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February 18, 2008
Abundance
I've been knitting from this cone of yarn for over three months, but you'd hardly know by looking at it.
Instead of placing all the live border stitches on holders, I decided to leave them all on the needles and knit back and forth, short-row style. Excellent for picking up and attaching stitches, not so great for progress photography. I think I'm on the seventh repeat of the center motif, but I haven't really counted lately. All I know is, there's a lot there, and there's a lot to be done. :)
At this point in the project, I'm suffering from a lot of yarn envy. Every pretty skein I see for sale on the internet, I want to possess, particularly if it's handpainted, variegated, or striping (hello, Kauni). Normally I would stay away from these kinds of yarn for lace knitting, but I think the endless sea of pale blue has triggered an unexpected rebellion in some part of my subconscious....
Posted by missalicefaye at 12:35 PM | Comments (24)
February 07, 2008
Hurting my brain
So knitting the practice swatch for the laurel leaf insertion was a bit...fraught. I'm not sure how many times I knit it with unsatisfactory results before realizing that the problem was not my tired brain, but rather an error in the chart. For those of you planning to knit the insertion as charted in the 2007 version of the pattern, be warned that there are two extra rows in the chart--I could only make the laurel leaf tips line up properly by skipping from row 7 directly to row 10.
Usually I'm one for charging right ahead in my knitting, but I'm glad I took the sensible swatching route before attempting this seemingly harmless chart over 600+ stitches.... In the end, though, I am very happy with how elegantly this little insertion has turned out.
After the laurel leaf incident, I was a bit cross with the Princess for a couple of days. But now I am well into the center portion and all is forgiven, and sweetness and light have returned. Although I am back to resenting work and classes for getting in the way of my knitting.
Posted by missalicefaye at 10:44 AM | Comments (13)
