Third time's a charm?

As I reported last week, I cast on the Rosebuds and Climbing Roses stole for the kickoff of Knit the Classics. I didn't get too far into the first lace repeat before it became clear that mine was too big. (Anyone sensing a theme?)

More like a scarf than a stole, the finished measurements are 13" x 56". Although I was originally planning on grabbing some Bryspun needles for this, since I wanted to start on June 1 with the knitalong, I pulled out bamboo 2's for the project. Unfortunately, after the foundation rows and a few rows of the first lace repeat, the stole was stretching to the ends of the needles and clearly would extend a few inches beyond, especially if blocked.

More than 13" for sure.

The next day, I dug around in the needles basket and found the 1's. Other than socks, I don't guess we've ever used 1's because these were still in a wrapper from the full set of Crystal Palace needles we have.

I took the 1's in with me to where Spencer was sleeping on the bed, pulled the beginnings of the stole off the size 2 needles and re-rolled the Shimmer.

(It's disconcerting, to say the least, that when I finally ran into some knotted sections at the end, I could just pull and 'break' the lace weight yarn.)

Happy the little one was still sleeping, I cast on again and worked the first several foundation rows only to then hold it up and find it looked the same as before.

I'd stupidly cast on again with the 2's, the 1's tucked inside the pattern book where I'd laid them.

Again, I re-rolled, pulling hard enough to break at another knot.

Hoping to finally get it right, I cast on later with the 1's.

Having entered a heated climbing phase, Spencer was going up and down on the couch next to me. He played with a large knitting needle for a few minutes, sticking it in and out of a bulky ball of yarn before moving back to the joy of up and down.

Then, on one of the 'up' trips, he grabbed the needle I was working with. In trying to free it from him without losing all the stitches, the needle snapped in half at the middle.

They are, after all, like toothpicks.

Because the last ten or fifteen stitches were in and around the site of the splintery break, it took at least a half hour to get them slid over the broken part so that I could work them off the needle.

Yikes. This project seems ill fated!