My knitting and crochet world has been a lot like clothes shopping lately; trying on lots of things and not being happy with any of them! Pretty damn frustrating. So, to start with, I have finally begun putting my hand-spun yarn to use (read about the making of said yarn here!) I decided a while ago that I would knit or crochet some swatches and frame them in some embroidery hoops. Well, I’m still doing that! But choosing a stitch pattern to knit and frame was haaaard. I think mostly because of the, ahem, variation on size of the yarn – it goes from lace weight to super chunky in parts I reckon.
I had these lovely lace stitches picked out that would make up x’s and o’s (as in kisses and hugs) but why on earth I thought that would look good with my less-than-consistent yarn I don’t know. I tried it, it looked crap, I frogged it. Repeat that several times and I finally settled on teaching myself cabling, something I love the look of but had never tried.
OK so that cabling isn’t so clear there thanks to the yarn, but I managed to just about two of those big enough to go in 6″ hoops. Now I’m out of yarn and everyone knows you have to hang things in an odd number, so I need a third something to go in the middle. I think I will just do something in a plain yarn that will coordinate with my craft room but I can’t decide between another cabled swatch or to try something else new and go for some intarsia/colourwork knitting. I think I will. Watch this space!
Whilst I decide on what to do for my central hoop, I started work on a lace scarf. Much like my swatches, I cast on and frogged several different patterns for this. Originally I was going to crochet one and learn to read charts but I’ve only been crocheting for around five months and, to be honest, it was beyond me just now. After looking and looking, I found this by Merrily Parker which I think is gorgeous!
I haven’t knitted anything other than the cabled swatches since I finished the scarf for my Mother-in-Law just before Christmas! I got so caught up in crochet that I just hadn’t picked my knitting needles up. I’m really enjoying getting back in to knitting. I wish I had a red yarn like the one pictured, but I’m pretty happy with what I have! I bought some hand dyed lace yarn from Moonlight Yarns on Etsy:
The pattern calls for 2 ply lace weight yarn but I realised I’ve been using cobweb lace yarn – oops! Oh well, I’ll see how it looks after a repeat or two… I’m only 10 rows in to the first lace pattern repeat at the moment. If anyone with more of a clue thinks it’s a waste of time continuing with the wrong size yarn, please speak up!
Working with cobweb lace weight yarn is bloody hard! Especially because at first I was using some old, blunt bamboo needles. I was about ready to kill someone so I bought some Addi lace needles – super pointy! The white yarn is a life line. I am so sick of frogging things that I decided it’s necessary.
I want to cast on a jumper, too. I have this pattern picked out and will use the yarn from the cardigan I have frogged, but I don’t have the right size needle to begin – ordered some from eBay 10 days ago that still aren’t here… Case opened!
Looks like I’ll be going from no real ongoing projects to a few – what’s on your needles? x
pixels and purls 
It looks like it’s knitting up fine with the yarn you have, but it might be a little short if you’re using a lighter weight yarn, right?
Well I have a lot of the yarn so I figured I’d keep repeating the pattern until it’s long enough. That should be ok I think?
So long as you bought more than the pattern called for (because it’s lighter) then you should be fine. 🙂
The pattern calls for 450-500 yards and the yarn I have is 1312yds. Should be fine. Thank you for your help, feel more confident now!
I think it will be beautiful with the yarn you have, just more airy. I’m knitting on a fuzzy little angora baby sweater, and it’s in fingering weight yarn so it’s seeming endless, but so cute I don’t even mind!