Lady Fern Scarf from Hill Country Weavers - Day 5

New color, new stitches!

It felt like a vacation to finally get to work the teal yarn!  Seriously, I was grinning like a fool for the first five rows.  No more brown trellis!  Don’t get me wrong—it’s beautiful, but I was beyond ready for a change.

Once again, the kit concept has shown its value; I would have never put these three colors together if left to my own devices.  I just love the contrast between the teal and the brown, and the fern green (how appropriate!) will add the perfect touch for the next section.

Time to fess up on a mistake I’ve made with this project.  When I pulled out the needles, I was pleased my handy short set of 5’s were just the ticket.  Until this week, when I realized I’d used 5mm, not size 5.  It meant I was actually knitting with size 8.   When I pulled the larger size called for in the next section of this pattern, I realized my error.  In keeping with the directions, that means I’ll have to do the next section with size 9.  The good news is that I also have a handy little short set of size 9s, and being of the “not petite” variety at almost 6 feet tall, it’s usually best to size things up.  Only lace doesn't always look right on larger needles, so I’m a bit worried how that will turn out.  

Stay tuned…we’ll all see soon enough.

Lady Fern Scarf from Hill Country Weavers - Day 3

Virtuous?

This. Is. Hard.

Not in the this pattern is so challenging it’s making steam come out of my ears hard, but hard in the I can’t believe it took me this long to knit 27 inches and I’m only halfway done kind of hard.

Four row repeats are soothing.  Zen, even, under the right circumstances.  But after 27 inches, even Zen gets a little too Zen-ish.  27 inches of solid brown—even though I really need a solid brown scarf and I picked the color out myself—borders of mind-numbing.  

On the upside, I could now knit the trellis stitch in my sleep.  On the downside, it offers very little challenge whatsoever. Other than perseverance.  I understand that’s a virtue, but it’s a tiresome virtue to gain, yes?

I know I will love the texture and drape of this scarf—when I’m done.  Right now it’s row upon row of scratchy stitches.  A fiber marathon.  I’m actually calculating how many rows I have to get done each day to stay on schedule.  And when I resort to math, you know it’s getting sticky.

Stick with me.  I need to know I’m not climbing this trellis alone.

Lady Fern Scarf from Hill Country Weavers - Day 1

Linen Lace...

I haven’t knit with linen before, and there’s a reason.  I’m not a big fan of the way it feels between my fingers.  Linen feels scratchy before you wash and block it.  Afterwards, it feels light and airy with a really nice texture and sheen—but we’re not there yet.  My tendency toward immediate gratification is working against me here.  Still Shibui has a great rebutation as a quality fiber, so I think I can rest assured I'll be happy with the results.

The trellis pattern—the stitches that make up the majority of this scarf—is an easy four-row repeat that I memorized by the second round.  That will make for excellent book fair knitting as I sit and meet readers at the Kentucky Book Fair this weekend.  Having the scarf casted on to nice, short needles will help as well.  It might not be as marvelously portable once the thing is many feet long, but right now this is mighty handy knitting.

The fact that this is a kit keeps the color choices pre-loaded for success, and I must admit I like knowing my hues are professionally selected.  I’d find a way to mess this up left to my own devices.

The next set of directions are splendidly easy:  repeat until you run out of color A.  That, I can handle!