Finished Friday: Knitting Lace and WIP

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).

Lace1Skein

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.

My "snowflake" ornament. Of course it's purple.
My “snowflake” ornament. Of course it’s purple.

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.

My hat (with a towel in it to help show off the lace).
My hat (with a towel in it to help show off the lace).

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.

My Green-Yellow-Orange quilt in the process of being quilted.
My Green-Yellow-Orange quilt in the process of being quilted.

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.

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