Leaf Pattern

I love paging through stitch dictionaries and imagining the potential for beautiful projects.  Each and every time I've browsed in this manner, I've thought to myself ~ I need to make a swatch of that.  And that.  And that.

Well, this time I actually picked up needles and yarn and got to knitting.  The very first pattern in the back of Knitted Lace of Estonia is the Leaf Pattern (Lehekiri.)

Cast on: 39 stitches (includes 4 border stitches on each side)

Needles: 3.25mm

Pattern Repeats: 2

Rows completed: 48 (plus border top and bottom)

Yarn: merino/nylon fingering dyed by The March Hare

Colourway: glacier

It was an easy knit; well charted; no nupps.  I experimented with adding beads on the three centermost leaves.  The swatch is large enough to get a gauge reading "in pattern" for future reference and yet small enough to be finished in an evening.

Then I thought about ways I could modify it.  Maybe arranging it with fewer leaves... and if so, what texture would work well for the fabric in between?  It's fun to think about such things.

And there's something about holding a knitted swatch.  You can appreciate the drape... you can fold it... turn it slightly to see how it would look at an angle... those sorts of things.

There's treasure to be had in knitting up swatches from patterns in stitch dictionaries.  It's relaxing and gets me to thinking in a creative way.  It's a practical, too.  Time to put those books on the shelf to good use and minimize leftover yarn in the process.  (Here's a link to the original project where I used this yarn.)