I'm still feeling the knitting restlessness I wrote about last time. I'm working actively on, to a greater or lesser degree, four or five projects. The newest ones I've started are a pair of socks, and a shawl made out of this rayon chenille yarn I bought last year on the Wool Arts Tour: I started the shawl at least three times, trying to find a pattern that works well with the yarn. Here's the one I finally decided on: Eyelet Lace Shawl. It seems to be working well. I'm not sure about the fringe, though. I've made this shawl twice before, with regular worsted-weight yarn, and the fringe worked fine. But with boucle...not sure. I might try a knitted-on ruffled edging.
That scares me a little, though. While I consider myself an experienced knitter, having been knitting for 48 years or so, I don't mess with patterns much. Oh, I tend to add inches to a sweater front/back to make it long enough for me, but I rarely change the pattern details. The first time I tried something like that was when I changed the way the edging was knitted on the Autumn Entrelac Shawl. It came out well, but it was scary.
I'm in perpetual awe of those of you who can take a pattern, pull it apart, and change it to suit yourselves. Is it experience that allows you to do this, or self-confidence, or something else? Inquiring minds want to know!
