LacyWhen I was in New York on the weekend, I went to the lovely eau-de-nil shop on the right (above) and bought some of thisand now I'm knitting this:Actually, the shop, the famous and much vaunted Purl in SoHo, is very pretty, but all the yarns are stacked by colour, which I find weird. And it is t-i-n-y. Take a deep breath, hold your elbows to your side and squeeze in.
It's really not a patch on the yarn stores I go to locally, in Encinitas and Solana Beach. But I thought, since I was right there in SoHo on Sunday, I'd better check Purl out.
There is a similarly bijou Purl patchwork store just a few doors up the road from it.
The pattern is for a wrap called Seascape — free pattern here.
The lace is gorgeous, but is going to give me brain ache. I started on ordinary needles — too blunt — and then I bought myself an Addi turbo circular, which is designed for fine lace knitting, with lovely pointy ends. Much easier.But oh! It's a pain in the arse if you drop a stitch, because you can't see where it went. Correcting mistakes is very hard. You have to come up with ways to compensate and just carry on. In the hope that no-one will ever notice it anyway.
The yarn is Rowan Kidsilk Haze. Beautiful. A blend of mohair and silk. It's like knitting with a cobweb. Don't breathe too hard!
Simultaneously, and to ground me, I have another very chunky beany on a sturdy circular beside me, to stop me floating away.