Lace Obsessions and the dangers of Knitting friends

Last week I cast on for the Lily of the Valley Shawl by Nancy Bush from Interweave Press' Lace Style.

I had seen a friend's lovely version the day before and it just wormed its way into my brain. I already had the appropriate yarn in my stash (Jaggerspun's Zephyr) and the book on my shelf. There was nothing standing in the way of my starting it (other than 2 deadline projects that is!).

I am using size 3 needles because I intend for this to serve more as a scarf than a stole and I thought a less lacey version would be more practical for everyday use. I didn't quite think through the implications of going down so many needle sizes though (the pattern calls for a size 6 needle). I've already gone through the ten repeats called for in the instructions, but will have to keep trucking for another couple of repeats to make sure the scarf is long enough.



Here is a more detailed shot of the stitch. It's the lily of the valley stitch with nupps! Unfortunately, I can't see the nupps very well (some finagling is required to purl together 5 stitches at a time!), but I hope they'll be more visible once the scarf is blocked. Although I usually shy away from bobbles and nupps, I find them strangely fascinating in this limited context. I do hope they'll be visible.


Okay, now I need to get back to work.