Sunday, February 24, 2013

Quandary

I am not even going to try to explain why I haven't posted since November, because there is no good reason beyond the fact that it's way easier to compose blogposts in one's head than to actually get them written.

So - if I have any readers left, I need your help!

You might remember that I knit Juneberry last winter. If you've been around a while, you know I love knitting lace, and knitting with anything heavier than DK is "big yarn" for me.  But I'm coming around to using heavier-weight yarn for lace - I love the way my Juneberry looks, even with it's one "odd" corner.  (I think it reminds me of my kitty Harley's one tan paw, although I didn't think of that when I chose the color.)


Harley
Who, me?  


I love that odd corner so much (it's Madtosh tosh vintage in Trodden) that I bought four more skeins, making, combined with the 3/4 -- at least! -- of the skein I had left from Juneberry, about 950 yards to do something.

So, I am trying to not cast on for anything else until I finish what I consider my current projects: the second Waffles! sock, the second Peerie Flooers mitten (that is, of course, the inside of mitten #1), and the Winter Arboretum* shawl.  But that doesn't stop me from making plans!

I had pretty much decided that I would use those 950 worsted-weight yarn to make Willoughby, which has been in my queue for three years. I like the idea of a rectangular wrap, rather than a triangular shawl. Then I saw Pachelbel.  Hmmm....  I love it, but I'm pretty sure I would be really, really bored during the long expanse between those gorgeous ends.

I've spent the last week or so going back and forth between those two. And then a few days ago, I cam across Leila Raabe's designs.  Suddenly, I like the idea of a "non-lace lace" shawl.  The one issue I have with Juneberry, which I wear pretty much daily, is getting things caught in the lace.  Leila's designs look like lace, even when they aren't.  Kindling and Ashby are both "non-lace" and written for worsted weight, so I've added them to my list.  Of course, if I'm going with triangular, there's also Maroni....

So what do you think:  Willoughby, Pachelbel, Kindling, Ashby, or Maroni?

*About Winter Arboretum:  If you check Ravelry, you'll see that I'm the only one knitting it.  And because of that, I've learned my lesson about being the first knitter from a designer I'm not familiar with -- even one who claims to have used a tech editor. I was most of the way through the edging, which is knit first, before I finally admitted to myself that no amount of blocking would make my garter-stitch-looking edging resemble the stockinette-based one in the pictures.  I compared the chart (which of course I had been using) to the written instructions, and realized the wrong-side rows on the chart were wrong.  The only good thing is that I had been rethinking my colors and decided that if I had to frog the whole thing, I would change the colors I was using.  I also emailed the designer.  Within a couple days, she had a corrected chart available, although I'm disappointed that she doesn't mention this in her pattern notes.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who bought the pattern, even if I was the only one knitting it.....