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.

Ela sews and KNITS?

Are you knitting? I think I will start again!

Having been to the bloggers meet-up on Goldhawk Road in August I saw Rachel's beautiful Miette Cardigan (My Messings: Miette - Finished!!) which she had knitted herself. I just fell in love with it and my imagination went crazy. Just how lovely would it be to wear a self-knitted cardigan over a dress I made? That thought hasn't left my brain and got me thinking.

I am not foreign to knitting and learnt it from my grandma when I was a teenager. I knitted several scarfs and even a vest and a jumper. The later ones, unfortunately, didn't fit me as I struggled to keep my tension even. That was six years ago. Knitting is like cycling, right? You will never forget it, once you learnt it. So I had a look into my sewing box and look what I found.

Loads of knitting needles and even a needle gauge.

I also had a look into may favourite knitting book. I got it from my granddad 18 years ago and it tells you all the basics about knitting, crocheting and stitching (needless, to say that I tried all three of them :) ). Sorry, it is in German. But, because I love it so much (especially all the little hand drawings), I wanted to show you a few pictures. Maybe you will recognise a few of the stitches :)

Knit, Crochet, Stitch...

Purl (here shown for left-handed people).

How to cast off.

So, now the question was, what could I knit to get slowly started again? I had an issue of Mollie Makes, which contained the pattern for a lovely lace scarf!

My knitting aim: a lace scarf :)

Not, that I had ever knitted something in rounds and not that I am very good in reading knitting patterns and not that I knew the English names of the different stitches. But, my enthusiasm couldn't be damped and off I went to the knitting shop. The owner, an elderly gentleman, was very happy to help me and wished me a lot of luck after I told him I hadn't knitted  for ages. I am sure I need that :) So here is what I got:

Wool, stitch markers and needles.

There were so many lovely colours and I couldn't decide! But at the end I took the pinkish ones and to everybodys amusement I was wearing a scarf in the same colours :) Then I had a go on a 10 cm tension sample. I feel a bit embarrassed to show it to you because it looks nuts. But never mind, I am sure I will get better! I had problems to read the stitch pattern the other way around when I made my way back. And also for the yarn over, it took me a while to understand how to do it. Thankfully at you tube there are many videos that show how to do it :)

Are you sure you have knitted before?

So, are you knitting? If YES, what are you working on and when NOT have you thought about starting?

Have a lovely Monday everyone!!!