What a Tangled Web We Weave...

I had the pattern to make this scarf for MONTHS.  And I had the yarn almost as long.  For some reason this particular project psyched me out a little and made me doubt my knitting skills.  It had cable-needleless-cabling.  And drop stitches.  Heavy on the drop stitches.  Drop stitches scare the living daylights out of me.  I was always taught that dropping a stitch was a bad thing, and even if it was intentional could possibly have disastrous effects on your previously knitted fabric if it was dropped at the wrong point.  Yes, these are the things some knitters fret about.

But at the same time, it had a spider.  Even as a kid the Greek Myth of Arachne and her weaving skills had always been my favorite story in Ancient Lit. class.  And it had webby bits.  And lace weight yarn...my fave.  So I finally pulled the yarn and needles out and gave it a go.

It was actually much simpler than I expected, other than rows 126-140 of the pattern being ill-written and needing to be done over for accuracy.  It took only 4 days time to finish it!

The spider bit was done on size 6 needles with 4 strands of merino wool lace weight held together.  I used KnitPicks Shadow lace in basalt, a deep grey color with hints of burgundy, black and violet mixed throughout.  This involved back cabling, twisted stitches and a "cluster" stitch that I had never done before but was quite simple.

The opposite end looks like the spider's web has fallen into disrepair, created by dropping a strand of lace weight , maing intentional holes and runs, and increasing your needle size as you go.  (I used sizes 6, 8, 10.5 and 13).  Even the fringe at the ends are reflective of this:  One side is neat, the other end is straggly and tattered looking...

I had SO much fun with this project!  I'm thinking of making pillows by modifying the yarn and needle sizes and just doing the spider bit framed with seed stitch...