Monday Challenge Part I

I have been knitting up a storm in the past few months, making 2 small shawls, three sweaters and a pair of socks but all of the projects were incredibly unchallenging. The shawls had a small amount of lace with large amounts of garter stitch , the sweaters were large amounts stockinette with small interesting details. Great for mindless knitting but I was aching to dig into a really challenging project and in the summer my fingers ache for lace..

I thought I would start making Romi's Seven Small Shawls, since I have yarn for at least two of them, so I cast on for Elektra with some MadelineTosh greeny-yellow that matched leftover beads from another shawl. Beautiful, but rows and rows of garter stitch before I get to the lace.

Fondling yarn at my LYS I fell in love with the Crystal Palace Silky Alpaca in a dusky pink that is one of my favorite colors. I decided this was the premier yarn I was looking for to make the Frost Flowers Stole that's been in my queue for 3 years. This is definitely the pattern I have been looking for to stretch my skills. So Saturday I read through the pattern and started the cast on.

I don't know how far I will get with this, hopefully it will get finished. I am going to take my time and do the best job I possibly can to make this a magnum opus for my summertime knitting.

I am going to blog my progress every Monday, giving me a bit more incentive. So here goes.



Challenge #1 Cast on 992 stitches.

I started the caston on Saturday and completed it on Sunday. I placed markers every 50 stitches, a black one at fifty and a larger colored one at 100 to make keeping track of the number easier. I counted the stitches at least twice before placing the markers, this is not the place or time for hurrying the process.
The cable caston is perfect for this many stitches since it is a firm cast on and you don't need to guestimate yarn amounts as you do with long tail.
I knit the first row and am in the middle of the second row which is an eyelet row followed by another knit row. I will recount the stitches at this point as a check.

The next step is to knit the lace pattern in the round and I see this as the next biggest challenge. Keeping the stitches from becoming twisted when I join the work with this many stitches will be difficult, I'm sure.