Fresh Start

I'm getting started on a new project. At this stage it's a sketched out lace chart and a thrice ripped out piece of knitting.

I'll try it again with a fresh mind this morning. And yes, that's my hand spun lace-weight "red rock" wool-silk yarn.

Rhythm in Blue

I'm nearly half way through this little lattice lace scarf and I'm finally getting into the rhythm of it. It's a simple enough stitch pattern, but the combination of a decrease on either side of a double yarn over just wasn't flowing smoothly for me. The left-leaning increase was specified as, "slip one knitwise, knit one, pass slipped stitch over"--that's three steps for one stitch. I've substituted "knit two together through back loop", which gives the same effect for the effort of just one step. I've also shifted one of the corresponding increases to the second row of the pattern. Now I've got a nice rhythm going with three stitches on every first row and four on the alternate rows and I'm happily zipping along.
I'll take this with me this morning, though I doubt I'll have time for much knitting. I'm off to pick up a minibus from the Council offices. I'm taking my Monday morning group in to the city to visit the Immigration Museum. Driving a twelve-seater minibus is a bit of a stretch for me, but I'm up for a new challenge. I'll have a little time before I pick up my passengers to get into the rhythm of the new vehicle.

Lace is Space

I took this shot of iron lace in Rathdowne St Carlton recently: . . . and the tree.I'm noticing how in both cases the effect depends on light passing through the spaces: natural or man-made.

I've been spinning some lovely fine worsted yarns lately. Worsted yarns are smooth and tightly spun--perfect for lace knitting. And of course, I've been spinning lots of different greens. So I'm challenging myself to think about knitting some tree-lace. I'm not quite sure how that will work, but that's the excitement of the challenge--I'll have a go at finding out.

Lace Wing

The smaller the spindle, the finer the yarn I can spin, so what I've been spinning on my tiny Pax spindle is so fine that it could be used as sewing thread. In fact I showed it my friend D who teaches embroidery. She oohed at it's possible use as embroidery thread. The beauty of the 50/50 wool-silk blend is that it spins almost as easily as wool and shines nearly as brightly as silk.

As for me, my favourite use of fine yarn is for lace knitting or crochet. Lace is all about the spaces between the stitches. Of course the yarn and the shape of the stitches is what defines those spaces.

This pic is of a little insect who got caught in the house. I've never looked at a wing in so much detail before . . . and it's strong enough to fly with. I snapped this for a pattern before letting the insect go in the garden.
Of course the insect wing is stiff and I usually want a lovely drape in my lace knitting, though crochet lace is traditionally stiffened in some applications--not that I plan to be limited by traditions!