Secret of the Stole

Ok, I must come clean. A couple of years ago I joined the monthly dishcloth club and become addicted to kntting "mysteries". Then I joined the bookmark club and the fun continued. Now, since the MS3 I think it has become an obsession :o). I heard about the Secret of the Stole being organized by The Nautical Knitter and just had to join. All of this just to justify that I bought more yarn and started a new project even though my WIP's number in the double digits!!!

So ..... we go from this:

Knit Picks Shadow

Colorway: Jewels

To this - using my very own swift and ball winder. Such a joy!

To this!! I knit this swatch using US size 3 needles and #11 silver seed beads that did not show up very well in this photo but stand out quite nicely in person. I am ready for lift off!!! :o)

Ravelry

Only 3381 people ahead of me!! YAHOO!!

September Mid-Month Cloth

I finished the Mid-month cloth and it is really cute!!! I thought it would look great in my kitchen - liven up the counter - add some color - make things brighter .....

But my almost 6 year old daughter had other ideas :o)!! I added crochet ties to the edges and now - presto chango - cloth to barbie dress in 15 minutes flat!!

Another FO!

A "Very Berry T-shirt" from MAGknits hot off the needles. I used 100% corn fiber Amaizing yarn from WSTC on size US7 needles. It fits my youngest daughter very well, but she has to wear it now as it is a "perfect" fit :o). Tonight I will weave in the ends and sew up the underarms and tomorrow she can wear it to school!!

A closeup of the detail on the bottom.
Also OTN - just caston on for the Hanami and also for the Icelandic Shawl. I have yarn for the Bee Fields and am probably going to wind it this weekend and then cast on for that as well. All these beautiful projects are so exciting it is hard to actually do my chores and not have the kids play by themselves :o)

Here are my cakes!!! I just received my new ball winder and swift in the mail and had to try them out! These cakes are my first try at using the swift and they are a little loose on the inside, but they will do :o) They are Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in the Mist colorway for the Hanami Stole. I can't wait to start

Below is my swatch on size US2 and I'm not sure if I like it. I'm not sure the "solid" part are solid enough for me. Hmmm ... to swatch on smaller needles or not?

This is a close up of the beads I chose. Clear with white on the inside and blue. I am trying to decide which ones look better for this project.

FO's

Two more bookmarks from the bookmark group. My husband immediately took the blue one for himself!! It's the first bookmark that has appealed to him so I was very happy!!

I finally used the new stripes cotton yarn from Sugar n Cream. I really like these yarn colors!! I now have a few more of the stripes yarn in different colors. This might be a trend for me :o)

MS3 blocking

This is how I blocked my stole. I have never blocked anything except a bookmark before so please ignore my ignorance :o)

First I took some normal kitchen twine and thread it through ALL the holes along the sides of the stole.

Then I pinned it to a 4 foot by 8 foot piece of insulation board with aluminum foil type stuff on the outside and a foam core board on the inside.

I did it dry because I was afraid I would truly stretch it out of shape if I got it wet first. Then I sprayed it with a bottle of plain water until it was really, really wet.

The pinning part did not take as long as I thought it would. I thought it would take hours and I would have to protect it from the kids, but all told it only took about and hour.

This is the wing part.

And this is the other part.

Here is the whole thing pinned down. I realize that on most people's the wing is straight, but mine is a little curved. I hope this is ok.

I can't wait for it to dry so I can see what it really looks like.

The Stole - She is DONE!! :o)

But not yet blocked. I was so happy to finish this that I immediately had one of the kids try it on and take pictures. This is DS#1 (He is 7 and a half) and he was more than happy to pose for these photos!!

This is a picture of the wing the evening I finished it. I can't believe it's done!

The stole blocking. I made an interesting discovery when I tried to stand up this blocking board. The board is 4 feet by 8 feet and our ceilings are supposed to be 8 feet tall so I assumed that I would be able to stand the board up against the wall near the stairs behind a couple of small bookcases ..... no way. Our 8 foot ceilings are probably no more than 7 and a half feet high!! Pretty funny huh?! No wonder my brother-in-law who is about 6 and a half feet tall always looks taller at our home than in his own!!!

This is the hemlock ring doily that is being made into a blanket on the Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hemlockringkal/

This is a really fun and it seems to be a quick knit although I have yet to finish. Probably because I have too many other things OTN that I keep rotating through depending on the day and what I feel like knitting! :o) I saw the blanket first on Brooklyn Tweed's blog: http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/

He is amazing!!

DDS#1 thought this was a great hat and wanted me to bind off immediately and give it to him.

One of my good friends is due to have a baby boy at the end of this month so I decided to make him a baby blanket for his baby shower. I used white terry cloth material because it is just so very soft and cozy and then I did some embroidery on it. This embroidery came with the fabric. BUT I did embroider our name and the date on one of the corners. It turned out pretty cute I thought. The really funny part is that when my friend opened the gift, she thought that it was a towel (and so did all the other guests!) - after I looked more closely at it through their eyes I had to agree!! So...I did not correct them :o) He will have a very nice towel to be wrapped up in after his bath now instead of a blanket- Oh Well, this is where it is the thought that counts right?? :o)