first lace

Back in June, I knit my first shawl and thought "yay! My first lace!" Well, I'm here today to amend that statement, for now I have *really* knit my first lace:



Pattern: Ishbel
Yarn:: Socks that Rock lightweight in Mustang Sally
Recipient: My mama
Time to knit: about 3.5 months (thanks to my ineptitude with lace, which I will explain below)
Mods: omitted charts D and E (details on Ravelry)

This was a secret knit for my mom's birthday -- I didn't want to post about the FO until I gave it to her in person, which I did this weekend.



I had some issues following the charts ... I started by knitting the small stockinette but made mistakes in early lace rows, so I frogged and knit the large stockinette size instead. (This doesn't make much sense ... if I had problems with the lace on the small size, I shouldn't have made it bigger, because it increased the odds of making more mistakes ...)

However, this meant I used a LOT more yarn, and I frantically contacted a few Ravelers to inquire if they had any leftovers from their projects in the same weight/colorway. Raveler Scathach was awesome and mailed me more than enough. But, um, as I tried to work the final few charts, I kept messing up, and in a fit of frustration, I ended up binding off after chart C, meaning I never had to use her yarn. I hung my head in shame and mailed her scraps back, and she was super cool about it. Thanks again, Scathach!



My verdict: This was a fun knit -- an excellent first lace project. I hope to knit it again (and, um, I'll knit all the charts next time).

I hope you like it, Mom! I hope you take a picture of you wearing it so I can post about it here.

my first shawl

First, a reminder - I'm giving away yarn!

Now that that's out of the way, I can share my latest FO: a shawl.



It's the Simple Yet Effective Shawl, knit from a skein of JulieSpins Not Sock Hop - Crown Mountain Farm roving (colorway: "It Takes Two, Baby) spun up into 432 yards of yummy sockweight goodness. I stumbled across it in Julie's Etsy shop a while back and decided to make it my first-ever purchase of handspun.



It was wonderful to work with. The finished shawl is so soft. I foresee myself making another one (or two?) of these in the future. It's such an easy, portable pattern.

My only mod was to keep the center stitch a stockinette one throughout (knitting on the right side, purling on the right side . I also just played each panel of stockinette and garter by ear.

For now, I'm getting back to my Ishbel. I'm afraid it's too small (I'm knitting it on US4s and I am knitting the smaller size), so I might rip it back to my lifeline and do the larger stockinette portion. We will see....

lace knitting

Well, I cast on my first lace shawl, knit about 20 rows and had to frog it because of a mistake. But man it was fun while it lasted! It's definitely going to be a project I must work on alone with no music, no TV, etc. till I get the hang of lace. I really enjoyed knitting with the Knitpicks Options needles.

Back to sock knitting, but just for a little. =)