13 days

I have long wanted to knit myself enough lace for a parasol, as this fair skinned redhead might be solar powered, but prefers indirect light. I finally scored the perfect umbrella frame at the dollar store on the weekend. Light, not too flimsy or big, white handle and tip and the 'fabric' is perfectly clear plastic. I dont even necesarily need to remove it!

Unfortunately I have no already knit lace in stash that's big enough. My largest current pieces are about half the size needed. Whoops.

A little under two weeks from now is Faery Fest locally, and I suspect we'll be going to it on the Sunday. I'd really like to at the very least. Last year, I baked and broiled in the unrelenting sunshine. This year, well. See the above mentioned parasol plan.

Which gives me 13 days to knit an umbrells sized lace piece and figure out how to attach it. GO!

I decided to go with Spiralen in the centre until I'm so sick of it I can't think, and then either edge it with a good wide edging, or crochet off, or feather and fan, or something else that I'll decide when I get that far. For the moment, a nice big spiral.

Attempt 1 with mystery blue poly-cotton, and 2.5 mm needles up to round 12 and while the mystery yarn has a lovely soft drapy hand, it's awfully thin and this is a structural piece. Soft super drapy hand is actually not a feature here.




Attempt 2 is with Clea 5 and 3 mm needles. It's much bigger and a bit more solid, which is probably good in an umbrella. Especially one that I want to finish in less than two week.



And here they are side by side, to get a sense of the size difference between them. This is the same pattern, knit to the same row, but different thread and needle size.



I apologize for all the crappy iphone photos, I don't usually bring the big camera to work, and that's where I do most of my photographs. Ah well.

The next big puzzle is what to do when I run out of Clea 5.