More on Knitting.

I completely forgot to update on the other things I have been up to! I got so caught up in my Stitch marker post i forgot i had done my first ever piece of lace knitting the day before.

I was really rather proud of myself for managing it when it was something I was scared of as much as socks, I also got to have some fun practicing blocking too and attempting to suss a pattern just from looking at some photos of finished pieces.

Right I shall start at the beginning. As you know I have some lovely yellow yarn.

It is some more Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino, which is my favorite at the moment because its so soft and squishy, I matched it with some yellow I had been given by the boyfriend's mum and I really want to use it to make something to compliment my yellow bag.

I have trawled through Ravelry's pattern section to try and find something which was delicate like a shawl but chunky enough to be a really warm scarf as winter is approaching. I must have seen the pattern on Ravelry but I didn't click that it was exactly what I wanted until I read back through some of Susan Crowe's blog posts and found her Haven by Kim Hargreaves. It looked so lovely, warm and thick because of the width and length but also the lace made it look delicate. I had to have it.

Now, I don't know if I have mentioned it, but I am currently unemployed, one of those recent graduates stuck in unemployment because of the recession (it is driving me nuts but I wont get into that here as I could rant about it for hours) and so I can't afford Kim Hargreaves' book, currently the little money I am getting is going towards yarn and my phone bill, I have added it to my christmas list though, as there are a few things I would love to make in it.

SO, I thought, it must be available in the library, its a book! I searched, it isn't there, and I am a member of two different areas for libraries, I was really rather disappointed, and considering emailing the website to see if they would sell me just that one pattern but I thought that was going a bit loopy, and decided if I looked at all the pictures and did some browsing about lace stitch patterns I could probably figure it out myself.

And I sort of have! Obviously i have no way of knowing if it is correct or not, but after finding a similar sort of leaf pattern I am going to make it using that with the garter stitch edging and hope it works. If it doesn't I figure I can always rip it back and make it at christmas if I get the book.

So here is my test swatch all blocked and everything. The original Haven calls for a chunky weight wool and i used DK for this, one of the things i will be doing when i try it with the yellow is attempting to use two strands together to get the thickness, I do love some experimenting. So there will be another swatch in a day or two hopefully!

On another note I have been doing some more on the Bella's Scarf in purple for my sister.

Here it is:

I think it is going quite well, I made a little mistake but I don't think it is noticeable. I have nearly used the first ball of yarn but have another so I will continue until that one is finished and see how long it is before deciding if it is done yet or not. I also got my o2 money card the other day so I can order the yarn I need and hopefully get some projects finished!

p.s. I gave in yesterday and bought some socks. I have been meaning to make some and am going to have a go some time this week, but you can't exactly make Pringle. They're really lovely long ones for wearing knee boots (like some riding style ones i have), and I got some walking socks because on holiday recently I purchased some walking shoes so I can properly trek around the area! Hopefully some pretty Linconshire photos will be coming soon :)