May, and Finally Spring

Yup, spring has finally arrived in the Okanagan. The weather's gorgeous again today, sunny, with a promise of warm. It's the perfect day to start a lace-knitting class. And, that is exactly what I'm doing today. No, I'm not taking the class, I'll be teaching it. As always, when I start a class, I'm terrified. I know it will be fine once I get there, but I'm always nervous and anxious before the class starts. I just keep telling myself that, really, all I'm doing is sharing something I love, and that is never a difficult thing to do.

Because I'll be leading this class, I've been doing some casting on.

This little bit of knitting will eventually be the "Fundamentals of Lace Scarf", graciously shared with me by Colette Simon. Colette designed this scarf to introduce knitters to some of the fundamentals of lace knitting, such as provisional cast-on, directional decreases, yarn overs before and after purl stitches and knitted on edgings. All in all, a good intro to lace. To be honest, I'm not sure I'll be using the pattern in the class; it will depend on the skill levels of the students, 5 of them, if I'm not mistaken.

I did, however, decide to take this bit of knitting with me in order to show them the method of provisional cast-on that I prefer... the crochet cast-on. If they decide they'd like to try this scarf, great; if not, we'll find another project.

The past couple of weeks, and this week in particular, have found me a little restless in my knitting. I've been doing a lot of casting on and frogging. Remember the Ene Scarf? Frogged. Another lace project was started and frogged. Yesterday, though, I cast on for a project that I don't think will end up in the frog pond.

Any of you who are signed up with IK's Knitting Daily will recognize the ubiquitous Swallowtail Shawl, by Evelyn A. Clark. I tend to resist patterns that everyone else is knitting, but for some reason the pattern and the yarn just seemed to be attracted to each other. I had started the shawl in a different yarn, but it just wasn't working. So far, this is a perfect match. The knitting is flowing well, the pattern is easy to remember and I'm loving it.

I made one small change to the pattern as written: the pattern begins with two stitches that are cast on to a crochet chain, then, when 6 rows have been knit, 3 stitches and the provisional stitches are picked up. I had a bear of a time trying to pick up from 2 stitches, so I cast on 3. Once I get to the edging, I'll have to knit 2 together at each edge in order to have the correct number of stitches, but I don't think that will be a big deal. It just made the beginning a little easier for me.

This piece of knitting will also come with me to the class today, to demonstrate how the shawl begins, at the neck edge. I'll also be taking my Evolution Shawl (Emily Ocker's circular cast-on) and the Pi Are Square shawl, to demonstrate the knitted on edging.

It's a lovely day here and it's time for me to enjoy it, now that I seem to be over the worst of this head cold.