Yesterday I started my first 'real' lace project, Branching Out[R] from Knitty, Spring 05. I'm using my Fibre Company Organik which I'd bought for just this project.
The color of the yarn is hard to see fully in the picture - it's a duo tone with a base of green and an overlay of brown. The colorway is 'Jungle' and it reminds me of forsythia shoots in the spring. It's a single ply, and it's amazingly soft and pleasant to work with. I'm very glad I got this yarn for this project - it's perfect, to me. It's a thick enough yarn that I suspect it makes the pattern easier than if I Douceur et Soie. but it has just enough life and variation to make it more interesting than the Silky Wool versions I've seen and not loved. The stitch definition is is nice, but not overdone.
As of right now, I have five pattern repeats done. The pattern is harder than I hoped it would be, but, easier than I feared it would be after reading some horror story forum posts on Ravelry. I had to frog my first row and a half and start over. After that, I put in a lifeline. In theory I wanted to move the lifeline every pattern repeat, but I haven't been doing that lately. I have been undoing all mistakes, which is somewhat new for me. I think that the final product will be much nicer this way, plus it's a useful talent to be able to unknit as well as knit! Other than the first time when I frogged everything, all of my mistakes have been fixable by unknitting a row or two. For some reason I keep having a problem leaving out one of the yarn overs in the first row, but I've lately been overly cautious, and that helps.
This scarf does not yet have a place in my imagination. Some projects, like La Vie de La Boheme, I have an image in my mind of either the kind of person wearing it could make me or an outfit I could wear it with or some other vision of the object in use. Branching out has no such associations - all I imagine is the finished scarf, hovering magically in mid air. I'm not too worried about the wearability; once it's done I'm sure I'll think of some excuse. Until then I just have to keep knitting! I think getting better at lace is going to be one of my knitterly resolutions for 2008. That, along with the standard of knitting from ones stash. (Don't worry, this isn't my resolutions post quite yet...that'll have a little more thought put into it. =] ) My stash hasn't grown out of control by any means, but there are enough planned projects that have yet to be actualized that I could afford to fix some of them before starting ALL that many more. Of course, I'll have to knit the hats for my step brothers, but, the story of that gift to to them will come later. For now, it's approaching past my bedtime. I just wanted to express my excitement over my new branching out. =]
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