From time to time I try something new, sometimes because I want to learn something, sometimes because I impulsively join in, and sometimes in hindsight I actually have no clue why. My making a Cozy Moments Shawl during the Make-ALong hosted by Scheepjes almost a year ago is one of those examples where I joined impulsively. I have wanted to learn learn lace knitting for a while and I thought this shawl is a great opportunity to learn. I must say, half way through I thought to myself “WHY am I doing this again?!” Time to tell the story of my Cozy Moments Shawl.
Resources
About Cozy Moments
Cozy Moments is a knitted half-circle lace shawl designed by Carmen from New Leaf Designs, and it was hosted as a make-along in the Scheepjes International and Dutch Facebook groups in February 2020. It’s a four-part, FREE pattern with complete written instructions, charts and video tutorials in both English and Dutch.
The design uses one Scheepjes Whirl or Scheepjes Whirligig, and is knitted on a pair of circular needles. I still had a beautiful cake of Scheepjes Woolly Whirl in the color Chocolate Vermicelli that I decided to use for my shawl.
Scheepjes Whirl and Whirligig is available from Wool Warehouse (UK/Int), Caro’s Atelier (EU/NL), Marlaine.nl (NL), and many other Scheepjes stockists world wide.
My Cozy Moments Shawl
I started my Cozy Moments Shawl a little impulsively. I saw many other ladies making one, and I kept thinking to myself how beautiful the shawl is. I don’t need another shawl, I have too many as it is, but I have always admired lace knitting and wanted to learn how to make a lacy knitted item myself.
In part 1 the most difficult thing for me was picking up stitches, and here I really did have to look at Carmen’s video. After that, the rest of part 1 was pretty straight forward, and an easy way to get started with a new skill.
Part 2 had cables, and my cables were all over the place! I usually started the row just fine, but somewhere during the row I would miss a stitch or some other small thing, and then all my stitches were offset by one position. I found it difficult to identify the stitch patterns, so I didn’t always know what I was looking for when trying to spot where I made a mistake. I got really good at knitting backwards in this part.
By the time I got to part 3, I started to “see” and “recognize” stitch patterns, making it so much easier to see when my stitches were not aligning with the pattern in the previous rows. This meant that I caught mistakes really fast, and I managed to fix mistakes on the go.
During part 4, I not only saw but also felt the logic of the stitch patterns, I started to comprehend how the patterns are constructed, why left and right leaning stitches are placed where they are, and how certain stitch combinations give a certain look and feel. I believe that at the end of part 4, I can honestly say that I can lace knit. Mission accomplished!
Sample for Sale
As I said before, I have way too many shawls as it is. Knitting this shawl was not about having the shawl, but about learning the skill, therefore my Cozy Moments shawl is available for sale in MY SHOP.
All in all, I really enjoyed the process of learning a new skill, in this case how to lace knit. However, as a whole I do not enjoy lace knitting. It’s just too easy to make a mistake and it’s a pain to fix a mistake once you made it. No, I honestly don’t think I will be doing any more lace knitting.
I will however be doing a lot more normal knitting this year, as you already saw with my African Sunset Temperature Scarf, but I also plan to knit some more socks and try my hand at colorwork. I will share more as the year progresses.
With love,
Esther
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It's all in a Nutshell Crochet 
Looks really challenging lace knitting. I always find it I do a lacy pattern that it takes a while before I can recognise where I should be by looking at the previous row. Never tried anything as difficult as your shawl though. It is really lovely, especially with the yarn you were using.
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I love! this!
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I did this knitalong, in our first lockdown in the UK. I have made lace shawls before. It needed lots of stitch markers. I gave mine to an art teacher friend. She keeps it in her classroom for when it gets chilly.
I used stash yarn and it worked out beautifully. I might make another, using up leftovers to take part in Carmen’s scrapalong.
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I l o v e your things 😊
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