The End of The Striped Poppy Lace Scarf

My sad-looking Poppy Lace Scarf

After taking a few days off from knitting my Poppy Lace Scarf this week while travelling to and from Edmonton, I came back to it and knit a few more repeats of the pattern. I decided this scarf needed an early demise.

Not because of the pattern, because it's a great one.

It's early demise came from the fact that I really wasn't liking this yarn choice for it.  The self-striping sock yarn would be better used in socks, or a scarf that doesn't have a lace pattern to see.

I blocked the scarf last night, and it was dry this morning, so I photographed it and added it to my charity knitting.  The blocking didn't lengthen or widen it much, so I think this would be a better size for a child/youth, or just a short scarf to wrap around your neck underneath your coat.

I enjoyed this pattern. I didn't enjoy my yarn choice.  In the photos I've seen of this scar done in solid colours, I really loved how it looked.  I'll knit this again in the future, however, I'll be using a solid colour next time so that the pattern actually shows up.

Chalk this experience up to trial and error, lessons learned, etc.

Poppy Lace Scarf - In The Beginning

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have begun working on the Poppy Lace Scarf .  It is a 12-row repeat, and you knit these rows until you get to the desired length you want.

Unfortunately, I made the wrong choice of yarn for this pattern.  Unless blocking will help considerably, the pattern will be lost in the stripes.

I'm not too upset by the poor choice of yarn for this pattern.  To me knitting involves taking chances with your yarn selection or colour pallet.  You'll never know how a pattern will turn out unless you try it.  I've knit socks or scarves or hats thinking that they wouldn't look good in the colour or type of yarn selected, only to have it turn out looking quite beautiful.

As in life, you learn from your mistakes.  You can frog what you've started (if you aren't satisfied with it), or you can continue to go on and use it as a learning tool.  And what I have learned from this pattern and yarn choice is that if you use a lace pattern that has a specific pattern you want to show up, don't use a self-striping yarn.  This yarn would have been better in a plain stocking stitch pattern, or maybe an eyelet pattern that would show up on each (or every other) row.  Live and learn.

That being said, this pattern is pretty easy to follow, nothing too difficult, but it's one you need to pay attention to, otherwise you'll end up with a mistake (but then isn't that true of most lace patterns?).  I will likely knit this pattern again, though I'd use a solid colour yarn instead of self-striping.  I should have taken a cue from the pictures of the scarves on the Ravelry page (where this pattern is found) and used a solid colour for this scarf.

I'll post a picture of the completed scarf once it's blocked and see if it looks any better than it does now.  I don't know when that will be as this coming week I will be heading to Edmonton for four days and won't be taking this to knit in the car (since I need to focus on it). I'm looking for more of a "mindless" pattern to knit that is easily memorized. I haven't made the choice yet as for the type of item I'll knit, though it will probably be a scarf, hat, or socks.

Happy knitting!