Bronx Girl Knits!

Olympic Knitting

Betcha thought I wasn't going to pull it off. There were questions earlier in the week but it suddenly started to come together. I'm not going to lie, I have a repeat or two to go and a small issue with the previous row that I need to tink back but I think she's looking pretty good:


My plan is to finish tonight (I left it home so I could deal with the lack of a stitch in the row on my couch rather than the subway) and block the hell out of it this weekend. Either way there is no reason I shouldn't have it done by Sunday.

Now I was walking around yesterday feeling pretty damn good about myself. I mean I never finish things in time for a deadline, or at least if I do it requires a lot of last minute late night knitting and here I am totally on schedule. Yup the ego was pretty big yesterday. Then I went to my finishing class.

I was pretty excited about class last night as it was about blocking (also short row shaping and kitchener but blocking was what had me interested). I do block but not often and very informally. I wished I had blocked the Irish Hiking Scarf better, hell I wish I'd gotten a better picture of it but whatever. So the teacher brings out the lace scarf she is working on to talk about blocking and oh my it's Branching Out. So I mention to her that I am doing the same one and I pull it out. The scarf gets oohs and aahs from my classmates but the teacher (and the shop owner who was sitting in) were quiet. Ok, I figure they've seen better I didn't think much of it. Then she begins to show how when you pull the lace firmly you can see the pattern better. Now hers is huge. Much wider and longer than mine. It was done on much larger needles and was much more open than mine. It was more defined than mine when I started on the 10s but big and holey. I envision the scarf as being far more delicate but it's a nice version. I showed that mine was not very defined and then the criticism came. "I really would have used a larger needle" (the teacher) and "the yarn is far too fuzzy for lace" (from the shop owner). Now let me say these are very nice women overall but I was really hurt. If I was more of a novice I would have been devastated. The teacher did quickly put in that it will be a lovely scarf none the less but damn.

So now not feeling so good about my scarf. I can't lie that the fuzziness hasn't been bothering me a bit but the yarn on the ball is not fuzzy. It gets fuzzy as the scarf is worked on, especially after all the frogging, but the definition is definitely not there:

not a great shot but you get the idea

I've heard that Alpaca blocks beautifully so I'm still hopeful but seriously I think they could have been a tad more diplomatic in their comments.

Whatever dude, I'm gettin' a medal...

Have a great weekend everyone...