Light Relief

I just got so fed up with the Anne Cardigan that I decided to put it aside for a day and knit something that I wanted to knit. I didn't want it to be a giant project, I just wanted something small, quick and lacy.

I settled on one of the Valentine Doilys from Marianne Kinzel's "First Book of Modern Lace Knitting", which seemed to tick all the boxes.

I had it done in no time. Here she is in her unblocked state, looking very sorry for herself as all lace does when it's straight off the needles:



I followed Ms Kinzel's advice for the blocking. Drawing circles on plain paper and blocking to size on that. A bit silly really because of course I wasn't using the right yarn (though it is some sort of skinny cotton), nor the correct needles (I used 2mm dpns because that's what I had).

This picture of the doily in the act of being blocked doesn't really do it justice:



The complete article:



She says you don't really need to starch the item but you can if you want to. Well, I might have starched the item had there been any starch in the house. Instead, I used some spray "Fabric Stiffener" designed to be used on roller blinds. Good job I decided to do this outside because the smell of nail varnish was so strong that I felt quite light-headed.

A couple of close-ups - one of the start:



I love Emily Ocker's circular start - it is just so neat and it works every single time. Explanation of the EO start is here or if you are a visual learner pictures of how to do the EO start are here.

Go on - give it a try. It's the best circular start there is (unless you know of a better one?)

The other is a close-up of one of the hearts:



I don't really like the slight irregularity in the stitches near the base of the heart. Her method of M2 is to knit, purl, knit into the same stitch. I think I might have been better off knitting into the front, then the back, then the front of the same stitch. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Allison left a comment on yesterday's post with the picture of the front field saying what a nice part of the world I live in. It's funny that in all my reading of knitting blogs I am always seeing pictures of where other knitters live and wondering at the beauty of the ocean, or the desert, or the mountains. Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out the beauty of my own little corner of the world.

Thanks Allison.