For almost an entire year, I made projects exclusively in-the-round.
Then I started asking myself what I wanted to knit for me. Because, really, no one else wants anything. And if I do make them something, the only thing they want to know is if they can machine wash it.
I wanted to make a leafy shawl because I thought it would be beautiful. I bought some really glorious “musk” colored undyed alpaca 3-ply [2.5] (but they call it “worsted”) yarn. I had someone in mind who would be beautiful in it. That was when I found “Dancing Leaves”. Later, as I think on this, I realize that really, no one would appreciate the effort that went into that when it takes up a king-size bed to block if it ever gets humid.
I did not want to buy a single pattern for $10. I may still, but talked myself out of it. That was when I found the Hyde book, Wrapped In Comfort. I am vastly disappointed in this book because most of the patterns are ugly and the main trick of making the yoke and body different was not worthy of a dozen repetitions. I do not think it was not worth the money because I got the 35% off price and paid $13 for it. I found three things in there that I liked, most especially the water turtles motif. Just possibly I could combine motifs and come up with something that pleases me. I admit that the semi-circular nature of the shawls in the book does entice me and I am certain I can apply that trick to the best suited motif and have something glorious.
A number of people bought Cat Bordhi’s pamphlet on using 2 circular needles instead of dpns. That cost more than this did.
I ended up with some unmatched single from the horribly-dyed superwash merino roving. It is about a [1.5] and I looked for a very lacy scarf pattern. I figured that pallid brown and gray and rust pastels would make for the kind of scarf which would make a good gift for just about anyone; lace would maximize the yardage use and make it more impressive; a scarf will not take the kind of abuse that a garment does so using a single would not be inappropriate. I found “Palette“.
The Palette pattern suggests it would be good with handspun and was originally written to use a mere ounce of fiber. That means I should have about the right amount. I am making mine a little skinnier, 27 stitches across rather than 31, to ensure that the length is still desirable. The pattern says merely “CO 31” without giving any advice whatsoever on what type of cast-on would be desirable or what caveats should be accounted for. I Googled. Eunny Jang’s site was down but the cached copy suggests that “lace cast-on” and plain “knitted cast-on” are identical. I kept looking. I found a good explanation in another blog “Grin and Frog It” (April 2006).
[You should know that I am terrible about keeping up with the blogroll here. I add things to my Google Reader and the import process is not as smooth as I would like.]
Palette has something in its lace motif that scares away even big-name knitting people like Franklin (The Panopticon) Habit, the wrong-side is not just straight purl. There is texture/pattern work on the purl side. What I liked about the Palette motif was that there are no rows with knit and purl stitches. All knitters seem to have an Achilles’ heel; many knitters fear the purl stitch; some knitters think cables might be too difficult; others may not want to block or divert from the written pattern— for me the thing I find most irritating is the transition between knit and purl. I find that it takes me nearly thrice as much time to do k1p1 ribbing as it does to k*. But many knitters prefer their lace motifs to have a “resting row”.
There are no pictures. I have no pictures of the spun yarn because it is unworthy of photography. I have no pictures of the in progress Palette, which I have named “Zag Lace Scarf” on Ravelry, because it looks like a couple rows of pale gray yarn next to a big yarn barf. I really need to find a better way to wind handspun yarn….
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