A Drop of Golden Sun

I'm coming up for air after a flurry of knitting with no accompanying blogging. Not much to report with lace knitting in-the-round. Yarnover this, decrease that, join another skein, blah-blah-blah. I had a little excitement when I realized I needed a seventh skein to complete the project, coupled with joy that the yarn shop still had another one in the same dye lot. So I decided to wait to bore readers with the details until it was finished. And as of today, it is. I finished knitting it with my knitting group yesterday morning, wove in the ends when I got home, and washed and blocked it in the afternoon.

Since it's cotton, I washed it in the machine. I wanted to make sure it didn't fall apart. It didn't. But it was so heavy when wet that the washer wouldn't spin fast enough to get it past soaking and merely to damp -- it caused the whole thing to go way off balance. So I tossed it in the drier on low for 20 minutes to get it to the right dampness. All pointers I can pass on to those who will be caring for it.

The picot edging has 240 points on it. Ideally, I would have pinned out each one, but I don't have that many pins -- or that much patience. I made do, trying to make sure that each point was 30" from the center, making for a 60" diameter -- which just about fits on this old beach towel that I use for blocking big projects. The only place with floorspace big enough was in the living room, so I had Jeff help me move furniture around to create a Fortress of Blockitude, impervious to curious dogs. Frankly, I was a little disappointed that Pona and Kate didn't show much interest in my efforts. But if I hadn't done it...

I'm always fascinated by how magical lace is, being based on nothing but making holes and gathering them back together. And how it never reaches its full potential until blocked. Even in cotton, it smoothed out and shaped up noticeably after a good blocking. The sun pattern in the center spreading out from the clever cast-on is my favorite bit. But I also like the diagonal lace bars that shift directions as they move outward. I thought the knitted-on picot edging would drive me crazy with the amount of time I anticipated it would take. But it wasn't too bad. The six row repeat was quickly memorized and was easy to read as I went along. I can highly recommend this pattern. It's not particularly difficult. And, as with most Jared Flood patterns, it's very well written. I can't wait to see how this is received!