Today I’ve got a project with some backstory for you . . .

And it all starts HERE . . . back in 2009 with the Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf pattern from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.

Maybe you remember this pattern? Maybe you made one yourself? It was very popular back in the day. And I fell HARD for it at the time. I grabbed the requisite skeins of Koigu and cast on eleventy-thousand stitches . . . and off I went. (You knit this scarf from a lengthwise cast on – and knit it entirely in linen stitch while making fringe on either end as you go.)

I’ll say this . . . linen stitch is gorgeous. And pretty simple to do. But it takes focus. Total concentration. It’s slow. And it’s also unforgiving (there are no “resting rows” in linen stitch). And if you drop a stitch? Well, I’m sure you COULD fix it. But ohmygoodness would you want to? Because alternating yarns in fingering weight, and like I mentioned . . . eleventy-thousand stitches on the needles. Very, very long rows.

I think I cast on, started, got lost along the way, ripped out, started again seven or eight times. (Rinse. Repeat.)

Honestly, it probably wasn’t the best project for me to take on at the end of my chemo treatments (because “chemo-brain” is real). With an active high school junior and our foreign exchange student senior at home. (Boys. Loud. Very, very busy. All. The. Time.)

Ultimately, I gave up. Still have the yarn. Could try again. But I’m thinking . . . nah. (I’m over it at this point.)

So that’s the backstory.

I remain a total and absolute sucker for the look of linen stitch. And when I put that Churchmouse scarf aside, I swore to myself that someday . . . someday . . . I would find the perfect project and the perfect yarn and I would conquer linen stitch!

And now . . . I’ve found it! It’s THIS shawl – The Sampler – from Dawn Barker, the Assigned Pooling Guru. After MDK started promoting their assigned pooling workshop last spring, I looked closer at Dawn Barker’s other designs, and as soon as I saw The Sampler . . . I knew it was The One. An assigned pooling design, it features linen stitch mixed with stockinette stitch and some florets, and then some other stitches I can’t even fathom doing yet. (But I will.) And that Redwork colorway? Oh, my! I had that pattern and two skeins of yarn in my cart in a FLASH.

But . . . of course . . . I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew with another failed linen stitch project . . . So I devised A Plan!

  • Step One – Take the MDK workshop and learn to do that fancy floret stitch. (Plus just learn to deal with the whole assigned pooling Thing in an actual project.)
  • Step Two – Take on a smaller and more manageable linen stitch ONLY project. And, of course, Dawn Barker has one of those, too. It’s the Wakebrite Bandana pattern, which calls for an assigned pooling yarn . . . but is completely done in linen stitch. (Y’know . . . for practice.) (Plus . . . I am still in a bandana kind of mood, so WIN-WIN.)
  • Step Three – After I cut my teeth on the linen stitch bandana, THEN I’ll venture out and try The Sampler. (Maybe for next winter?)

             

I’m in knitting heaven right now, though. This bandana is charming the heck out of me! I love the stitching of it. AND I love the fabric it creates — from the weave-y looking front AND from the bumpy-looking back. It’s a perfect linen stitch project. (And it begins with only 6 stitches, so it was no problem that I had to re-start it several times before I got the hang of things.)

The only problem? It does take total concentration (for me, at least), so no television. Or chatting. And even audiobooks are a big stretch. Which means . . . I have another, more simple project on the needles, too. And I’ll tell you about that another day! (Any guesses????)

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How about YOU? What are you making this week?