Knitting Lace

I’m always a little bit stunned when I see intricate lace pouring out of the needles of a friend/fellow knitter. It’s not that I don’t understand how it’s done because I do; knitting at its basic structure is merely a careful arrangement of string and with lace all you do is add in a few holes to the mix. Intricate but ultimately quite simple to understand. The complicated thing, and this is where I fall over, is keeping track. I can’t do it. I can’t keep track of where I am when I’m knitting anything more than a two-row lace pattern because I am easily distracted.

This, of course, is unacceptable. I want to make pretty things!

So the other day when my wonderful girlfriend treated me to a skein of yarn at my local yarn store (Kniterary in Whitby, ON. I do not live in Whitby any longer but I love it best) I chose some cotton I’d had my eye on recently. The owner of the LYS had been knitting a gorgeous stole/shawl thing at the last knit night made of a lovely lustrous yellow cotton and I coveted it. It turned out to be Cascade Ultra Prima. I’m learning to love Cascade.

After gratuitously groping the sea silk while I was there, I selected the rich ruby red. I wanted to do something drapey and perfect for spring which seems to be just around the corner.

I found this collection of vintage stitch patterns from Fitter Knitter. I bounced with joy, since none of the patterns I found on Ravelry were doing much for me (for a change). I had a very specific idea of what I wanted in my head so I went through the stitches and found one that looked vaguely like wings and started knitting it into a scarf.

This is the pattern I chose. In red, the stitches are not so winglike – it also doesn’t help that I’ve gone wrong a couple of times and thrown off the pattern. Not that I let it stop me. If I realise I’ve forgotten a stitch (usually a YO – yarn over for those who don’t knit) I just make another stitch in the next row. Yeah. I’m very imprecise in my knitting sometimes. I’m definitely not one of those who will frog an entire project for one tiny mistake. It would need a huge structural mistake for me to do that.

The yarn is knitting up perfectly. I can’t stop staring at it.

Once daylight rolls around and I’m not working through the entirety of it, I’ll take a picture and try to capture the gorgeousness of the red lustrous cotton. It’s unlikely I’ll manage. It may be my new favourite yarn for now.

Until I get my hands on some sea silk that is.