Branching Out

Branching Out

A lot of knitters that I know are/have done this as a first lace project so I finally decided to do one too. Before I spent any money on good yarn to use I decided to see if I could do the pattern so I got out some Bernat Softee Baby and size 10½ needles, cast on and did one pattern repeat.

The pattern is relatively easy, as long as I work from the written directions as opposed to the chart-I've never knitted from a chart before and the one in this pattern confused me. I've written down the relavent parts of the pattern repeat so I can knit it wherever.

Now that I knew I could knit it I made a trip to my LYS. Since my budget is really tight I didn't want to spend over $20, preferably much less. I found some Jaeger Baby Merino DK in Olive for $6.76 and got that. I also got some Jaeger Baby Merino 4 ply in a pretty blue. The 4 ply is fingering weight so I'm using a pair of size 2 needles and knitting a pair of wristwarmers. Yes, this is crocheted-I adapted it to knitting. I'd already made plenty of crocheted ones so I wanted to see if I could do something similar in knit and I did it. They were done in WW acrylic on size 10½ needles since it was a trial, now I'm making them in the fingering yarn and size 2 needles. The crochet ones are also done in fingering yarn but I usually did mine in WW for snugglier warmers.

I'm also going to keep knitting the scarf in the acrylic baby yarn and see how it turns out. Before anyone runs in here throwing balls of fugly yarn at me and telling me that I can't knit lace with acrylic because acrylic won't block-I already know that, that's why I'm using baby yarn and big needles. While it won't show the lace as well as a blocked wool I think it'll be pretty in its own right. And since it's Bernat Softee Baby it'll be soft too.

Anyway, when I get them done expect pictures-of the scarves and the wristwarmers.