Definitely not the lace I was looking for...

Last Friday I blogged about not having enough yarn to finish Skywalker, but I figured out a way to at least salvage the project. And, I barely eked it out; there was less than 24" of yarn left. It was very, very close. I was sure if I was going to run out of yarn it would be on the last repeat of the edging, but thankfully, God smiled on me. I present to you: Skywalker Scarf made from Pediboo.

Okay, it looks like "crap" - Laura Nelkin says that repeatedly in the Craftsy lesson which totally cracks me up.  Lace looks awful when you take it off the needles. Who would want something like this?  All it needs is some warm water, blocking wires, and pins.  It is definitely worth investing in a blocking kit; I use mine on almost every project.  Laura gave me a good idea about blocking though, it should be done with a glass of wine (or Cosmo, but no chocolate, it might get on the yarn).

Here it is blocking - not too bad. The edging has a slight ruffle effect because I (correction from original post) added an increase row after Plasma stitch that way I had the correct number of stitches based on the pattern to do the edging.  I also knitted a few rows before starting the edging which worked out well since it gave me somewhere to place the pins while blocking.

Completed Skywalker Scarf

Since moving South I rarely wear scarves, but my mom loves them. She got an early birthday present this morning - I wanted her to be able to wear it before the hot months hit the Mid-South! The ruffled edging is really sweet and gives the scarf a lovely feminine finish.

While I felt stupid about not buying enough yarn, the scarf turned out great and my mom is thrilled. It wasn't the lace I was looking for, at least it found a happy home. I'm starting the Skywalker Shawl today and I know I will have more than enough yarn to finish it!

This is not the lace you're looking for...

I just celebrated my 15th anniversary of knitting! My best friend taught me to knit while I was visiting her in Trondheim, Norway in mid-January 1998. It was a beautiful introduction to knitting! Her girlfriends would come over in the evening and we would have coffee and eat ice cream. They worked on beautiful traditional Norwegian style sweaters and cardigans (which would be steeked later, eek!) and I struggled on a headband.

My friend picked out the pattern which required me to: 1.) knit in the round, 2.) follow a pattern chart (which was considerably easier than learning Norwegian in order to read said pattern), and 3.) it was traditional Norwegian colorwork (2 different color yarns). In the ensuing years I have come to find that colorwork, chart reading, and working in the round scares some people so much they won't even try it. I'm so glad I learned to knit with "hard techniques" because I haven't been afraid to try new things. If you're new to knitting (or contemplating joining our world), don't be afraid to try things. Frankly, the whole process of learning to knit can feel awkward because you're trying to get your hands to do things they're not used to doing.

For the longest time I didn't know how to answer the question: what's you're favorite thing to knit? "I don't really have a favorite, I just love to knit." I would say. But, about a year ago it dawned on me, what I like best is using new materials - knitting with a fiber I haven't worked with before - or learning new techniques. With all that said...I have avoided lace.

I made one lace shawl to accompany the dress to my best friend's wedding (same one who taught me to knit) almost 6 years ago. There were several things stacked against me and the lace shawl:
1.) I didn't know about "lifelines". A lifeline is a piece of thread you weave through a row of completed stitches so that if you drop a stitch or get things completely messed up, you only have to rip back a few rows instead of needing to start over...which happened to me several times.
2.) I used thread-weight yarn - 800+ yards of thread weight yarn. What the heck was I thinking? Oy! It was too fine a yarn to learn how to knit lace on.
3.) I had a deadline. In general, this is not a good idea when you're a newbie to something. I managed to get enough length on the shawl the day before we left, I soaked it, blocked it, and had to have fans on to help it dry in time. Double oy!
The whole process left me frustrated and I wasn't all that pleased with my work. Since then I have loved the look of lace, but have shied away from it...until now.

My last post was about how much I love Craftsy and this will be a continuation on that theme. I signed up for Laura Nelkin's Knit This: Mastering Lace Knitting. First, she plays with Star Wars themes, and I love that, but more importantly, her explanations are very clear. She breaks it down into sections and explains it along the way.  Also, she goes through each pattern line of the shawl.

I've read lace patterns and struggled to understand the construction, especially the starting point for half circle shawls.  Last night, a big lightbulb went on in my head. I started working on the Skywalker shawl yesterday and I'm loving lace! I can see why there are people out there who only knit lace.

I've misplaced the tag with the yarn info (and I will find it before I post the finished item), but I'm pretty sure it is a superwash merino sock yarn. It's a lovely raspberry color and while I would have loved to get some silk/merino/utterly gorgeous yarn for this, I wanted to learn on something simple. I'll splurge in the future.

If you have been longing to become a Jedi Master in Lace Knitting, then I highly recommend this class.