Thanks to some extreme fatigue this week, I had plenty of time for knitting. Add to that birthday money spent on yarn and a book on lace knitting given to me as a gift, and you have this week’s finished projects, both from Lace One-Skein Wonders (ed. by Judith Durant).
The first is my very first try at knitting lace. I wanted something small that I could use scrap yarn on, so I went with Myrna A. I. Stahman’s Circular Magic Trivet Set. I repeated her lace pattern six times, winding up with a snowflake-like hexagon.
The results of this pattern are understandably curly and she mentions the importance of binding off loosely and blocking your trivet when you are done. But I decided it would be faster to just make a second hexagon and stitch them back-to-back. The two hexagons would pull each other flat and I would have a knitted ornament I could hang up, no blocking needed. It was not fast, however. It took me three tries to get the second hexagon made, and it still could use some blocking. But I think it looks good.
Once I had a chance to get to the store, I was ready to tackle a harder pattern. I seem to have lost most of my winter hats, so I started with Meg Myers’ Lacy Liberty Wool Hat. I loved the lacy rib design that covers the hat, and once I got the hang of it (and thought to use a post-it to mark which row of the pattern I was on), it went pretty quickly. I haven’t blocked it yet, either, but you can see what a nice design it is.
For those worried that I have forgotten all about quilting or spinning, I’m including a picture of the UFO I am quilting at the moment. I am still waiting on new parts for my used spinning wheel but hope they will arrive soon.
I’m finding this practice of posting my finished handwork makes me feel a lot better about my progress with my projects, even though I’m in the middle of a knitting binge and am not clearing quilting projects out of my studio as I’d intended. Giving myself credit for things accomplished, no matter how small, is showing me I do finish things, no matter how long my UFO list is.
