08-20-2020

This is my first time using lace-weight yarn. I thought my issue would be seeing the tiny details. No. My problem is its weight--or lack thereof. It’s so light I can hardly feel it (I think the divine softness contributes to that, too), and somehow this fools my brain into thinking it’s dropping it or can’t get a grip. It’s like those dreams where you need to run but keep crawling, LOL. My movements slow waaay down, and my knuckles ache. Why? Panic? I’m probably holding my breath, too. Gotta get over that. :)

08-20-2020

Look at the first (currently only) photo. Do you see what’s wrong? Because I didn’t. Not through meticulous counting after meticulous counting. Only when I repeatedly got 69 stitches on the second (single-stitch-only) row did I realize I left out one fan of five. A-frogging I will go. But not tonight.

(Also, shouldn’t I be getting 76 stitches? That means I’m missing two more somewhere.)

08-21-2020

I’ve been counting diligently, coaxing the floating cobweb-like yarn into cooperation (please no tangles). Ten rows in, I’m seeing potential.

08-22-2020

I am eternally grateful to the user whose notes included a tip to put a stitch marker on the 4th chain when starting the odd rows so that you can find it at the end of the SC rows.

08-23-2020

Up to 32 rows now, 12” wide by 13” long. I bragged to someone that I got 76 stitches every time now, and I promptly hit a row I had to redo 3 times, including breaking and re-joining the yarn because of a frogging incident. Hubris: don’t fall prey. ;)

08-26-2020

44 rows. Took a minute to get used to lace-weight again after taking a break to finish a sport-weight project (which felt like ship rope after working on lace).

08-27-2020

50 rows. 13” wide by ~19” long.

08-28-2020

58 rows, some of them twice. ;)

08-29-2020

72 rows / 36 pattern repeats. Still on my first skein. Size so far: 13”x33”. I’m enjoying this a lot--love the pattern, love the yarn--but I am nowhere near good enough to watch TV while crocheting this, as other users have reported. I’m still counting, counting, counting away.

08-31-2020

Got up to 84 rows/42 repeats today and started my second skein. Halfway through.

09-03-2020

45 repeats, 90 rows. Took a break the last few days to start another one of these in Paris Night (dark violet-blue), and then to learn Continental Knitting. (Started off learning Norwegian style, but can’t keep my finger down.)

09-06-2020

100 rows / 50 repeats.

09-07-2020

106 rows / 53 repeats. Starting last night, I had 77 stitches per row, no matter what I did and despite a few one-row froggings. Peering at the darn thing didn’t show anything wrong. This morning I finally found the trouble. The six-fingered man, er, fan a row or two below. (Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya…) At this point, I’d broken the yarn in two places while frogging and didn’t feel like frogging those bits again. I just left a empty space between the final fan and the single before it, bringing the total back to 76, and left the six-fingered man behind as a lesson to my future self about caution.

09-09-2020

I think it’s at 112 rows now. About 54” long. If I had a long neck, I could wear a scarf this short, but I need and want a longer one. Going to see what two full skeins gets me, then block it.

09-13-2020

Monsters! Monsters have struck! Horrid winged beasts called moths. Well, one moth. I opened my project bag today and one flew out. I’m trying to keep the faith that nothing’s been eaten as my poor scarf sits in the freezer, exiled there for most of a week in the hope that any lingering pests will meet their icy ends.

09-22-2020

It’s back from the freezer. I wound up getting distracted and left it there for over a week. Didn’t find any holes or critters when I opened the bag, so hopefully it’s fine. I’ve been crocheting away all afternoon, listening to an audiobook.

138 rows / 69 repeats

09-23-2020

Well, I think she’s done! I still have about 5g of yarn left, but I was aiming at 81 repeats, and that’s where I got tonight, just as the sun set and I lost the light. Tomorrow, I’ll bind it off, give it a bath, and block it.

Holding it up in front of me vertically, I’d estimate it is about 77 inches long, unblocked, and about 13 inches wide. I can tell it is going to stretch a lot, though.

It has 81 repeats / 162 rows (plus the foundation chain).

It’s so soft and yummy!

09-24-2020

All done! My first lace! I soaked it for 30 minutes in coolish-tepid water and Soak (Lacey scent), being careful not to allow friction. (This yarn supposedly felts easily.) Used my blocking wires (took forever to thread them through the edges, still a newbie) and let it sit for no more than an hour before discovering it was dry. It’s blocked beautifully, though. Lots bigger and such wonderful drape! I love it. So does my cat.