What I Knit While I Was Sick

 

In the last part of 2021 I became quite sick and it lasted for a while. I didn't have COVID but I came to understand the brain fog that was discussed a lot during the COVID era. I couldn't work on the projects that were underway before the illness so I had to find something else to work on.

Like so many knitters, I love the Shetland lace pattern, Old Shale. Our local knitting group made a book of variations of this lovely pattern a few years ago and it is available for free on Ravelry. 

I looked through my handspun lace yarns and looked through our Old Shale book at stitch patterns, and came up with this, which was possible even with a very foggy brain.

Tools and Yarn
US 1.5 needles or size to make a loose fabric with your yarn.
Four ounces of yarn, more of less, it doesn't really matter. I just knit until I ran out of yarn.

I chose to knit one of Nancy Clemmons' patterns, page 43 of Old Shale Variations, (an 18 stitch repeat) and wanted 4 stitches of garter stitch as the border on both edges. I also wanted less than 150 stitches but more than 100, which is just a personal preference.

I cast on 134 stitches (4 + 4 + 18 × 7 = 8 + 126 = 134) using the backward loop method. Being very careful on the first knit row not to pull the cast on yarn. This is fiddly, but the result takes on the shape of the lace rows better than a thicker cast on.

After the cast on, I knit three rows (making 2 garter ridges).

The lace row is: K4, *3 × k2togtbl, (yo, k1) × 6, 3 × k2togtbl,* repeat between *s across, k4.

So, the pattern is:

Row 1, wrong side: knit.

Row 2, right side: lace row.

Rows 3 to 6: stockinette (purl, knit, purl, knit).

When I noticed that the remaining yarn wouldn’t make another full repeat of the pattern rows, I stopped knitting and began to think about binding off. I unknit to the previous "knit on the wrong side" row (Row 1) and started the garter edge. The garter edge is made to look like the cast on edge, knit on the wrong side, knit on right side, knit on the wrong side, bind off very loosely.

I finished the ends, washed, and blocked. 

This was a great “sick” project. It has filled many hours and it was been a comfort. It was a comfort because it made me feel like I could still do the things I love to do and because I was holding something lovely in my hands.

(You might have noticed that I mistakenly photographed the bind off end of the scarf in the photo at the top of this post. The knitting is upside down. Apologies.)