When I went out to buy the yarn I didn’t have a project in mind, my mom just requested purple and a scarf. She’s sensitive to wool so I wanted something with little to no wool. So this yarn worked out. It’s a really pretty shade of heathered dusty purple. For an ‘economy’ yarn, it feels pretty nice too. I wouldn’t try center pulling this yarn again, it was a mess and came out in giant, tangled, knotty masses constantly.

I thought a project in an easy lace pattern might be nice. I hadn’t done lace yet and Texas isn’t really known for its frigid winters (except this year apparently) so the openwork of the lace would work well for their weather. Plus I thought if she doesn’t end up wearing it as a scarf it could always be a short table runner or curtain swag.

I didn’t really think of the wool content and lace blocking, woops. It might not have blocked quite as crisply as I would have liked, but it seemed to work out ok. Our iron had broken (no steam blocking) so I ended up soaking it in super hot water and pinning it out, then putting steaming hot towels on top. Then I put that all over the radiator to let it dry. Unconventional, but whatever works, eh? I did not try to block it into the sharp points shown in some projects because well, I didn’t like the look. It seemed to keep the block pretty well. I’m not sure how well it will with wearing, but I did send along care instructions and how to lay it out to dry and reshape.

The pattern is simple and straight forward with written instructions (what I used) and a chart. I had it just about memorized by the end of the scarf. I put a life line in every repeat, this saved a few mistakes and made row counting easy without a mechanical counter. I think I ended up doing 26 repeats? The suggested 16 repeats would have been way too short.

My mom seemed pretty pleased in her email, we’ll see how she reacts over skype. ;)