Sunday, June 21, 2015

Wrapping things up

I started a project in February 2013.  I finished it in May.  Now I'm blogging the FO in June.

It was going to be Sonnenblume, which has a beautiful lace motif.   I got it to the part where the lace was ready to start and left it there for like 2 years, waiting for a time when I'd be ready to decipher the chart and just do it.

Sonnenblume

I got to a point this spring where I was between projects so I picked it up and looked at the chart again.  It has patterning on both sides.  The work, where I left off, had more stitches than I can really count.  OK, technically I can count that high, but I almost never do. So, anyways, I wasn't even sure if the thing was at the exactly right number of stitches for the pattern.

So I did what any sane person would do.  I improvised.

First, I kept knitting with the 4 increases for a while.  Until I couldn't stand it anymore.

Then I swatched a couple of simple lace patterns and looked through Ravelry for something pretty and uber-simple.  I found Eyelet Lace Shawlette and Black Death and maybe a few others.

The initial pattern for the increases is this:
Row 1:  K1 YO K to 1 before center.  YO K1 YO K to 1 before end YO K1.

Row 2:  K1 P to 1 before edge K1  (the edges might have been purled.  Not sure.)


I decided to do:

Row 1:  K1 YO *K5 YO* [repeat til 1 before center, fudging as necessary with remainders] YO K1 YO *K5 YO* YO K1
Row 2:  K1 P to 1 before edge K1.

When I got to a good number of repeats and the rows were getting really long, I used a picot bind off.   The bind off was super tedious.  So I took breaks more than I should have - and it turned into a big mess and I broke the yarn when I was trying to figure out what was going on with it.


Blue Wrap

Basically, the whole project was fraught with mis-steps and issues all along the way.  But, it is pretty and soft and will be a nice thing to have.