fold Path To Frustration. And I had 480 stiches, or 60 multiples, of it.

It's the edging of the Cache-Coeur. It's not quite done because I could NOT bring myself to complete the binding-off last night.

The reason the Indian Cross Stitch is such a bear is how it's done: first row, you knit every stitch BUT make four "wraps" for each knit. This, as you might imagine, eats up a lot of yarn. And because Bergamo is in such tiny put-ups (66 yds), I had to have a JOIN in the middle of the row. Ugh.

The next row, you drop all the wraps - you do that for eight stitches at a time. But, you see, the four-wraps contract around the needle (especially a circular needle where the cord is thinner than the needle itself) not unlike a Chinese finger trap. So you have to coax (and sometimes force) the stitches up to the edge of the needle.

Then, once you've done that? You knit the stitches out of sequence. So, if the stitches are from right to left, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, you knit 5,6,7,8, and then 1,2,3,4.

And on the Cache-coeur edgings - well, it's not so bad for the side edges but for the "'round the horn" of the neck, fronts, and hem, it's a loooooooooong process. I used every single size 9 and size 10 circular I had, and had to press a 10 1/2 into service on the four-wrap row.

What remains now is finishing the binding off, securing the ends (did I mention that Bergamo ravels like a B. because it's a woven tape?) and then deciding if I want to do the little twisted-cord closure shown on the original pattern, or if I'd rather do a button loop and use one of my vintage Czech glass buttons or one of my repro vintage La Mode buttons instead. Hopefully a picture will come tomorrow.

And thanks already for the birthday wishes, Katie, Charlotte, K., Lydia, Theresa-in-Norway....

(Incidentally, a "bleg" is when a blogger begs for something. I've seen it on some blogs where people pay for their own bandwidth, and so, have "tipjars" to help with the cost).