Kleks

I haven't been this frustrated, and delighted, by a project since I first started knitting. The pattern is Kleks, and it sat in my queue for a long time. I love lacey, light, mesh shawls, but I was a little frightened by the many comments about difficulties with the stitch counts in the pattern. Since I didn't think I really wanted a mathematical headache, I tried to persuade myself to start a different shawl, one with a similar look and stitch pattern but that maybe would be a little easier. But I wanted Kleks.

I knit it out of madelinetosh prairie in Silver Fox. The yarn, too, was one that I had several good alternatives to, but I had to have this yarn, in this color. Don't know why. But I love it.

Kleks is indeed a challenging pattern, because it's really more of a formula than a pattern. The actual stitches are fairly simple, but as many other Ravelers warned, the stitch counts in the increase sections don't necessarily come out evenly. I struggled with that, probably much more than I should have. But on the upside, my confidence in fixing mistakes in the midst of relatively complicated lacey bits increased enormously. It was like an RPG, where you make 250 identical iron daggers and your competence in all things smithing increases. I fixed the same type of mistake 250 times, and suddenly my knitting skill went up a level.

I wore this shawl to my friends' wedding back in May (the wedding that I made the Tree of Life pillow for). It was perfect for a late spring evening in the mountains, and I was so thrilled to finally have it finished, and looking just as pretty as I'd hoped.