We're in a fight

I have a love/hate relationship with my ISE4 scarf. Being my first attempt at lace, I’ve had a few problems (see post below). It was a good thing that I was putting lifelines in because I had to frog a little bit. Everything was going fine up until Easter weekend. I traveled home to CT and thought it would be the perfect time to work on it being a quiet weekend at my parent’s house. Well….somehow I messed up again and ended up with one too many stitches yet again. I just had to put it down and didn’t pick it up again until Thursday when I finally got the courage to keep working. I frogged back to my lifeline and managed to get through 7 rows of the 8 row pattern when I realized that I was doing K2tog tbl instead of just K2tog!! Arggg!! I should’ve been paying better attention. After frogging to the lifeline and putting it back on the needles, I had one less stitch than I needed!! Where did it go?? I really have no idea; I seriously checked and checked but couldn’t find anything to make up that extra stitch. I ended up just doing an extra yo in the next row hoping that it would just blend in with the pattern (you can’t even really tell). Since we had such crummy/rainy weather this weekend in Boston, I spent a while working on my scarf. I was very careful to count my stitches at the end of each row. I keep having problems though…for some reason I think I keep skipping a yo every so often so I don’t end up with enough stitches. It’s really frustrating to keeping messing up like this. I really do love this pattern, and I want my pal to have a special scarf…but I’m beginning to think that I might be cursed on this pattern.

Lace love

Well, I finally have some pictures of my ISE4 scarf to share! After taking about a hundred pictures to find the right light and setting I think this is about the best its going to get. Here it is:

And here's an up close picture of the detail:

This is really my first attempt at knitting lace, so I was pretty nervous when I picked out the pattern but it was one that my secret had mentioned she liked. I really wanted to knit her something special that she's really going to like.

I've had a few troubles with it. I knit the border and was finishing the second repeat of the pattern when I realized that I had one too few stitches on the needle. I have no idea what happened but when I knit back and tried to start the row over, I had one too few stitches!!! Arggggg. Well, I just frogged and started over on it. This was for the best anyway because I realized that I was doing the psso wrong, so I'm actually glad I frogged it. When I had started I was dreading the rows with psso but now I love them! I don't know why but I just think there something fun about passing that slipped stitch...haha! I've gotten quite a few repeats on the pattern done now (even more than in the picture) and I've been putting in lifelines every two repeat in case I have to frog. I actually did have to frog again at one point but it made it soooooo much easier with the lifeline!

I think its coming along pretty well now and I'm really loving knitting the lace...I can't wait to be able to practice more lace patterns. I was a little worried that I wasn't going to have the scarf in time for my pal, but silly me I thought that the deadline to mail was in May. I just realized that its not until the end of June so I'll have plenty of time to work on it to make perfect for my pal!

What to choose?

I thought I'd decided on a pattern to knit for my secret scarf pal, but I'm just so confused now! I was going to knit this pattern but now I just don't think its special enough for my pal. I want her to have a really nice scarf she's going to love. She seems to lean towards lace patterns so I've looked at every single lace scarf pattern on Knitting Pattern Central. I've found a few that I think would be nice for her, but now I'm having trouble narrowing all of these down. Here's a few choices: option 1, option 2, option 3, option 4, option 5, option 7, and finally option 8. Now I'm sure you can see why I'm having such trouble with this...I have too many patterns to choose from! I just can't narrow it down. I'm new to lace so I want a pattern that's not going to be too difficult for me to knit but also it nice for my pal. Hmmm...what to do? On a brighter note, I tracked my package with the yarn I ordered and its in MA now, so hopefully it'll be in Boston by the end of the day (or at least by tomorrow)! I can start knitting soon as long as I pick a pattern.

No more frogging please

Well I started my socks over, and I'm in a much better place with them so I thought I'd share a picture since my new digital camera came today!!

They are coming along so much better so I'm crossing my fingers that I won't mess up and have to frog again.

Oh no!!

Well I ordered my yarn for ISE4, so I just have to wait for it to come before I can get started. I picked the Andean silk in sangria, I really think its going to be pretty. I can't wait to get started. I thought in the meantime I'd work on my socks. Well I had a few mistakes, so I had to frog back...ugh. Then, I dropped a few stitched and got so frustrated that I completely frogged and started over! Ahhh, What was I thinking?!?! I think I'm in a bad mindset now and keep dropping the stitches off of the needles. Maybe I'll just go back to working on my ribbed scarf.

Dreaming of yarn

After spending a long time looking through patterns and just not being able to decide what I wanted to make I've finally decided on this pattern. My pal didn't seem to have a preferance of lace/cables so I thought this was pretty. I hope they like it. Its nice because it looks kind of lacey but isn't too much. I hope it'll be just right for them. Now comes the fun of deciding on a yarn for it. I spent a while looking online yesterday...you can probably tell I didn't get much done at work yesterday:) but it was fun to browse the yarn sites. I think I've decided to use KP Andean Silk, which I'm hoping will be nice and soft for a scarf. I've never really used anything but acrylic yarn, so its nice to pick out some nicer yarn. I'm still having trouble picking a color of yarn. I was thinking sangria, lettuce, or pool. I thought so much about what yarn to get last night that I started dreaming about it...hehehe. I guess you know you've become obsessed when it starts to invade your dreams. Anyway, I am so looking forward to starting. And very excited because I've ordered a new digital camera and can now post pictures of my WIP and FOs!! Its supposed to come by tomorrow, yea!!