This was my first venture into the world of knitted lace. The pattern is Miriam Felton’s Seraphim, and while I spent nearly as much time moving backward as I did forward (entirely my own fault and usually the result of missing or inadvertent yarn overs), I have to say that I enjoyed it thoroughly. In fact, I enjoyed it so much so that I may be hooked on lace for a while. Miriam was a champ about answering a couple of basic newbie questions, the pattern was clearly written, and seemed to be a good beginner pattern. (*)
I’ve gotten better about being able to see individual stitches, but still can’t see the pattern in the lace as it’s developing. As a result, I tend to talk myself out of where I’m at in a pattern row. For instance, I really did knit that YO, K2tog, YO, K5 section, but am suddenly so uncertain (did I really finish it? did I do it right?) that I have to rip it back to the previous K5 just to be certain. Things worked out better once I added a ton of stitch markers (about 35) to help me keep track of where I was, and did as Janice suggested and counted like mad—especially on the wrong-side returns.
Still, things aren’t perfect. When I was unpinning it this morning, I saw a mistake on the left side; the upper half of the “hourglass” pattern seems to be shifted to the left by a couple or so stitches for the entirety of that side, creating an odd dislocation when you get to the bottom half of the hourglass. It’s one of those things which make you uncertain about what you’re seeing; you aren’t entirely certain whether something really is off or whether the fabric is playing games with you. The pattern is still visible, but it looks a bit skewed. I didn’t see it until now . . . and I’m not gonna rip it back to try and fix it. I’ve not yet learned how to see this kind of thing, although it *is* getting better. The next time I knit this pattern, it’ll be perfect now that I know what’s supposed to happen and how.
It took 7 balls of Idena Mohair Lux (60% mohair, 40% acrylic) at 180 meters per ball. At least, I think it was 7. I bought 3 additional balls when I ran short, and I have one full ball left over. I just can’t remember whether I started with 5 or 6. I added one body repeat of 12 right-side rows, so the shawl is a bit bigger than pattern specs. Final measurements are 250cm from wingtip to wingtip, and 140cm from top to bottom. The increase/yarn/gauge added about 50cm/20 inches to both height and width than the pattern anticipates, and makes for a positively lovely amount of wraparound.
The stripes were unexpected, but I find I don’t mind them as I feared I might. In fact, they’re growing on me. They don’t seem to hide the lace—although the eyelets leading into the lace seem to be invisible in this photo—and they do help break up the body a bit. Still, I think a mottled or solid color (i.e., non-striping) is a better solution for lace in general. I DO like the mohair—even if it was murder to rip back—and will use it again. Despite its size, the shawl is light and airy, but still very warm and has a lovely plush squishiness.
* If you go to Miriam’s page looking for the pattern, note that she’s just moved her blog and is (I think) in the process of moving over the pattern pages and index. There’s a good page on her old blog: http://www.mimknits.blogspot.com/. Just scroll down until you find “Seraphim” in the left menu bar.
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