Lace: A FO and a WIP

Thank you to everyone who wished M the best. We will get important news some time next week. In the meantime, we are trying to be calm. Cocktails are involved. As is knitting! However, not together. I’ve had to rip back too many times when blithely knitting mistakes after a too-strong-to-read-a-chart-properly cocktail. Who am I kidding? I can mess up 2×2 rib if the drink is big enough. Anyway, not mixing the two together allowed me to finish and finally block Tudor Grace the lovely lace scarf pattern by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. (BTW, Anne seems to be knitting sweaters to make patterns–very exciting!). Back to the scarf. I gave up on getting a modeled shot of it. M is a gifted photographer of all but knitted items.

This blog post was interrupted while I took M to the urgent care clinic for two stitches in the end of his finger. He cut himself while mincing garlic, and it wasn’t clear that it would stop bleeding and hold together on its own. He is doing fine now, and urgent care took about a fifth the time the ER would have. So back to the lace.

The only modification I made to this pattern was to knit 3 more repeats to make it a couple inches longer (45 rather than 42). The wool/silk yarn from Yarn Lust was wonderful to work with, and the semi-solid coloring knit up beautifully in this pattern. I’ve already ordered more yarn from her for a new scarf.

On the lace WIP front, we have a rather posh wedding to attend in early June in the Coastal Mountains. My dress is black and sleeveless, so as the evening progresses, I might want a shawl to combat any ocean breezes. I’ve had some Handmaiden Sea Silk, which I bought from Colorsong Yarns, marinating in my stash for over a year. The color is “Sunlit Glade” and I have two 400 m skeins. I don’t want a huge shawl, so I may need only one for this project. With such lovely greens, Evelyn Clark’s Leaf Lace Shawl seemed the appropriate choice. It’s an easy knit too.


I love knitting with the Sea Silk. I’ve been thinking that I knit lace on needles too small and make it more dense than it should be, so here I am using US 6 needles, and I think it is working out well. It really stretches a lot, and I’ve heard that silk yarns can grow a lace project by 50% upon blocking, so I’m going to be a little careful how much I knit. I really want more of a shawl to cover my shoulders than something I can sit on. So far I’ve done five repeats of the main chart, and 12 are recommended for a “small” 68″-33″ deep shawl. I think at 10 repeats, I’ll pin it out a little vigorously and see where I’m at.

Well, it’s been quite a day here at Molecular Knitting, and I still should treat our less than a year old cream colored towel that M bled on with some stain stick before retiring. If you’re wondering, blood stains (and other protein stains) often come out best in cold or cool water because then the proteins don’t get cooked into the fabric fibers. Just a little household science to end on.