Dec 5, 2010

• finally finished my first lace yarn using my boy’s fluff! I made a very fine ply of angora (blue in color to be exact) and a fine ply of white silk, and combined them together to get a light lace weight yarn. Both singles spun on feather-light Golding handspindles.
• the color reminds me a bit of sterling silver… with a bit of soft dove grey and the shine of the silk. So far, just in handling the knitted piece a bit, there is a light halo beginning to form… can’t wait to see how it goes!
• I have been admiring orenburg lace for quite a while now, and I have bought some fairly complicated patterns for some day down the road when I have the skill to tackle them… but for now, this simple stole looked perfect for my (very basic) skill level. This will give me a chance to try out the basic elements and see how it goes from there.
• I have been using the Gossamer Webs Design Book as a supplement to this pattern to make sure I have been doing the stitches properly.
• I went up a few sizes in needles already, because I am a tight knitter, and I wanted this fabric to be light and airy in the end. On the 2mm needles, there wasn’t much space between the stitches. Maybe someday when I have been able to spin actual gossamer yarns I will be able to try a more authentic needle size for this type of pattern.

Dec 12,2010

• I know I should be finishing my holiday knitting. Sometimes though you just need a little diversion.
• I finished the 10 points, and turned the corners as outlined in Gossamer Webs Design Collection, and then picked up the stitches across the centre.
• I am finding that following this pattern is a bit of a challenge, since I don’t really know the stitches (aka I have no idea what I’m doing!)
• ERRATA: in the “points” chart, there are some decreases missing. When you are decreasing back in on the point, you need to do a K2tog after the YO on the right side rows (in addition to the K2tog at the end of the wrong side rows) in order to make it work.
• picking up the stitches wasn’t too complicated, but I forgot to twist the stitches as I knit them across… so I knit the next row through the back loops, hoping to make it look ok.
• Strawberries: so far so good… the charted instructions match up with the Gossamer Webs Charts, and I got them to work out first try.
• I think I am learning to “read the holes” for the border. I don’t need to look at the pattern anymore to know what to do. I can tell by the placement of the hole, and how many there are, where I am.

Dec 15, 2010
- more on the Blog… but making some progress on the “strawberries” themselves, ready to start the next lace section tonight… maybe… if I’m a good girl and finish all of my chores…

Dec 28, 2010

• Finally sat down to pick away at this again, now that the holiday knitting is over. I still have a few projects to finish, but nothing on a strict timeline for a while
• Started the “fish” eyes section, and I am making some good progress… up to the first strawberry in the diamond pattern now.
• the Fishies are pretty simple to “read” as far as lace goes. On the first row you work your YO K2tog for the “hole” and then on the reverse row as you go back, you work the YO from the previous row, and then make a new YO k2tog. I generally find lace where both the front and reverse rows have pattern, but this particular one is easy.
• I can totally understand how with practice you could work this type of pattern without following a chart. The Fishies are one of the first lace patterns that I think I could do that! yay!

Feb 2, 2011
- making some good progress… started on the second ball of thread, and am in almost 2 diamond pattern repeats! I think I will do 3 repeats and then pseudo-block to get an idea of how much the length will stretch in the end. How long are you supposed to make stoles anyways?

Mar 3, 2011

• I had taken a bit of a break on this one, but started knitting again last night and completed 6 rows!
• I really need to keep on doing a few rows per evening on this one, and maybe someday I’ll manage to finish it!
• I think I might have almost enough yarn spun to cross the finish line… The scarf (unstretched) goes from the floor to my waist already,and has quite a bit of give to it when stretched… I think it will grow a lot during blocking. I want to complete my next diamond repeat and do a pseudo block to see if it might be long enough!

March 21, 2011
- Finally Finished! completed the knitting and blocking over the weekend. I really really love this stole. The shape, the length, the cobwebby light texture…. everything about it!