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September 21, 2009
Lace and Plaid

If you only have a teeny tiny bit of very special yarn - say some qiviut or cashmere - this is the perfect pattern - I used only 22 grams of laceweight yarn and have a beautiful elegant lace scarf!

Pattern: Dee's Diamond Scarf to Knit by Nancy Bush from Piecework July/August 2009. Yarn: 22 grams Posh Yarn Eva (2 ply lace weight 55% silk/ 45% cashmere) in Hot Spot colorway. Needles: 3.25 mm circular Finished Size: 5 1/4" X 52" This beautiful diamond pattern was adapted from a shawl that Nancy Bush saw in an Estonian museum. I think it would be a perfect 1st lace project! It is simple pattern, but incorporates many lace techniques, including (easy to execute) 5 stitch nupps. The cast on/bind off and edge stitch instructions are very well explained - I especially love how she handles the 1st stitch of every row (slip the first stitch purlwise with yarn in front, then place yarn to back between the slipped st and the next st to be worked - makes a beautiful well defined strong edging!) The chart is easy to follow and there is no grafting - It was a quick project too....I LOVED making this scarf and I know I will love wearing it! The silk/cashmere yarn....heavenly!! I still have 34 grams left - this scarf used less than 200 yards of yarn!

Here are a few more photos - click for bigger - and if you want to really see the nupps click here.

Only 8 more blocks to go and I'll be done with the blocks for my One a Day 9 patch KAL Quilt. I've decided to stop at 48 blocks and make it 6 X 8, but still haven't made a choice on sashing or borders yet - I'll know when I know :-)

OK - I promise I'm not turning this into a spider blog BUT SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED that I need to at least finish off this part of the story!

A few evenings ago we watched her very busily shoring up the egg sac and building another web near it - I thought she was going to move over closer to her babies, but when we woke up in the morning, here is what we saw... yes - she had been getting it on!!!! Egg sac #2 with at least a thousand more eggs - we will have over 2000 spider babies next spring! I took this picture of Mom and the sacs yesterday - At 7:00 this morning (it was very cold last night) she was gone - her web was in shambles and she has never come back. Until today she had never left her web - not even for a minute, so we know she is dead. The egg sacs are sturdily attached to the zinnias and hopefully will be safe this winter. We will be keeping a good eye on them!

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