Earth Hour

Today is Earth Hour day. So what are you going to do in your hour of darkness??

Me? I know what I won't be doing. I won't be working on this:




My first real lace. If you consider a pattern that does have a resting row "real" lace. I've heard that some don't. Anyway, it's light, airy, made on #3 needles with thread-like wool, and has deliberate holes in it.....sounds like lace to me. I have nearly 6 repeats of the second chart done. The scarf that is shown in the pattern pic is 9 repeats, but I'm not familiar with the yarn and not really sure if the author even mentions what size needles she used. I might stop soon, I don't really want anything too big. When I run another lifeline after this repeat I'll take it off the needles and measure.

The pattern I'm using Zetor Scarf by Jatta Saukko.

The yarn is Knit Picks Bare Merino Lace wt. Obviously it is no longer bare. This yarn has been dunked in countless dye baths over the last year or so. It was first abused (lovingly so) in my solar dye experiment, a center pull ball, in a can, in the sun. :o) For the life of me I can't find a pic of the finished yarn but it really was a pretty robin egg blue as clear and beautiful as the sky that day. A nice color but not a "me" color, so it became one of the many "orphan" skeins I have hanging around, literally. Orphan skeins are those that I'm not thrilled with colorwise, but have potential. (don't they all???) When I begin a new dye project, I gather a few of the appropriate orphan skeins to cover any oops contingencies. What's an oops contingency you may ask, oh, anything from the unintended color mix made or perhaps a dye bath that hasn't been exhausted. Rather than pouring the unwanted/non-exhausted dye bath down the drain, I throw orphan skeins in it. Oh hell, I even use the orphan skeins to wipe up the occasional spill! Eventually there comes a day when I really like the look of a orphan and he/she is adopted for a pattern. The day before last was adoption day for this skein. She's happy and so am I.


I really am enjoying myself. I knew that I would. So why has it taken so long for me to finally get around to knitting lace?? Cuz of this:



That's my working copy of the pattern and charts.....sigh One note card per row, not including the resting rows. It's not that I don't like charts. And it's not that I don't like written text. (I don't and won't get in to that argument it means nothing to me.) It's cuz I have problems with my eyes. I can't depend on them. Some days I can see, others not so much. It's all part and parcel of the migraines, "visual disturbances". Don't bother suggesting post-it notes, magnetic boards, highlighted portions, huge photocopies, etc, believe me I've tried them all. They all do work and I can use them on "good" days, but often times good days are far and few between, so I came up with this. It works for me. It's very portable, and long term, it's nearly impossible for me to lose my place even if I put the project down for months. I use this method with anything that is complicated or involved, and with colorwork too. Sure it takes time to write it all out like that, but I can get all the chart work done on one good day and then have plenty of not so good days of relatively mindless, somewhat sightless knitting. It's a good trade off for me. If there are any others out there thinking about doing this whacked out thing too here's a little tip.....clamp or rubber band all the card together tightly (in both directions) and use a drill with the 1/8 inch bit, or smaller just big enough for the ring, to drill the hole. If you put the stack of cards on top of a cardboard box one bore through the stack and back out in reverse will make a really nice hole for the ring. Oh and you could also use little pocket notebooks and do the same thing, they work just fine, but aren't as durable and may not have enough pages.