Modifications

It's been a hectic week, and I haven't gotten a whole lot of knitting done. There's been some changes in the family structure, I should even change the text in my profile... I'm starting to lose count of all the kids, but last I checked there's five of them that live here now. Yes, five! There's benefits to getting kids by picking them up at the airport, but I tell you folks, the benefit of being pregnant for 9 months is to be able to prepare mentally for having another kid. Even a little less than 9 months might be enough. But try 28 hours. I'll just say that it's an adjustment for all parties involved.

But I've still managed to carve out a few minutes of me-time (read: knitting time) here and there, usually late at night. A few precious minutes that help me keep my head straight in this circus. ;) The Latvian mittens didn't get thumbs yet, since all I've worked on is Fina Hyrnan.

As it turns out, I had underestimated the amount of yarn I have for the scarf by, well, a LOT. And also that Fina Hyrnan was going to be VERY small. I think the instructions say 61 cm across the middle, top to bottom, but mine didn't seem to come even close, no matter how much I'd block it. And from experience, I know this yarn pulls back some after blocking, and doesn't hold the blocked dimensions very well, so it was going to be a small scarf. A tiny scarf. So I started looking for suitable lace patterns that I could insert in between the center and the border. The border is a leaf motif, so I wanted something leafy. This is what I found:It is by no means a perfect insertion -I'm struggling a little with making the increases look pretty and planned, not look like they somehow happened by accident. But the stitch count matches with the final border, so it should all work out. In the process I have gained even more appreciation than I had before towards people who design lace garments. I never thought it would be very easy, but now I know for sure! I only have a vague idea of how the transision from this border to the next will work, and I'm almost too scared to even put it on paper -what if it'll be a disaster? I do have some plans drawn out, but how exactly it will happen, I still have a few slow rows before I have to figure it out for real.

Here's a little more detailed picture of the inserted leaf border:

Like I said, I don't think it'll be perfect, but it will make the scarf more usable because it'll be a better size.