Leap of Faith

I did it! I finished the lace scarf for my mother's birthday and she loved it. It really was a leap of faith to think that the curled, shriveled thing in my hands, barely 50 inches long, would turn into what it was supposed to. After binding off, I took a deep breath, submerged the thing, squeezed it between towels and pinned it to my bed. I almost cried.

All those yarn overs, the knit three togethers, the dreaded slip slip knits. And the new to me slip two, knit one, pass the two slipped overs. Mark tried not to be alarmed when I told him I had 30 hours of knitting left in 4 days. Of course, I didn't get that many hours in, what with our regular life schedule and all. (The house keeping has suffered considerably during this project.) But it turned out that blocking lengthened the piece considerably, nearly as long as my mother is tall.

And my mother really did love it. She realized how complicated it was to do, I don't think she personally has ever done lace knitting. This was my first lace piece. She had four kids, so her attention span was even further reduced from mine. I often make gifts for my family that aren't so appreciated. I do it because I love to make things and because of my rebellion over mass consumerism. (Find the pattern here.)

My mother is sadly confused lately, this present was for her 81st birthday. A bit of luxury for a woman who now almost never goes out except to the grocery store or to take my father to his doctor's appointments. Part of her confused state has to be from lack of sleep, part of it from dementia. My 81 year old father has Parkinsons' and cannot sleep for more than two hours at a time. In 24 hours he'll sleep a couple, wake a couple, sleep a couple, never a consistent stretch of sleep. He often needs help getting up, so my mother gets up with him.

Opening this gift, however, Mom was not unclear at all. She knew instantly what it was, the hours spent on it in concentrated effort, the beauty of the fine merino wool. She understoond and appreciated the effort. It was the perfect end to a fantastically fun and interesting knitting project. I could not have asked for more.

It took a whole lot of self control not to tell my mother that the artifical scalloping on the edges was a mistake in blocking. I didn't read beyond the instructions to soak, wring and pin. Didn't read to the point where the lace book said if you have a garter stitch boarder you can create unwanted scalloping by pinning and that the procedure should be to roll it on dowels between cupboards. Still don't get that, but I'll know not to have a garter stitch boarder again and not to be in such a rush.

I'm already hunting around for my next lace project.