Gallery

A close-up on the lace:

Pattern: Branching Out, published in Knitty
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold’s Silky Wool, in #12 (65% wool, 35% silk)
Needle: US #8 straights

Additional Notes:

Pattern
This was my first lace project, and a good learning one for that as well. At first glance, the pattern looked fairly easy. As I started the project, I realized what was so frustrating about lace - keeping track of my stitches and where I was in the pattern. I kept losing my place and messing up and that ended up in me having to frog the scarf 3 times (and multiple tinkering in the middle too). I’ve dropped stitches several rows below - which isn’t that bad - but when it’s a lace pattern, sometimes I have to keep myself from screaming in frustration. After all the mistakes and corrections, I realize that I can’t really watch TV or carry on a conversation or do anything else while knitting this up. As a lace beginner, I need to have my full concentration on the pattern. So I several valuable lessons from this pattern: 1) Pay attention when I’m knitting lace; 2) I can read charts; 3) I finally learned how to frog and tink back. Very valuable lessons, indeed.

Yarn
At first touch, it can seem slightly scratchy and harsh. But the silk softens it when it’s wrapped around your neck - you can actually feel the warmness of the wool (even when it’s lace), and the softeness of the silk. And it drapes wonderfully. Knitter’s Review has an excellent review of it here.

Related Links:
Branching Out Update
FO: Branching Out