Changing Lanes

As you may know, we are having a Shawls, Wraps and Scarves KnitAlong.  I had planned on making the Cream& Sugar Wrap in Vail. But something wasn’t quite right for me when I started. I really like the pattern and I love the yarn, but I got about 3 inches into the wrap and it just wasn’t speaking to me. So I decided that I wanted to do something a little different.

I knew I wanted a lightweight shawl (although I tend to wear them more like loose oversized scarves than shawls), and something that was an intuitive pattern.  I have had my eye on the Eyelet-Swirl Stole for a while now and thought it would be a good choice.

I dug through my stash to find some Silky Alpaca Lace to swatch with. In the past I have shied away from lace weight yarn, feeling it's too small to work with. But I decided to give it a try anyway. I happen to have a lace needle in the correct size in my needle collection and cast on for a swatch. Wow! Working with lace yarn with a pointy tip, even with mostly stockinette stitch, makes a HUGE difference.

Yesterday during lunch I cast on for my Eyelet-Swirl Stole in the Beach Glass color of Silky Alpaca lace and I couldn't be happier with my choice. I see this future FO being something that I can wear with everything – sweaters, cardigans, tees and jeans, under my coat in the fall and as a lightweight layer later in the spring (when a coat is too much, but you can't quite get away without an extra layer in the morning).

I really love the fact that this knit-along has so many options. If you are looking for a layering piece for the summer, you can choose one of the wraps and make it in a lighter weight yarn. Or maybe you want to get a jump start on your holiday knitting (or finally start that piece that you gave an IOU for this past holiday season). There are 60 projects in the book to choose from and you can use any CEY yarn. It’s not too late to join us. You can read all the rules here and follow along in our Ravelry Group here.

So…will you join us?