Queen Anne's Curse

Time for a new knitting project! I have not totally finished the Labyrinth bag yet but the weather has been too cold for blocking.  I like to block outside on hot Melbourne days because things dry nice and fast- the weather and my schedule have not meshed yet so I've a few things in the block queue.

I decided that now was the time to make Queen Anne's Lace (ravelry link), a lovely pattern designed by MMario.  I had stumbled on the crochet cotton I had bought years ago to make it so I even had the material needed on hand.  After some searching I found my double pointed needles (DPNs).  While I seem to have more than a dozen (all metal- this will be important later), it also appears that the only size I have is 3 mm so that decided the gauge!  Casting on was as fiddly as all get out.  That first join and then the first few rounds, all while juggling four very slippery needles caused a few false starts but once I got a few rows in things got a little easier.

Then disaster- one of the needles dropped (cotton on metal- no friction to speak of.  Gravity and indeed, random gusts of wind will be sufficient to pull needles out.  Recommended for use only in zero G by masochists) and 4-5 stitches fell off.  Bad words were said.  Saying a prayer to the knitting gods I tried to quickly pick up the stitches before they noticed they were free and unrestrained.  While a few seemed a little wonky, I thought I had gotten away with it.  A few rounds later I switched everything to a cable needle (ripping the packaging open to get it- apparently I had bought a 3 mm circular needle some time ago but didn't need it until now- this will be important later).  A few further rounds (to row 20 to be precise) I had enough room on the cable to pull back and see how the lace was developing...

Attempt #1.  Can you see where the pattern goes wrong?

Yeah, turns out that I hadn't picked up those stitches as well as I had thought.  And because of the needle, over half of the pattern was out of phase- you can see in the picture above that the pattern (moving anticlockwise from 12) starts out lovely, then goes to put at about 8 o'clock.  There was no way I was going to be able to fix that.  So I sighed sadly and frogged the lot.

Attempt #2
I hadn't made it to the shops (once I had things onto the circular needle there wasn't the same urgency to get some bamboo DPNs.  But I knew of their evil properties now.  I was not going to be beaten by four inanimate objects.  The initial fiddliness was perhaps slightly mitigated by experience this time and I soon was knitting comfortably.  As soon as I could, I transferred the work to the cable needle and could thus banish the evil metal DPNs to the storage tin, safe in the knowledge that my work was now safe on a needle with only two ends where stitches could be lost, not six.  Several rows pass.

I was getting into the flow and things were getting to that zen like state you get when knitting.  The hands do the work on muscle memory, with only the occasional input needed from the brain of either 1,2, yarn over, 1, 2, yarn over... or the slightly more processing rich 'you've reached the end of a row, pause to check what's next' stage.  Both of which generally allow for other entertainment to simultaneously occur (reading things online is my favourite).  I am using the magic loop method (or my weird version of it, I've never worked out if I do it 'properly' since I came up with it on my own- I never realised that people normally use two cable needles and that using only one was odd so I just figured out a method when I first started knitting in the round).

Row 13, which means it is a lace row.  I successfully do the first half of the circle.  I give my cable needle a gentle tug to pull things into place for the second half and- $%*&~!  Why is there just the unattached needle in my hand?  Where's the ruddy cable?  That must mean it’s come of the cable and …. oh no. Please don’t tell me that half my stitches have been pulled off... OK, I won't tell you but don't look at your hand...  And remember readers, that was a new (Sullivans- they are not on my good list so I'll name them! Besides the only reason why I know is because it was a new needle) cable needle.

Attempt #2.  Note the broken cable needle and that large stretch of unrestrained lace

So attempt #2 is dead (well I went to complain to Mum and when I said I was going to rip it apart she said she could probably use the remains on a card so I just cut the thread).

Attempt 3 is waiting until I get a new cable needle (NOT the same brand), probably some new bamboo DPN to start it with and a large bottle of something to make me happy.  I also went back and renamed this project in my Ravelry list.  Besides, Queen Anne's Curse sounds like a pirate ship's name which I like.