It’s Furious Balancing

Copper dragons…are born tricksters and jokesters. They are quite devious and clever, but their intent is purely benign.  They do not seek to harm  ‘lesser’ creatures, but merely wish to impress them with superior intelligence and wit…. When it comes to combat, copper dragons prefer to avoid it.  Rather than fighting openly, they prefer to taunt, humiliate, and tease their opponents until they simply give up and run away…. When forced, however, a copper dragon will fight to the very end, and is an incredibly devious antagonist.  (Source:  Dungeons & Dragons Wikipedia)

I’m a quiet person, for the most part:  Introverted; decidedly not flashy; dressing primarily in black, gray, and shades of blue.  Every now and then, however, I want something outside my comfort zone.  The last time this happened, it was yarn.

Yeah, yeah;  I know.  “Yarn?  You’re really riding the razor’s edge, aren’t you, Laiane?  Yarn?  Big whoop.”

This yarn was different.  This yarn sang to the deepest, darkest corner in my heart.  It was a precious metal, sunlight on gemstones, the color of the treasures of the earth.  It was Alchemy Silk Purse in the Desert Song colorway, and it made me think of dragon scales.

I wanted a lightweight scarf to go with my lightweight leather jacket, and the pattern I chose was perfect.

PROJECT NOTES – Copper Dragon Scarf

Pattern: Dragon Scales Scarf, a free knitting pattern from Heritage Yarns.

Size: After blocking, 6 inches by 42 inches.   I got to block lace for the first time with this project.   I bought lace blocking wires and everything.

Yarn: The aforementioned Alchemy Silk Purse, a 100% silk yarn, slubbed and highly reflective.  My only complaint with silk is that it doesn’t have a lot of “give” to it, so it’s almost like knitting with cotton.  Almost, not quite.  Silk is much sexier.  The silk also presented a blocking challenge to me, since I didn’t want to do my usual wet blocking.  I had read that silk becomes very fragile if you soak it, and I wasn’t taking any chances with this scarf.  I used the blocking wires to stretch the project first, then I sprayed it with water to “set” the stitches.  I did this on the futon in the Cat Room,¹ after carefully covering it with towels to avoid the transfer of cat hair.  I covered the blocked, stretched, wet scarf with a bed sheet.  Cats and lace knitting is An Accident Waiting To Happen.

Needles:  Addi Turbo Lace Needles, 24″ circular, U.S. Size 6 ²

Mods: None.

Challenges and Stuff: The aforementioned blocking of silk.  My first real lace project.  The Rose Red Beret had lots of what I call “lace elements,” but it wasn’t a super-fiddly charted pattern with fine yarn and lots of yarnovers and ssk’s and k2tog’s and such.  You know – Real Lace.

I’m going to doom myself right now and declare that Lace Knitting is Fun.  Well, taking something that looks like ramen noodles and transforming it with water is the fun part.  The actual knitting part of the equation isn’t so fun since it requires higher standards of perfection on the part of the knitter.   You can’t fudge a few accidental yarnovers and expect your scarf to look like the FO pictures that come with the pattern.

Not too much, anyway.

* * * * *

1. The Husband and I have a three bedroom house.  One bedroom is a real bedroom.  The second is my study, and the third is The Cats’ Bedroom – and Powder Room. [↩]
2. Note to self:  Buy more of these.  The Bestest Lace Needles.  Ever. [↩]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 6:40 pm and is filed under Knitting, Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.