Just a simple little blog to talk about my knitting, my cats, my wonderful son, and perhaps other things in my life.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Permission to Start Over

The History of "Charlottes Easy Lace Shawl" which I started for my Mum about 5 years ago. Prior to passing it on to me she had gone into a LYS and asked for an easy pattern for her lovely fluffy mohair yarn. She was given this pattern along with slippy addi turbo needles. I would have to say this was a mistake. By the time she wanted to have the shawl finished to wear at work she no longer had time to knit it. So she gave it to her "beginner knitter" daughter to do instead, saying I could keep the left over yarn to make something for myself.

I tried, I really did. I got it about 1/2 done but fought it the whole way. The main strand of the yarn is so thin that I didn't even know there was supposed to be a "box/square" pattern in the lace until I was told by someone on the KnitList. The needles were so slick and the yarn so smooth and light that I kept loosing stitches and having to rescue them before I could do the next step in the pattern. I had to keep each row of the pattern on a separate index card and flip to the next card before putting down the shawl or I would spend much time trying to figure out what to do next when I picked it up again. This was not an easy pattern/yarn to "read" my knitting on. I finally put it away and started making things for my nephew instead.

Last week Mum motioned the shawl again and how much she would love to have something to put over her shoulders at work. But no pressure (insert massive guilt here). We talked about it and all the issues I had had with the yarn/needle combination. Finally it was decided that when I was ready for another big project I would rip out the entire shawl and start over with the lovely bamboo needles I now own and do it entirely in Garter Stitch. I will start at the bottom with just a few stitches and keep adding stitches to each end until it is long enough. This yarn will still be lovely in a simple pattern like that and it will save my sanity no end. I think this is the best solution and the one that the LYS should have given my mother all those years ago.
Posted by: Justy at 10:02 a.m. |
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