It's a perfectly nice doily. I made a zillion mistakes and oopsies while knitting it, which were fixed or kludged to varying degrees. That was humbling. I even dropped stitches while doing the crochet cast off, something I've not done in a long time.
I did run out of thread in round 71 (the entire doily is 72 rounds plus the cast-off). Luckily, very luckily, I found a partial ball of thread that seems to match. I'm pretty sure it really is the same thing, Fincrochet 20, from a previous pattern I knit a while back. Whew, that I hadn't already used the leftovers for something else.
In round 69, there's a number in a box that sure looked like a 3 (kpk in stitch). But no, it's a 5. And I didn't discover this until round 71. Sigh. I took out the intermediate round and then, as I reknitted round 70, fixed it on the fly. The spot in the chart is on a crease and rather hard to read -- I'm still not sure if it's a chart error or simply indistinct and thus easily mis-read.
And so on. It's not been a tranquil knitting experience.
But it is now done, and looks acceptable.
What next? Maybe Gloxiniaeflora, from Kunstbreien B39. I've loved this pattern for many years. So maybe it's time to knit it? I need to make sure I have enough thread before I try, though. It's 167 rounds or so.
I've knit several patterns from this Kunstbreien -- it was one of the first sets of charts shared with me through the Doily Underground, long long ago. It was much photocopied and re-photocopied, back in the day when the technology wasn't that great and copying/mailing costs were a factor, and thus only the basics were shared and they are somewhat hard to read in places. I've knit 5 (I think) doilies from this publication, though for some, I used charts or written descriptions from other sources (such as Gloria Penning's pattern collections). After this one, there are maybe one or two more in Kunstbreien 39 that intrigue me, but who knows? There are already way too many doily patterns on my want-to-do list, more than I'll probably ever be able to knit. Alas. Though I can dream, and the potential makes me happy.
Here's something I don't think I've shared before, that I knit from Kunstbreien:
It is Filices (pattern Nr 5913). It is 80 rounds (plus cast-off), 11 pattern repeats per round. There are a few chart errors, but the pattern is so symmetric that they were easy to spot and fix.
Filices is a reference to ferns. The doily was straightforward and enjoyable to knit. I liked the symmetry and the way the motif was in strict wedges that didn't really interact with the other pattern repeats. It might well be a Herbert Niebling pattern, but whether or not it is, it is well designed and attractive.
I enjoyed using the DMC Cordonnet #40. Although I'll knit with #20 if that's what I have, I've really started preferring finer and finer threads.
The other patterns I've knit from Kunstbreien B39? In no particular order, Clematis, Adonis, Convallaria, and Viola (the round one of the set).
----------------
My cat bed is almost finished. I've switched to k2p2 ribbing, because why not? Well, hopefully it'll help with the shaping once I start felting this beast -- either keeping the sides from curling or flopping and/or making it easier to fold over the edge. Dunno. Anyway, my guess is that I have maybe another half-dozen or so rounds before it's time to cast off.
I'm thinking about what travel knitting project I want to do next. I recently finished yet another dishcloth shawl, a large and cozy worsted-weight alpaca in variegated shades of blue and green and purple. So what next? I have several hundred yards of gray Romney handspun that I might want to deal with. Blobs of it were dyed different colors and either spun as a 2-ply or plied with a ply of undyed gray to make a barberpole yarn. So maybe a half-hap (i.e. a hap shawl, but triangular rather than square). I could do the Sarah Bradberry feather-and-fan shawl pattern again, since that's a perfectly respectable pattern recipe in the half-hap tradition. I've already made one to use up some small batches of hand-dyed Beast yarn, many years ago. I'd really like to do a full hap at some point, but that would require more planning. Someday.
----------------
And just because I have vague plans for doilies, shawls, or anything else doesn't mean they'll actually happen. I'm easily distracted.
No comments:
Post a Comment