Diamond Fantasy Scarf: August 2007 Archives
The older Z gets, the more of a fantasy the idea of lace knitting is becoming! Just getting a row or two here and there feels like quite an accomplishment. One thing I've learned quite well by this point: crying baby = not good time to knit lace -- even if the baby is being tended to by someone else. Even if I know there's nothing else I can do for her. Clearly mothers are hardwired to pay attention to one thing above all else.
As the project grows, I do like how the yarn is working out. There's definitely some pooling going on, but because the yarn is only composed of two colors and those colors are relatively close together, it doesn't scream "crazy variegated yarn thing".
The more of the lace I knit, however, the more I love the look of it. One nice thing about using a yarn that lacks elasticity: the lace work looks less like a mangled dishrag and more like the final result. And the relatively simple color scheme doesn't overwhelm the lace pattern. Hopefully, I'm on my way to a project that will actually have some long-term wear time in my wardrobe.
On my last couple of days of bed rest (when I was thinking that they were just in the middle of my bed rest period) I decided that I wanted to start something special just for myself. When I was in Toronto, I purchased on skein of Handmaiden Silk/Cashmere 2 ply lace weight yarn in a lovely purply magenta colorway. It made me happy just to take it out and touch it since it contained my two favorite fibers and some of my all time favorite colors. And it seemed like it might be the perfect thing to help me chase away some boredom.
But what to do with it? One skein, 300-400 yards... not enough for a shawl. Not enough brain power to design something myself. I needed a good pattern to follow. So, since I could wander around on Ravelry I started looking for lace projects, and I started looking at the yarn section looking for things people had already done with the yarn, or lace projects that looked like they might complement the yarn.
Which is where I found Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy Scarf/Shawl pattern. This is one of those patterns that I've seen all over the place, but never had a good reason to get started on myself. But since I was anticipating nursing (and nursing tops and bras and so forth and dealing with easy access) I thought that a scarf that could be worn over the top of something else made a lot of sense.
So I spent an evening before dinner hand winding the ball (it was something I could do easily while listening to a podcast and it was a nice tactile experience) and the morning I headed off to my final OB appointment I cast on the first couple of stitches, thinking I'd be home in the early afternoon to work on it a little more. Wishful thinking, that, I guess. But since I've been back with the baby, her naps have given me time to make some progress. I have to admit that I am in "blind pattern following mode" and am just reading through the line by line instructions (easier for me at this point than trying to keep track of a chart). The instructions are excellent and I'm making good progress -- although I've had to learn not to start a complicated lace row without checking to see how Zosia is doing...
