Thursday 12 September 2013

May I proudly present my knitted lace scarf!

Yeah, I did it! I knitted my first lace scarf! And let me tell you there were a few firsts here.


1. Knitted a lace pattern.
2. Knitted in the round.
3. Learnt to do provisional cast ons.
4. Learnt to knit yo, ssl and k2to :)
5. Knitted a picot cast off.
6. My first attempt at blocking.


And as you can imagine, it was not a smooth journey. 
  • I struggled with the tension.
  • Found out that you can knit in the wrong direction when knitting in the round (ups) – I just knitted back because I had no idea how to correct the wrong stitches
  • Learned that your needle cables shouldn’t be longer than the piece you are knitting – my needles were a total of 80cm instead of 40cm – definitively too long
  • Loads of waiting time because I had to order crochet needles (for the cast on) and more knitting needles

But despite all these little struggles, I loved to knit the scarf. It is just nice and cosy to spend the evening on the couch with your knitting in hand. Especially now that the days are getting darker and colder (and the warmest room in our house is the living room), I prefer to snuggle on the couch. But, on the weekend I will try to heat up my sewing room our shared office, to get loads of sewing done.



But now, let me properly introduce my first knitted make!

Pattern: Lace cowl from the Mollie Makes issue 14
Wool: Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino I bought from my local wool shop.

After blocking.

Construction: Not too difficult. After my third repetition of the lace pattern, I got the hang of it and I went ahead quite fast. I was able to knit 122 stitches and 16 rows during a football match :) I didn’t fully follow the intrcutions when knitting the cowl because the intructions called for 3.5, 4 and 4.5 cm needles and I had at first only the 4 cm one. So I knitted half of the scarf (3 repetitions of the lace pattern) with this one and the other half (another 3 repetitions) with the 4.5 cm needle instead of knitting 2 repetitions with each needle.

Before blocking and with yellow provisional cast on.
Blocking: As I have never blocked something before I had a look on the web to find out what to do. In the end I followed a tutorial by Pam from Gingerbread Snowflakes. For this method, you tightly roll bath towels to a tube and then place your cowl onto them. The tutorial calls for steaming your cowl, but as I have not the best iron I handwashed my cowl before placing it on the towel rowl.

When washing and pressing the cowl it reminded me very much of my childhood, because my sister and I used to wash our doll cloth that my grandma had knitted for us. After soaking them in water we would roll them up in big towels and stamp onto them to press out any water. Then everything would be hanged on a little washing line that was spanned between two chairs :) For the cowl I used the same method, but placed it on the towels instead of the washing line, smile.

What I like about the cowl: It's pink - what's not to like? And super soft and cosy. And I made it! And I think I will be able to wear it soon as the temperatures are dropping in the UK.

12 comments:

  1. That's a lot of firsts! It's a gorgeous cowl Daniela, really pretty.

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  2. That's a beautiful cowl :) I have the wool to start knitting myself a snood, but haven't got round to starting yet. I want to use it to learn how to knit in the round, so that I can knit some jumpers. If your circular needles are too big for what you are knitting, you can use the magic loop method to get around it.

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    1. Thanks for the tip with the magic loop. I have seen the words flying around on the web, but haven't actually looked up what it means. Good luck with your snood!

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  3. Your cowl looks fab! I second the recommendation for the magic loop. It is ridiculously easy to do compared with double-pointed needles. I think I learnt it from some videos on youtube.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. Now, I really have to look up the magic loop because I am trying to knit mittens and I am having a really hard time with the double-pointed needles.

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  4. It's beautiful! And such a gorgeous colour too. I'm way to scared to do lace yet.... I'm working myself up towards an easy cardi. Yay for knitting, I can see you're enjoying it as much as me :)

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  5. Thanks :) I always go for pink or blue! I am looking forward to see your cardi, just loved the cowl you made the other day. I wish my tension would be that even as well.

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  6. It's absolutely gorgeous!! I love love love the lace pattern, but unfotunately this is way too advanced for my knitting skills. I just started a simple loop scarf with the navy blue wool I told you about :)

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    1. Thank you! It is not as complicated as it looks! That reminds me, I forgot to send you the pattern you asked me for, buh. I will try to remember it tonight!

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  7. Very well done! Lots of firsts! I can't say I understand all the English knitting terminology.
    Those double-pointed needles take some time getting used to but aren't that bad in the end. I just knitted a sock with 8-ply wool in less than a day. The wool is just so pretty I couldn't stop. I cast on the second sock but had to stop knitting as my hand was hurting...
    And I finally found a cardigan pattern I want to do. Not a simple one. And I still have to buy the wool.
    Looking forward to seeing more of your knitting (and sewing of course)!

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    1. Thanks :) One sock in one day! I am amazed and I can imagine very well that your hand hurt afterwards. Yeah for cardigans! Autumn is coming! I plan to start mine in October so that I can do some knitting on the flight to Germany.

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