Starting an Epic Lace

The weekend was a little bit amazing, particularly if you include Friday.  On Friday I suddenly found myself knitting on this tiny bit of a corner.

It took almost no time to get to here.

And here we are, at the last single corner stitch.  Which meant only one thing.  It was time to put the knitting down and save the next thing for another day.  No point in screwing this up now because I was over ambitious.  I took the afternoon to sort out what was going to happen from here on in.

With my research into Hansel and my finding that I did not really have a plan when I bought the yarn, I came to the decision that I didn't want to repeat the feather anf fan stitch.  I have some very special Briggs and Little Sport for a good proper warm Hansel shawl, and that is enough.  I wanted something just as pretty as the wavy bands of that stich pattern.  It is so lovely as colours change.  What to do, what to do?

I took out my biggest best book figuring that it would have something. 

 I looked at Horsseshoe Lace but horseshoe lace is what the border is on the Bridgewater shawl.  It is lovely and would look stunning in bands of softly changing colours, but again, I wanted something different, something I had not knit yet. (No I haven't finished Bridgewater, but I intend to.)

I came across this pretty thing.  

And I think it will look lovely.  It has that same attractive flow I was looking for.  Delayed increases are what gives a lace design this trick according to the book and you can see it clearly if you follow the pictures. Row on row, you can see that gentle wave begin.

All the sides were picked up on the edges on  Saturday and each side was sorted out to fit the lace pattern.  It was all carefully marked by all the way around so I could get the foundation row right.  And then I stopped for the night.  I just didn't want to mess it all up.   

And here we are, about 6 rows in to the lace with the darkest of the colours.  The plan is to start with dark and go to the lightest in the centre and then flow back out into the dark for the border lace.  I do have 2 and 3/4 of a skein of cream left so I think the outer edge, whatever it will be, is going to be in cream.  I think that balance will feel right.   I have stopped for the evening on a garter stitch row so that when I restart tomorrow, I will have a row of easy to get warmed up before facing more of this lovely, delicate lace.    

What I really want to know is who is this responsible knitter who stops when it is time and who knows herself well enough to stop when she is tired?  Where the heck did she come from and where has she been hiding till now?  The gumprtion and passion to knit it and do it all right now is still the same.  I cannot wait to see the colours happen, but that energy is tempered by knowledge.  I don't have to do it all today.  I can wait and I know it will still happen.

This is another gift that knitting has given me.  Perhaps that is a gift that Covid 19 has given me too?  After all where am I going to go?  I am here, right where I always wanted to be, and am pretty contented with my lot.