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Fighting Chance

While I take a break from small-needle knitting I decided to try another lace adventure by taking on Anisette by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes (the pattern found here).  I am using Lang Yarns Merino 400 in colour 796.0010 (Perhaps I am not the only one lacking in colour-naming skills.). The colour BTW is a greyish navy blue.

The stole/wrap is knit using #8 US or 5mm which compared to the 2 or 2.75mm I had been using seems huge.  The lace weight yarn on these big needles creates an airy open fabric that is very satisfying.

Here is how the finished project should look.

Knit and photographed by Dejavu from Ravelry

And this is what I have successfully completed so far.

It is a start but there is a long way to go yet.

One photo shows you the number of things I have had to do to give myself a hope to knit the pattern accurately.  This is the second time I have gotten to this point only to frog the whole work and start over.  It seems I forgot to follow many of my own suggestions for knitting lace written back in 2014.

Here's the rundown of things done to conquer the lace.
  • I am using a nostalgic pair of circular needles that were once owned by my paternal grandmother.  They are very light (good for the thumb) but had been stored in the typical curled up fashion.  I struggled to work with the coils and finally when the needles were free of knitting placed the cord in very hot water for several moments.  Curly cues eliminated.
  • The pattern suggests one test out the knot motif (that is what you can clearly see in both of my photos) by knitting a swatch.  In retrospect this would have been an excellent idea.  It seems my first couple of attempts were my swatches; the third time was a charm.
  • It is impossible for me to explain, but my first attempt was done without any lifelines.  (They are the three contrasting coloured yarns running horizontally through the work.)  A lifeline saves your bacon should you totally mess up and need to rip back a few rows.  That horizontal thread hold stitches that are properly completed to that point.  
  • The turquoise circular stitch markers are placed every ten stitches in the main portion of the wrap.  Now that the edge is complete the pattern repeats in 10's and my mind can wander.  Having these little wake up calls helps insure the repeats are done properly.
  • The coloured safety pin-like stitch markers show how many mistakes I made in the last row.  Each one indicates a yo (Yarnover) that was forgotten.  Yup there are five of them; the photo below only captures three.  This is an excellent indication it is time to pack it up for a while.  No need to try to push forward; just don't do it.
A close up
There is a deadline for this wrap, not self-imposed, a real honest to goodness deadline.  Perhaps it was fortunate I needed to use bigger needles because I might have cut the starting point a bit too close to the needed finish line.  With these added tricks I might however have given myself a fighting chance to complete on time.


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