Another one that was a long time coming ....

I'm trying to keep things mixed up: not too many beads or pins or whatever in a row. After a few beaded objects I thought it was time for some knitting. For a few years (and definitely a few years ago!), Knit Purl in Portland released 3 or 4 ornament kits each December. Guess what? I bought them. Not too surprising I guess.

One of the early ones was a sweet little star. It was knit in a beautiful Tilli Tomas beaded silk The kit came with silver yarn. I attempted it pretty much right away. I wasn't a great lace knitter at that point. I struggled with it, ripping it out multiple times. Eventually I got a reasonably close. Until the bind off.

The bind off calls for knitting with a piece of fine wire along with the silk.I remember struggling until I pretty much threw it across the room. By this time, the yarn was not at its best so I went and got some more in gold.

For years I have been working up the courage to try again. This year long project spurred me on.  I am a much better knitter now. The lace knitting was not difficult at all! I used 5 short double points, down a size from that called for (I always need to go down at least one size).

Then I got to the bind off. I clearly am not meant to knit with wire. After taking that out and getting things back in order on the needles I decided to bind off with just the yarn. Once that was done, I fed the wire through the edge. The wire is absolutely essential to shaping the star. It might have been better knit in but I think this worked fine. So fine that I might have enough silver that I can salvage to make another - maybe following the six pointed star directions instead.