The first problem I ran into was the cast-on. The pattern called for a cable cast-on, which I had never heard of. So I learned how to do it, hated it, and redid it in my regular long tail method, on two sizes bigger needles (which allows it to stretch with the rest of the piece).
Next, I decided to skip working in garter, because it is so much harder to work in garter with lace than stockinette.
And of course, I skipped the stripes, because I only have one color of lace and don't want to buy more.
The last problem I had was with blocking. I've always wet blocked my pieces before, but I had a really hard time wet-blocking the Emily Shawl, so I decided to take the pattern's advice and steam block instead.
And, it really didn't work. I'm not sure if I did it wrong, or if my yarn isn't suited to steam blocking, but the stupid thing still curls.
Honestly, I wonder if the problem isn't that I just don't enjoy working with lace. Which is a shame, really, because lace ends up being some of the prettiest pieces! I think if someone buys me lace, I'll use it and love it, but I probably won't buy any myself for awhile.
The curl is due to using the stockinette instead of garter stitch. Stockinette's natural tendency is to curl - and no matter how much blocking, it'll revert back to curling in time. Garter stitch lays flat, with few exceptions. Hope this helps for future projects :-)
ReplyDeleteAh, that makes sense. It's nice to know the reason behind writing the design in garter-- I feel like the more mistakes I make, the more I'll learn.
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