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Knitting Friday 

When I searched my soul for a reason to buy that alpaca lace (which was on sale, of course), I came up with the ridiculously great price reason, of course, but also I promised myself that I would start using all the lace wool I had and thus remove it from the yarn museum I was creating. Well, I first kept my promise with the claret-colored Shimmer Mesh shawl I made (pictures last Friday) but I discovered that this was really only on the edges of keeping my promise since Lion Brand lace is more light fingering and probably could have been used in a sweater. (Have more, so one can still be made.) But this week, I did start working with real lace; you know that fine yarn which is a bear to knit because of the patience, time and curse words it takes. I took out some Knit Picks blue-hued lace and thought I would start this project:

http://www.knitca.com/lace18 

which is a very pretty lace and you really don't have to use a cable needle for the 4-stitches right cable. However, reason intervened and I remembered I didn't have the two lifetimes needed to work up a knit lace shawl. So here's what I chose instead:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lacy-feather-and-fan-pattern

It's a crocheted feather and fan, very light and lacy. I only cast on 57, not the 76 stitches recommended (19x.) At 76 stitches, it looked too wide. The only "watch point" is the beginning and end of the single crochet rows. At the beginning of the row, you must be sure to recognize the first stitch from the previous row which you are skipping and, at the end, you must find the top of the chain you're going to need to make your last single crochet. Pictures and more on this next Friday. 

And now, on to some reading. Below is a Wikipedia website discussing the boyfriend sweater curse with some interesting theories as to why it “works.” The curse is: if you knit a sweater for your b-friend, the romance is doomed. You know the old cause and effect conundrum: I walked down the street of the bank and it got robbed right afterwards……… One explanation of the sweater curse which might have merit: you know the romance isn’t going well and you try to “cement” it with a handcrafted gift.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweater_curse

#2 Cotton sweater, underarm

#1 Cotton sweater, front view

As for knitting this week, my biggest knitting achievement was getting past the armholes on the black cotton sweater I’ve been knitting. It’s only a 2xs stitches + 1 pattern but you have to add stitches for the underarm so the lace pattern can’t be off even by one stitch. On the left is the front view and on the right is an armhole view of the sweater. I wound up creating a page of handwritten instructions on how to cast on the stitches at the armhole. Overkill, you say? Well yes, but I have missed lining up these simple patterns after the armhole cast-on so many times that time spent writing out instructions is worth it. Now, I just have to get up the energy to finish the thing. Summer is fast approaching.

Here’s the pattern I'm using again:

http://us.schachenmayr.com/patterns/short-sleeve-sweater-ajour-pattern

#3 The Rainbow Shawl

And finally: the Rainbow Shawl. Someone suggested that I  was knitting it for LGBT unity. That's not why I picked the yarn but it's as good a reason as any for wearing it. This is made from No. 10 crochet cotton and you can see the second ball of thread on the left so it's going to be a nice summer-sized shawl. Since it's not done yet so I won't post the pattern today. The inspiration came from Critron:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/critron

which I lamely started and posted last Friday (look at pics #1 and #2 there.) As you know, I decided to "abandon ship" on this project and cast on 78 stitches instead. What you see in pic #3 is a crescent shaped shawl which started with a chain of 78. I didn't know you could do that! I'm enjoying the colors in this project but the thread is slightly rough.

That's it for today. My goal next week is to finish at least one project. This will probably be the Rainbow Shawl or the black sweater. See you next Friday. Happy knitting.

 

 

  

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