Just a simple sweet project, right?

Ah, the holidays, a time of sharing… including things we would rather not be shared. Our household got off comparably light with just a cold shared around. Even so, on the heels of the stress of the holiday season it left me pretty tired and the knitting projects I had going didn’t seem right for my mood at the time.

A few months ago I purchased a gradient yarn, Blossoms from Wonderland Yarns in the colorway Gladiola from the new local yarn shop. It’s a lovely deep pinky/peach which fades to white in a squishy soft sport weight. The color makes me think of delicate and brief winter sunsets, so it seemed a good match for the depths of winter, matching both the feel of the time of year while having a bit of color against grey days.

The challenge with gradients is always how to use all the yarn. I selected a pattern I’ve used before, Mimi, which I am extending a bit to use up an extra 50yds as compared to the original pattern. It was a good fit for feeling under the weather, because the first 22 rows are very simple repeats, growing it at one dc per panel per row.

Snag #1 – apparently when I purchased the pattern some time ago, I only saved the French version and now that’s all I have available for download. I’ll admit, looking up French crochet terms while battling a cold wasn’t originally my plan. Again, it’s a pretty simple pattern until the lace border though, and turns out my French is still solid enough that reaching and following the instructions for the “bride fantasie” or “fantasy double crochet” wasn’t too hard.

Snag #2 – As written, it’ll only use up about 4.5 of the 6oz of yarn, and I’ll barely scratch the white section of the yarn. The lace border can’t be started at just any point, but per my calculations I should be able to add 4 extra rows of increasing double crochet and then only modify the lace border a teeny-tiny bit.

However, I’m going to be weighing my yarn periodically here on out to check. At 20 DC per gram, I should be able to make it. I think… Of course, the rate of consumption of yarn changes when I hit the rows for the lace.