This is very exciting! Last night I released my first piece of fearless knitting from the steaming board and the 2019 Year Of Fearless Knitting has begun! The process for this project has been creative, serendipitous and completely, well, fearless. It has been everything I could ever hope for in a knitting project. It challenged my sense of color, my sense of style and my problem solving abilities. Let's go back to the beginning.
I started out buying Concept Silky Lace (a discontinued yarn I got for 1/2 price at Knit 'N Purl) in an amazing plum color and Queensland Urulu in an equally amazing variegated on separate trips to Knit 'N Purl with no thought of putting them together. Then I did this. . .
While playing around with my Knit 'N Purl discoveries, I discovered that Urulu and Silky Lace looked perfect together. I just had to find the perfect pattern to showcase this amazing combination. (I just realized that I may use "amazing" a little too much but sometimes things are just AMAZING!) After discarding many patterns for various reasons, I settled on Secrets and Storms.
It had everything I needed to make this Fearless Knitting. I substituted yarn weight, changed the pattern a bit, had to keep track of the number of stitches on every row AND it had a stitch I had never tried. The stitch was called the Aster Stitch and as the name implies, it looks like a little flower.
Aren't they adorable! Did you notice I didn't say amazing!?!?!? The only thing I didn’t like about the pattern was that you start with 3 stitches and end up with 219. When you are excited and enthusiastic you have short little rows that seems to fly by. When you are starting to get bored and wishing it would be finished the rows take a very long time. But it was Fearless. Now let me show you the finished scarf modeled by the amazing (sorry but there is no other word) Lydia, my mannequin.
The Lydia color is more accurate than the bottom picture. (OMG! I just had a brainstorm! After all of the years of ok pictures on Knitting: A Love Story, I think I need to take an Apple photography class. Why didn't I realize this years ago!) Even though steaming is not my favorite phase of the knitting process, there is something very satisfying about pinning your piece, steaming it then watching it magically turn into a piece of professional knitting
I have decided to teach a class at Ann's By Design using Secrets and Storms. There are so many things to learn. During this class participants will learn about: 1) yarn substitution and appropriate substitutions for Secrets and Storms; 2) changing a pattern; 3) 2 ways to keep track of stitch count on Secrets and Storms; 4) the Aster Stitch; and 5) hiding ends as you go. I have decided I am going to borrow from Knitter's Stash (love that book) and always have tips along with every class. Just think, it may be a book in the making.
As you can tell my first Fearless Knitting project has gotten me geeked for the next. On to Mosaic Mania!
I have decided to teach a class at Ann's By Design using Secrets and Storms. There are so many things to learn. During this class participants will learn about: 1) yarn substitution and appropriate substitutions for Secrets and Storms; 2) changing a pattern; 3) 2 ways to keep track of stitch count on Secrets and Storms; 4) the Aster Stitch; and 5) hiding ends as you go. I have decided I am going to borrow from Knitter's Stash (love that book) and always have tips along with every class. Just think, it may be a book in the making.
As you can tell my first Fearless Knitting project has gotten me geeked for the next. On to Mosaic Mania!
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