Straight Laced

I hit my groove with the Filigree Lace Jacket this weekend. On Saturday, enjoying the sunshine pouring in from the window in front of my desk, the lace suddenly became not so bad. Probably this is because I slept well and I was working in natural light. I was just so close to the bind off for the armholes and something just kept driving me forward on this project.

The Back of the Filigree Lace Jacket in Natural Light

This is the back of the jacket on Sunday afternoon. Natural light does a lot better by this sweater than the light by my desk at night. I did finish the back Sunday evening the proof is here. The color of the Kidsilk Haze is much to close to that of my blocking board, so almost all of the interesting detail is lost -- but you can check out the popup if you want proof that I finished it.

Lace Unit

This is one unit of the lace pattern, up close and personal. The fuzziness of the Kidsilk obscures a lot of the detail (and it was cold and windy outside as I was snapping the pic, so it was hard to get the fabric stretched out). Still, I think you can see what I think of as a "snake skin lattice" on either edge.

I'm still trying to figure out if my gauge is correct. It's very close but it felt a little loose as I was setting the back up to block. I was expecting to have to block the lace out to it's limits (like I did with Charlotte), but that wasn't necessary here. I toyed with it that way, but it didn't look very nice (you lose the ribbing like quality that the lattice areas create), so I'm figuring that it is meant to be a little looser.

This is not going to be a small jacket. I figured that the 34" size (the smallest) would not be very flattering looking since there would be no ease at all for me. The next size up is a 42". From the picture that comes with the pattern (see here, it looks as if there is a lot of ease and drape. The project calls for 7 skeins of Douceur et Soie (an almost exact match for Kidsilk). The back took just a little bit more than one skein, so I'm not running into any yarn shortage fears so far (I have a whole bag of KSH, but I also want to make a Birch, which needs 3 skeins).

So it was a good weekend! Now I have to decide what piece to start next. I am thinking maybe a sleeve so that I don't have two to do in succession -- I don't think I could knit both sleeves together and stay sane. Not sure when the next piece will cast on. This project seems to go better when I have a lot of time and brain power to devote to it and I don't think I am going to have a lot of either this week. Good thing I have the last sleeve for Dad's Lo Tech waiting for me!