Lacevember Post #1

As has already been acknowledged by your gracious hostess, in a fit of insanity I joined (yes, me the consummate non-joiner) NaBloPoMo and Lacevember. Keep in mind that I have a secret project in the works, and a deadline of Thanksgiving to finish T'Mane's outfit as well as about 5-6 papers, plus weekly assignments for school, and did I mention I'm crazy?

I had truly hoped to finish Liesel and accomplish Swallowtail (click here for lots of pretty examples). Hah. I stand before you humbled. Having casted on Liesel, about two weeks ago, with Berroco's Softwist, in a deep forest green, using vintage aluminum needles, I found before the fourth row of garter stitch that these needles would never do! So slippery. Out came my Clover circulars, also size 8. Much better grip but the points are a bit dull for the loose ply of the yarn (I think that's the correct lingo. It remind me of embroidery thread -lots of thin threads together). I had finished one pattern repeat, with some frustration but I was feeling pretty good.

Clearly I needed to enlarge the pattern directions and the chart because I was determined to learn how to read a chart as well. (Biting off a bit more than I can chew perhaps?) Saturday I did all sorts of copying and pasting from the pattern pdf to a Word document. Sunday night I gathered my materials and merrily began knitting. Somewhere, somehow I lost 2 stitches. TWO! I tried to figure it out, I really did, but in the end it seemed the best thing to do was to frog. So out came every single stitch and cast on began once again.

Now there are two pattern repeats completed and I think that it will be more than satisfying to finish this scarf for this event. Swallowtail will have to wait.