It's a cool Sunday night in San Diego. I'm happy and listening to Julian Bream play classical guitar.
My friend Kai came to town and we went to dinner at Fat City since I had a 2-fer coupon. The food was good as usual there. I had the pork chop. I do not know how they get them so juicy. The server was nice. The salad was crispy, the dressing home-made. The sour dough rolls with unsalted butter were good, too. Fresh (not frozen) veggies. Fat City really does try. Kai had the New York steak, which they do well. They have an ageing locker like Emeril does in Las Vegas. Their beef is always yummy. Good value, too.
Afterwards we went for dessert at the Bali Hai, which sticks out into San Diego Bay on the must beautiful point. It has been recently renovated and the Hawaiian woodwork is really beautiful now. The night view of the city lights and ships and harbor action is to die for. As we were leaving you could see the first wisps of night time fog drifting across the bay. Lovely peaceful view.
I had the Rum Baba, which was very good. Dan and Kai had the Chocolate Lava cake. Wow! was that spectacular! I'm gettin' that next time. The Hawaiian music was fun. Gotta check 'm out when you get the chance. They even renovated the doof on the roof. What's that you ask? Look up as you approach the building.
Ruth wrote me asking about the skill level and costs to make the bridal shawl. Thank you for the compliments, Ruth. The yarn for the shawl cost $16.00. My sister Evva gave it to me, but I just googled "skacel merino lace" and found it for that price. One 100 g ball of Skacel Merino Lace and you will have enough left over for a nice scarf. Considering the spectacular result I do not think that is expensive. Just be sure you get the yarn shop to wind the hank into a center pull ball for you. 1375 yards is not a hand winding job for the faint-hearted. Add a few beads if you so desire, or leave them off. My sister Heather bought the beads so I do not know exactly what they cost, but I think not too much, they came from Michael's, not Jessop's. EZ wrote in Knitter's Almanac that the finer the yarn the more cost effective it is. She was right. The yarn for an ugly chunky bulky sweater might cost $300, but the superfine lace weight for an unbelievable art shawl is $16. Hmmm, I think I knit lace to save money. What do you think? Especially if you figure dollars divided by hours of entertainment, pennies for an hour of lace knitting fun.
Skill level? Well, give it a try, maybe on a smaller scale. If you cast on about 90 stitches and otherwise followed my pattern, you would get a triangular scarf. Maybe that would be more reasonable for a new lace knitter to try. Lace is just yarn overs and knit-2-togethers, arranged in a pattern. Oh, yeah, plus nupps for this one. If you omit the nupps and just plain knit the nupp stitch instead, it also makes a pretty lace pattern, and is not so challenging.
This fine lace means that the needles seem 'way too big at first for the yarn, but that is what it takes to do this, so just try and get used to it. You will think it is working up way too loosey-goosey, but then when you block it out, wow, it all pulls into place. All of a sudden you are looking at lace so beautiful it amazes even you! So trust me on the needle size for the first one. The yarn shop that sold me the needle told me I needed a much smaller needle for this project, so, I can tell they must not be lace knitters...
While this is not a beginner's pattern, it is also not over-the-moon hard. Why don't you try it, Ruth? If you get stuck, you can email me for help. I should warn you right now that lace knitting is like eating potato chips, you probably can't do just one...
Next post we will return to the next installment of the pattern, the edge points.
Lilo is helping me blog, curled up on top of my blue Norwegian knit slippers..
Goodnight,
Julie and Lilo
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