10-20-2021

I frogged the tiny portion of my Ivy Lattice project to steal the needle for this and then stole a bit of the yarn to do the cast-on. Not only am I not sure about the driftwood color for the Ivy Lattice, but I am head over heels for this gorgeous autumn gold I just bought from Laneras (a local business, which makes me feel extra virtuous). This was my first provisional cast on, and it was so much easier than I expected. I did a lot of crocheting last year, so maybe that helped--the hook feeling easy in my hand or something.

I’m up to Row 9 of the first lace segment and loving it so far.

10-21-2021

Up to Row 16 of first Lace repeat. A fun and easy pattern so far, despite my losing track a few times (that’s on me). Not really happy about how loose it looks, and I worry I used too large a needle (3.75mm), but with luck, the yarn will blossom during blocking.

10-22-2021

Up to Row 6 of the second Lace repeat.

10-25-2021

Finished the second repeat in the first Lace section.

10-29-2021

Two and a half repeats of the first Lace section finished. Can’t wait to try the Texture sections.

10-30-2021

Had a great time knitting this project today. It went fast (for me). I made it through half a Lace repeat, the entire first Texture section, then another 11 rows of a Lace repeat. I love seeing this pattern develop before my eyes.

My husband says he almost prefers the non-blocked, very 3D texture, and I’m almost inclined to agree. Looks like looking out across the top of a larch forest.

10-31-2021

Things were harder today. Sleep deprivation made me lose concentration, and so I had to tink back a few times--once for several rows. Finished the first Lace repeat after the Texture though.

11-03-2021

On Row 5 of the 3rd repeat of the 2nd Lace section. Getting faster at recognizing the patterns of the rows. Named the YO/K combos birds, cars, and limos, and the bigger they are, the closer they are to El Paso (the PSSO combo)--or the farther away they are, the smaller they appear. Silly, but it works for me.

11-04-2021

Finished the second Texture section and did one row of the next Lace section. This made a great project to knit the car while waiting to pick up my kids.

11-06-2021

Messed up a row of the Lace yesterday and had to rip back a few rows into the Texture to fix it, but all is well now, and I’ve finished that first repeat within the third Lace section.

Edit: Now through row 5 of 2nd repeat w/in 3rd Lace.

11-08-2021

Finished 3rd Lace section.

11-09-2021

Finished 3rd Texture section. On to the 4th Lace section!

Later: Finished 10 rows of 4th Lace section.

11-13-2021

Did a repeat and a half of the 4th Lace section today (~30 rows @ 55 stitches each, for a total of 1,650 stitches), so I’m pretty proud of myself. I really want to finish this before Thanksgiving because that’s about the end of the autumnal color season, and this yarn is pretty autumnal.

11-17-2021

Just finished the 4th Lace section and one row of the Texture section. I’ll probably finish the Texture section in the car while waiting to pick my kids up from school. (EDIT: Yep, I did so.)

Currently (before I did the Texture section), unblocked and unstretched, the piece is 8” wide and 30” long. The designer’s was 10x50 when finished and blocked. Siri calculates that mine will be ~37” long when I’m finished knitting, and I’m sure it will stretch to 50” easily, once blocked.

11-18-2021

I don’t know how I calculated that it would be 37” unblocked when I finished. It’s 37” now, with two more Lace repeats and a Texture section to go. (Which is to say, I did the first (20 row) repeat of the 5th and final Lace section today.)

11-22-2021

I’m 2/3 of the way through with the final Lace section. I hate feeling pressured about this at the same time as NaNoWriMo. Both projects are suffering. But I’ve already accepted that my only achievable writing goal this November was to write something every day, and so far so good, even if I’m waaaay short of 50k words. I do hope to finish this by tomorrow night so I can wear it Thursday. (Wednesday is a loss because it’s my eldest’s 18th birthday and we’ll be out of town.)

11-23-2021

Finished the knitting today--an entire Lace repeat and Texture section!--and it’s now soaking, ready for its blocking. Weird to block something still on a cord (using the screw on caps instead of needles at the moment) with the remains of the skein attached (but that part is out of the water). I’ll pin it out, let it dry, and then do the 3-needle bind off tomorrow.

Pre-blocking, it was ~40” long

11-26-2021

I did the three-needle bind-off on Wednesday morning, which was not as much of a challenge as removing the scrap yarn and getting the live danglers back on a needle. I have new gray hair from that! I read other knitters’ notes where they said that it seemed like they’d missed/skipped the set-up row of purls and just went into the lace. I didn’t think I had. I was sure I’d done the set-up. However, when I took out the scrap lace, there was no evidence of a purl row. I must have missed it, too, and trying to figure out the lace stitches was rough. I managed it, though.

I wove in the ends on Thanksgiving morning and was able to show this off by the time family arrived. I love it!