Back In The Saddle

 You may have noticed that it's been a while since I knit any lace.  Truth be told, I think I had a minor flame out when I finished the Princess.  Well, that and school got out for the summer, lots of traveling started, tragedy in our circle struck, etc., etc.

 Lately, though, I noticed that I was starting to feel the urge to knit lace again.  You may remember that recently I spent some time doing the prep work for a bunch of projects.  I wanted something simple and elegant to ease my mind back into that particular type of knitting.

 Which is why I fell so hard for my friend Bonnie's new pattern, Streusel.  It was just exactly what the doctor ordered.  Even better, having recently realized that I don't care if I ever knit another 'fancy' sock again (preferring plain socks with fun yarn) I had lots of yarn in my stash I could use.

 I made mine with one skein of Madelintosh Sock in Grove with size 6 Addi Turbo circulars. Grove proved more difficult to photograph than I had thought.  It's a quiet green with a sort of tan background - semi-solid - perhaps the color of a forest just before it starts to turn for the fall.

 Technically, the work started on June 23 and finished on July 16th, but in reality I did the prep work on June 23 (finding the right size yarn, doing one or two repeats to learn the pattern) and then knit the shawl from July 12 - 16th.  It was a very quick knit, especially once I memorized the pattern.

I did make two small modifications.  First, with an eye towards the postal scales, I was able to add four plain repeats in the center of the shawl for a touch of extra fullness at the widest point.  Second, to more closely mirror the decreases to the increases, I moved them from the first to the fifth row.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my Streusel.  I love this type of shawl/scarf, but I already have several that I wear quite a bit.....and have more planned that will be better matches for my wardrobe (such that it is).  For now I'm going to put it in a box to be used as a present sometime.  Perhaps it will tell me at some point who it wants to go home with.

So yes, this was a case where the process was considerably more important than the product.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the finished scarf. It is without a doubt a beautiful thing.

 It's just that this time what I found pleasure in - what I honestly needed and craved - was the simple act of creating lace.

Onward.