More about the Lace

I finished the Fiori Di Sole, washed and blocked it and it looks wonderful.  Not an error that I can see! (Doesn't mean there aren't any, just that I can't see them.)

I need to make an amendment to my statement of the last post about this being used for weddings.  It can be used for any occasion - if there is a wedding, if there is no wedding, for using when accepting a Nobel prize or Pulitzer or whatever the very special occasion is.  There is absolutely no pressure on anyone to get married.  If they want Nana and Papa to be present for a special occasion and we can't be, then I hope the shawl will hug them in our love!

This was a very satisfying knit, beautifully written with beautiful results.  I had never done a crochet castoff and initially found this a bit daunting as it felt fiddly to me, even though I have crocheted quite a bit, and there were a lot of stitches to cast off.  However, once I got into a rhythm and didn't try to rush in an effort to be done with it already, things went very smoothly.

Done but scrunched up.

   Having a good soak

 All Rung Out

Using the blocking wires 

 Pinned out

This is a little blurry, so you can't see all the pins I used.  Three boxes full!  Each crocheted chain needed to be pinned to fully open up the design.  It took about an hour plus to get it all done, but well worth the effort.

Now to figure out how to store this so that it stays beautiful, clean, safe from creatures and dust.

Persuing Perfection

"When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target. "~George Fisher

I love knitting lace.  I don't have many opportunities to wear my lace shawls, but I do love the process.  I had a great idea!  I would make a box full of knitted heirloom lace as a gift to my granddaughters and grandsons.  My intention is to make several different white and off white shawls that would be appropriate for brides to use on their wedding day.  

The first of the shawls is on my needles now.  I am making Rosemary Hill's gorgeous Fiori di Sole out of a silk and wool lace yarn.  It is perfect, in my opinion, for a wedding shawl.  

And that is the problem -"perfect".  I want this to have absolutely no errors, not even those wonky stitches that sometimes appear, and that is a high bar.  

I am at the midsection which is 5 repeats of 20 rows of a leaf pattern, that I find easy to intuit as I'm knitting.  Ah, such conceit.  I figured I could watch TV while I'm knitting this, no problem.  Life lines?  I don't need no stinking life lines!

So for the past two days I have been like Penelope, knitting by day and unraveling by night.  All the rows I knit  yesterday have to be re-knit because I found a large hole in the 5 stitch edge (the edge for Pete's sake, so easy!) that I couldn't fudge and I couldn't ignore.  

Fortunately, I had  put in life lines, as the day before I had to unknit 8 rows, one stitch at a time.

Glad to report the lifeline worked like it was suppose to and made the ripping out quicker with no fear of dropping stitches.

If I get through this, I also want to make a really pretty white heirloom lace baby blanket to add to the box.  Kind of a hug from Nana, even if she isn't there.