Extremely Undecided

My plea for my Amazing Lace partner to get her fiberself home has been answered - mostly. For the curious, she was herding llamas in Tibet.

I have one more class before I graduate magna cum lacey. I cannot begin to describe how sad I feel about this. I have learned so much from this series of lessons. My final assignment is to knit an item of my own design.

We were taught that you should sketch your idea. After all, lace is merely a picture made of yarnovers and decreases. For this discussion, let's ignore the fact that some lace requires you must squint really hard and stand on your head for the picture to come in focus. The purpose of the sketch is to visualize the main shapes.

I started with peacock feathers, because of my current love affair with the pattern of the same name from Fiddlesticks. My internet search of all things peacock led me to the palawan pheasant. I quickly fell in love with the colors of this bird.

For those interested in a real challenge, you place your yarnovers on graph paper to outline the shapes. Then fill in the picture with a variety of decreases to even out the stitch count. Or you get your hands on several pattern reference books and blatantly plagiarize someone else's hard work. Either way, the "have chart, will knit" phase is complete.

After copying creating your pattern, select yarn and needles. I wanted shiny yarn to match the shiny feathers. Much squishing of yarn commenced and a 50/50 silk & wool blend was the final winner. Proceed directly to swatching, do not start actual project. With size US 4 circular Addi Natura's firmly in hand, I swatched.


It is a modified version of the Shower stitch from Barbara Walker's "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns". I think it might work with some fiddling. The multiples need to blend better. I also need to seriously think about the needle size. This may be a bit more lacey than I want.

Also, at some point in this design process, my teacher drugged me convinced me that using a solid or variegated yarn would cause the pattern to lose some impact. Handpainting after the knitting is done will allow the details to "pop" more. She's right or I'm crazy.

Here, though, is where my design comes to a grinding halt. The centers of the two sketches are identical. The feathers, however, are as different as night and day. I have to choose. Grand, showy, peacock feathers or the simple, understated elegance of the palawan feathers. Bright turquoise, gold, and green or chocolate, midnight blue, and dark turquoise.

So, how many weeks are left? What remains to be decided?
Pattern - Blatant plagairizing, check!
Yarn - silk and wool, check!
Needles - US4 or maybe US3, certainly not US1's.
Bird - hmm, peacock, no wait, maybe palawan, hmm...Can I call a friend?
Colors - Midnight Blue and Dark Turquoise, check! Oh, the colors should reflect the bird?!? Hmmm, gold, no wait, chocolate, well bright green is nice, hmmm, so is dark blue...
Sanity - None to be found, check!