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 is available from Wool Warehouse (UK/Int), The Knitting Network (UK), Jimmy Beans Wool (USA), Caro’s Atelier (NL/EU), or your favorite Scheepjes stockist.
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!
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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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.
I love! this!
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.
I l o v e your things ?