Lace – But Not As You Know It

Yes, I know. the photograph above shows lace as you do know it, but I’m not talking about that sort of lace.

I’m talking about this sort of lace:

What do you mean, “it’s not lace”? Of course it is. It’s Botany Lace, an Araucania yarn. See, I told you it wasn’t what you were expecting!

I recently went to Somerset for a short break, staying with Little Sis. It almost goes without saying that I took some crafty stuff with me. However, once I had finished knitting the couple of scarves I had planned, I didn’t particularly fancy doing the hand embroidery I had also taken along. Neither did I feel like carrying on with the socks I was in the process of knitting. Cue Little Sis in her Sunday-best rescue gear, carrying some beautiful, soft, scrummy, mauve Manos yarn for me to use. OK, OK, mauve isn’t blue so it’s not the ball of yarn in the photo above! I checked the label to see what size needles or crochet hook to use and the yardage I had available, then trawled through Ravelry. After entering all of my search criteria (I love that there are so many ways to narrow the search on Ravelry, including “yardage”) I chose my project from the selection on screen and set about making it. Unfortunately, my yarn was being eaten up by the pattern far too quickly and it soon became obvious that I wouldn’t have anywhere near enough to complete it.

Back to the drawing board. Little Sis immediately disappeared and I could hear her donning her rescue gear again. In she flew, like Superwoman, bearing more yarn: this time, about 300gm of the Araucania Botany Lace in the gorgeous shaded blue shown above. I headed in the direction of Ravelry once more and entered lots of criteria for another search, clicked the button and up came this top-down raglan cardigan design. The cardigan was designed by Carole Barenys and, in case you haven’t signed up to Ravelry but would like to knit it, is available on Knitting on the Net. I enjoy knitting top-down patterns – probably because they do away with the dreaded sewing up!

I began knitting immediately, using some of Little Sis’s circular needles. It was my friend, Elizabeth, who shared the pleasure of knitting on circular pins with me, and I do find that I enjoy using them. Little Sis, on the other hand, did a quick impression of Little Miss Grumpy when handing the needles to me, saying that she doesn’t like using them!

I didn’t manage to finish the cardigan until a few days after I had returned from Somerset but here it is, below, in all its lacy glory.

Very Easy Knitting Pattern For Chunky Scarf

The last few weeks have been very busy, with scarcely a minute to myself. I have travelled many miles, packed and unpacked many boxes and ended up exhausted – both mentally and physically. I arrived home at around 11.00pm yesterday and have done very little since then. Peter is usually pretty much incommunicado on Sundays so I knew there would be no complaints from him if I simply collapsed in a heap.

I have spent today doing very little apart from dozing, watching television and knitting. 

Easy knitting to nudge my ‘mojo’

I chose to knit as it is easy to do without having to think. As is usual at the moment, I was knitting for Syria. I had started another scarf before the mayhem began so I decided today to complete it. I cannot remember how I came about the lilac yarn that I was using – someone gave it to me, but I cannot remember who that was – but when I had offered it to others who were knitting for Syria, they didn’t want to use it. It is a fairly thick yarn, like a chunky, with an open twist to it.

Lilac open-twist chunky yarn

Although it looks as though it would be awkward to knit, in fact it is easy to work with. I have been using 6.5 mm (UK size 3, US size 10 1/2) needles and have been deliberately knitting loosely.

Easy pattern for a scarf

I have not used a printed pattern. This is how I make my easy chunky scarf:

Cast on some 20 stitches for an adult size or 14 for a child’s size.
Work four rows of garter stitch.
Next row: * In every stitch, wind the yarn round the needles once whilst making the knit stitch. Repeat to the end of the row.**
Next and every following row:  Repeat from * to ** until the scarf is the required length.
Work four rows in garter stitch. 
Cast off loosely. 
Weave in the ends.