Shetland Shawl

Once again, I will start my day working on the Shetland shawl.  I did not get the centre done yesterday.  I would have had to take it along to knit night to do that, but if you don't stick your project in your car...

Once I finish the inner square, comes the grand inner border.  I don't really care for the inner border the book shows.  It has a look that is very different from what I have always thought of as traditional.  It looks of one of those patterns that gives me nightmares.  It looks like there will be a lot of counting to 2.  

When I go through all the shawls available on Ravelry, and pay attention to the more traditionally styled ones, including the Queen Susan Shawl, a shawl recreated from a photo in a museum library by the cooperative skills of the ladies on the Heirloom Knitting Forum, I find that very often, Shetland shawls have just this kind of border.  I am compelled to trust the skill and sensibility of the ladies who developed these patterns and knit under such arduous conditions and the shwal designer who studied and researched the shawl pattern.  

I will knit the border Folk Shawls call for.  It almost feels like a cop out, knitting exactly as written.  I have no math to do, no fiddling.  All I have to do is pick up 153 stitches on each side and knit across 153 stitches on the knit and cast on edges for a grand total of 612 stitches and I am home free.  

Just so long as the path to home free is not littered with stones and numbers like 2 and 4 and 1.