Lessons in Lace Land

This morning I took my cup of delicious hot coffee and went searching for my Rainy Day sock...and found it where? Looking for Waldo! I had to help it (her?) find Waldo before I could knit another round or two. I'm loving this pattern - but I have to say that when I first started it, I sure had trouble "remembering" how to do a yarn-over between a knit stitch and a purl stitch. Finally had to turn to Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook. (Thank you, Montse.) I think I bought my copy on eBay. All the stitches in the sock are still look very bumpy and uneven because the yarn was knitted last summer and then ripped out - this yarn has incredible "stitch memory", as it wasn't on the needles all that long last summer.



And, yeah, Sunday afternoon I did the provisional cast-on and knit about one and a half patern repeats on the Print 'O The Wave Stole. And then I stopped. This lace weight mohair yarn has lots (LOTS) of "halo", I guess it's called. I don't think the photo shows it, but it sure complicates the execution of the knitting. Sometimes the halo-hairs are so numerous that they masquerade as stitches all on their own. This little bit of the knitting required quite a bit of frogging... I don't feel comfortable using this particular yarn for an entire shawl, so I've decided to order some Alpaca Cloud from Knit Picks. :-)

This might seem like a disappointment - but it's not. There are many positives out of this little excursion in lace-land. For one thing, the provisional cast-on went smooth as silk, er...mohair?... Another thing, I worked out my own short-comings in reading the chart for the pattern and it turned out to be very do-able. I feel confident about knitting the shawl in a less fussy yarn. And another positive thing is that there will be an edging that is knitted onto the central portion of the shawl - in the manner of Shetland Shawls and I am looking forward to learning how to do that. Eunny's directions look to be very complete and understandable. Thanks, Eunny. (btw, Congratulations on your recent position with Interweave Knits.) And, finally, waiting for the new yarn to arrive will give me more time to (hopefully) finish the Rainy Day Socks and get in another foot or so on my Everyday Shawl. (I will feel so good when it is finished.)