Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Sorry, I was having a bad head day. (Also, that faint little blur on the left of the pic? Totally a lightening bug! How cool is that? - Said the girl who grew up completely sans lightening bugs.)


We may have small hands around here, but we have honkin' huge tattoos! Click for big.


Here's the "half-Claudia."

Specs
Pattern: "Featherweight Fantasy" from Shawls and Scarves: Best of Knitter's Magazine
Yarn: "Shiny" from Woolarina. Two skeins (at ~220yds each) almost completely used up.
Needles: US 10.5 (Susan Bates, aluminum straights)
Mods: The only thing I changed was the knotting on the fringe. I liked it better as a single knot.
Notes: This baby knit up quickly. But not altogether easily. I thought big needles and big yarn (well, lt. worsted/dk) would make for a great beginner project. However there are a couple of factors that contributed, not to frustration, but to unnecessary rework on my part.

First, there is no horizontal repeat in the pattern, so stitch markers (my very best knitting buddies) are not useful.

Second, the pattern doesn't include stitch counts per row, so it isn't easy to find mistakes unless you are able to "read" your knitting (I guess I am now spoiled after the Fiddlesticks pattern to expect such things). The chart helps the conscientious knitter avoid errors, in that you can see how the lace is supposed to look, but really there oughta be a law that all patterns should include a close up photo of one full repeat.

I started this wrap before I finished the Lotus shawl, but I had a terrible time with the first few rows. I would knit one, rip one. After Lotus, I felt a bit more competent about reading the knitting, and when I picked this back up I did much better. I did have to rip back a very large chunk, but that was due to negligence and not trusting my spidey senses (I knew that k2tog seemed wrong when I knit it, but I barreled ahead anyway).

All in all, I am very pleased with the result, but I would cautiously recommend it as a first project for the lace newbie. If you want to practice reading charts and your knitting, it would be fantastic.

As an aside, I would highly recommend the Woolarina for small projects! The yarn bled not a bit, and there is no line that I can see where one skein ends and the other starts. I find that very admirable for such small scale production!

*****************

A bit of housekeeping

I was totally remiss, when I posted my little baby hat, and failed to credit the designer. (Thank you for the reminder, Kathy!)

I used Kerrie's pattern here. (I have some orange and black Debbie Bliss Cotton DK that just might become a little tiger hat, too. Rowr!)