Sunday, June 17, 2012

2010 Advent Calendar Scarf

I know it's a bit late and not the correct season, but I decided to knit one of the many lace patterns that I have stored on my computer.  This one is from a group of German designers.  The yarn suggested is wool lace yarn from 600 m per 100 grams or thinner.  Well coloring within the lines has never been my strong point and when my youngest daughter and I were at Michael's one day, I found some Aunt Lydia's crochet thread #10 with a length of 300 yds. or 274 m.  Close enough for me and I liked the name of the color Zen Green.  I chose a 2.75 mm instead of a 4 mm needle.  The bamboo looks better knit with a smaller needle size. The pattern is free from Ravelry and can be found here.

The first six sections are done.  Altogether there are 24 sections.  Lately, I find that I have more difficulty knitting with such thin and a bit floppy (due to the 100% Bamboo) yarn.  Due to age, my hands are shaking just slightly-- almost not visible--but it does make really fine knitting somewhat more difficult.  It's particularly noticeable at the start of lace knitting.  Therefore, I have decided that the next time I knit with such fine yarn, I will do a provisional cast on by knitting an inch with a slightly thicker yarn and then start the actual project.  After finishing, I can always cut off the mismatched piece of knitting and finish the edge with a crochet row or Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn cast off.  I am getting too old to make myself a basket case over such minor issues. 


So knit on merrily and, oh, don't find the mistakes. 
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Cindy/KSJune 18, 2012 at 9:44 AM

    That looks very pretty! A couple of my grandchildren inherited a condition that causes shaking from their father & the 12 year old granddaughter has it the worst. She doesn't seem bothered by it particularly since it is normal to her, but I always want to help her a bit when I see the shaking get worse the more she tries to concentrate on something. So far, I have not tried to teach her fine knitting, she has just knit with larger needles & knitting worsted yarns. I find for myself, that the older I get (which I just turned 53 recently) the more patience I have for working with finer yarns & the less I have for thicker yarns. And at times I detect a slight shaking in my right hand, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the tendonitis that I developed in that hand about 10-11 months ago.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoansieJune 18, 2012 at 10:00 AM

    Beautiful, just beautiful. So, I have a question. I understand the concept of the provisional cast-on and have used it many times. However, in your case, how would you get the correct gauge when you actually start using the finer yarn? Wouldn't the thicker yarn mess up that first row with the thinner yarn?

    ReplyDelete
  3. RenateS.June 18, 2012 at 10:13 AM

    I haven't figured that out yet. But I would think using a regular crochet cotton which is fairly firm would not stretch the yarn too much. Now that you asked, I'll have to try it with different weights of yarn and see what works best. Renate

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)