Wednesday, September 18, 2013

cold pine

I love a knit-a-long.  Historically, I am terrible at completing them but that doesn't stop the excitement I feel in participating!  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, our local knitting group decided to host it's very first knit-a-long this month and the theme decided upon was "lace".

Given my notoriety for not completing, I decided to go easy on myself and choose a chunky lace rather than traditional laceweight (although a couple of our group went this path and look right to finish before the end of the month - amazing!)

Cold Pine, by Caitlin ffrench fit the bill, and was already on my to-knit list for my 24in12 challenge, plus I had *just* enough Malabrigo merino worsted in my stash to use up. 



Casting on September 1st, this little knit powered along (5mm needles do help, of course).  I do like knitting with Malabrigo, but being a single, it can be a little hard on my wrists.  It's very sticky, and this pattern has lots of yo's, ssk's and  even sssk/k3tog's so I had to take a days break every now and then during the process.



Cold Pine is a great free pattern, albeit a little unusual in my opinion.  There did not seem to be any logic to the lace, and I found it very hard to "read" my work as I went.  Each row seemed to be doing it's own thing, unlike lace I've knit previously where each row tends to directly relate to the row before.  


That said, I did knit this from written instructions, not chart, and that may have contributed to my sense of disjointedness?   Originally I was reading the pattern off a screen and I find it difficult to read charts in that format, and then when I did finally print the pattern out it just seemed easier to continue as established.

This shawl is more a half-circle than a triangle, but it kind of lies in-between the two.  I got to the border and still had a significant amount of yarn leftover, so I added some more eyelet lace and garter rows to use up as much as possible.  Stash-busting at its best.

Oh, and from cast-on to cast-off took me 12 days, even with breaks, so that's a quick lace project in anyone's books!



The squishability of the malabrigo will be lovely against a neck.  I'm not sure if I'll keep this finished object for myself or pass it on to someone as a gift?  The colour is lovely, but I'm not convinced it's right for me and I know heaps of people who would love it and wear it a ton.  

However, along with being notorious for not finishing KAL's, I'm equally terrible at letting things go (unless they were specifically knitted as gifts, then it's easy).  Every time I think; yep - that's going to so-and-so - I have last minute pangs of regret, so I'm going to let it marinate on my bedroom dresser for a week or two before I decide...!

4 comments:

rebecca said...

congratulations on finishing. it does look deliciously squishy. the colour is great on you...definitely might be worth keeping! I like that the dresser is your place for knits in limbo, where their worth will be measured and judgement awaits.

2paw said...

It is lovely and even looks squishy! I am rarely moved to keeper things I knit for others as they not usually green. I like a nice printed out chart to work from, I can't read off a screen at all. Well done on your knit along success.

Rose Red said...

Yay you for finishing within the deadline!

Red squooshy Malabrigo - mmmmm - I think you should definitely keep it!

DrK said...

i think knitting lace from a chart really does help, i need the visual cues i think to make sure im doing the right thing. im impressed you got this done, its gorgeous!