I am a redhead. The red in my hair comes from a tube and the red in my temperament comes from my genes. There are a few exceptions to my “red” behavior. One is driving, when I started driving many moons ago in Israel, I decided that if I want to stay alive on those wild roads I better take it easy and this is how I drive since then. The second is knitting. I consider myself a confident knitter, I enjoy it a lot, it calms me and I usually lose my “redness” when I am knitting. I knit many presents and my knitting creations are always received with delight. I like to try new things in knitting and I don’t mind ripping off, so I am not afraid of knitting challenges (except that cutting of steeks – I don’t think I will ever try to do this. Oh and felting too, but this is another story).

Some time before the holidays while reading on Anne’s Blog about all her holidays’ gift knitting a thought cross my mind: I bet you she does not usually receive knitted presents; maybe I should knit her something? yes, I think I like this idea, But I can’t manage it for the holidays with our coming travel and all the things I want to finish for the holidays,,,, oh she has a birthday soon, I think I can manage to knit her something nice for her birthday! Oh and maybe while in Toronto I will be able to find some yarn she doesn’t have, fat chance, but I can try. I think I will knit her a red Hypoteneuse; She loves this pattern, she made the original for David, it doesn’t sound like she will have time to knit one for herself soon, good idea! oh and red, it must be red,,,,

Little did I know on that day what this good idea of mine will do to me. Never before a knitting project made me so nervous, it was a very interesting experience!

I looked in many yarn stores: first in Vermont, we even stopped at Webs on our way to Canada; Then in Toronto and as far north as Huntsville, Ontario. I found all sorts of reds but either the weight was wrong, the colour worried me (will Anne really like this colour?) or they didn’t have enough yarn in the colour I wanted. I end up with a few reds but I was not set on any of them. The one that was my first choice was Hand Maiden Casbah a beautiful soft new sock yarn that contains 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere and 10% Nylon but I had a few issues with it: first, I thought it is too variegated and I was worried it will pool too much (I had pooling issues with other yarns of Hand Maiden, they never bothered me before) and second I bought it in two different shops, I found one skein in Sheep Strings, Huntsville and 3 in Knitomatic, Toronto and this made my worries about the pooling even worse. I didn’t want to alternate between two skeins because I didn’t want to have the thread pulled along one side but I really didn’t want large splashes of colours, decisions, decisions….

We came back home on January 8 and I was still hesitating, I decided to swatch the Casbah and see how it will look in the pattern, the colour variation seemed to behave nicely so I found myself a new thing to worry about: the drape, I didn’t like the drape,,,, so I went up a needle size, better, but is this going to be good enough? I went as far as knitting a swatch in some gray alpaca I have in my stash but it didn’t convince me either and this red got stuck in my head so the gray looked too gray and dull to me,,,, maybe I shouldn’t knit her one of her designs, maybe I should knit something else, but what? maybe I should just forget about it and buy her something, oh my god,,,,

I decided to consult Debbie Knitter who knows Anne, she thought it is a great idea, she thought I should go ahead with it, she was sure Anne will love it.

So, I cast on and started knitting, it went smoothly, the pattern is a pleasure and I knew it by heart from the scarf I knitted for Sam for Christmas . The yarn was very nice to knit and the colour kept the project very interesting. But will Anne really like it?

I didn’t have much knitting time, we had a lot of work after the vacation and my arm decided it doesn’t like the constant small movements of mouse and needles and started to rebel, but I was on a mission. I counted days until the birthday, minus blocking and shipping days and kept close track on my progress, it seems like I will manage to do it. But how long should I make it, how many repeats should I make? My gauge didn’t fit the pattern so I added 2 pattern repeats in the width and was on my own about how many repeats I should knit length wise. I drove poor Anne crazy with questions about growth of lace in blocking, about the pattern about I don’t know what (I am sorry Anne).

I settled on knitting 21 repeats, I liked the mathematical balance: 7 patterns width should have 21 repeats, don’t you agree? I finished knitting on time and was quite happy to find out my preblocked size matched the pattern recommendation (little did I know then).

Next day I soaked the stole in soapy water and when I came to take it out I thought I am going to faint, the water were very red and as much as I washed the stole, the red didn’t want to disappear, I was worried sick. When the water was very light pink I decided it is enough and put it in a towel (trying to ignore the red spots on the yellow towel) and prepared the blocking area. I took the stole out of the towel and started to spread it and almost got a stroke, the thing grew and grew, I summoned Joe to help me and let him take over. We actually had to collect the thing back to a nice pile and then carefully spread it with as little stretch as we could manage, at this point I was ready to go order a book for Anne and declare a defeat,,,, I closed the door of the blocking room and didn’t want to see the stole again,,,,

Only after the stole was dry and I picked it up I realized it is very soft and pleasant to touch and when I wrapped it around me and peeked in the mirror I saw it is actually quite lovely and I can send it; But, I was still worried if Anne will like it or not!

Only when I saw the photos of her opening the package I felt calm again:

I think she really likes it, What a RELIEF !

Oh and you probably wouldn’t believe it (I know I had a hard time believing it) but she didn’t touch a Hand Maiden yarn before, I am thrilled with the success, it is worth all the anxiety I tell you!

And if you want to know the lesson I learned: when you knit lace and the size is important to you, it is not enough to knit a swatch, you need to wash and block it too!