Back in November, I found out that a friend who had been out of the country for 10 years was coming back home for good. Since he's been away, he's got married to a lovely girl he met on his travels. They've been home for visits at least every year, so we've all got to know her, but apart from these flying visits, she's never actually stayed in this country before. When I saw them in November, she was very taken with the little cardigans I had made for another friend's twins, so I thought it might be nice to knit her a welcome gift.
Although I've never knitted charted lace before, I've had the Frozen Leaves pattern in my list of favourites for a while, and had decided it would be my first proper lace project. That seemed ideal, and as they were planning on coming home at the end of February, there was plenty of time to get it done. I bought the yarn mid December (beautiful Drops Kid-Silk, in a deep red) and cast on straight away. The very next day I found out their plans had changed and they were now coming home in two weeks time - just before Christmas! My original plan had been to post it to their new address so that it arrived within a couple of days of them getting there, but clearly that was not going to happen now. I decided that if I had it done within a reasonable time of them coming home, I'd still gift it, but if not I'd keep it for myself.
The pattern was quite straightforward, and I really enjoyed knitting it. It took about 5 weeks to finish, and then about another 3 weeks to get round to weaving in the ends and blocking it. I knew the first chance I'd get to see them would be early February, at a friend's birthday party, so timing wise that was all OK.
I'm delighted with the way it turned out, and I do hope she likes it.
Pictures are available at my Flickr page, and a regular commentary can be found on my Ravelry project page.
