Overview
Testing Silberblatt--yet another beautiful design from Jutta.

Resources
Jutta demonstrates closed cast on
Emily Ocker’s Circular Cast On
Knitted Cast On
TechKnitter’s tips for avoiding ladders on DPNs

Yarn
Using a decadently soft silk/wool/bamboo rayon…great drape, pretty sheen and holds a block nicely. Sport weight for a nice and BIG stole.
Photos on the dress form are closest to true color--a warm, rusty russet brown.

Notes
Beads Miyuki size 6 silver lined rootbeer…nice dark brown with flashes of topaz in the light.

Yarn Expenditure

Measurements
after aggressive blocking
19.5 x71”/43.5 x180cm

7/6
First skein 55.5g
Finally got a start that stuck (lost count of how many times I ripped out the first chart).
Used Emily Ocker’s circular cast on with a 3.75mm crochet hook and knit set up round (all k) on two dpns, then expanded to four on row 1. This cast on gave me meatier sts that behaved better on dpns.

Chart A finished, 52.4g left.

7/7
Switched to a 16” circular needle on row 21 of Chart B, knit one row and decided to suffer through Magic Loop; I need to be able to spread out the stitches occasionally to find my place/check for mistakes etc, and the 16” was just too short.

Chart B finished, 43.7g left

7/8
Chart C finished, 20.8g left.
Too big to stretch out fully for pics, even on my 47” circulars.

7/9
Started Chart D/knitted on border.
Using US 5 dpns needles for a firmer edge.

7/11
Charts D-E finished, 9.0g left
My holder is too short to stretch it out fully widthwise, but the stole should be at least 20” deep.
Started Chart F, slipping edge sts onto US 6 needles and using them for both wing and border.

7/12
First skein ran out after row 19 with 0.2g left (8.8g used so far).
Second skein 56.9g

7/14
Ugh, had to rip back 38 rows (76 if you count the WS rows)…to the beginning of Chart F! Somehow the dog got some of the excess working yarn trailing from the needles (guess some escaped the yarn bowl) looped around her leg(?) when she settled down at my feet; as I knit and the excess began moving up into the work, the movement startled her and she jumped up, pulling the knitting out of my hands. I grabbed the knitting out of instinct but this just pulled the needles out of half of it…by the time I got her to stop thrashing (I’m sure my cries of distress didn’t help) and rescued the stole, it was huge mess. Maybe I could have salvaged some of it but I’m terrible at lace surgery and ripped back out of frustration.

7/16
Finally reached row 38…again. Two days of knitting time lost. Good thing that dog is cute.
Chart F finished, 43.2g left.

7/17
Chart G finished, 34.0g left.

7/18
Got almost 3/4 of the way through Chart H before I realized I’d made a mistake way back around row 79…somehow my stitch count was right and everything lined up so I kept on knitting without noticing, but the tops of the leaves weren’t closed. Both sides, so it looks like I missed row 79 and it was just unlucky coincidence that the pattern lined up and the stitch count didn’t change.
Sigh…so much ripping. I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately; I’ve made the most ridiculous, obvious mistakes in every project I pick up and am feeling so frustrated with and generally bummed about my knitting.
Also realized I should have bound off purlwise on the left edge chart. How did I miss this?! I swear, the title of my biography would be Can’t See The Forest For The Trees. Not ripping all the way back to the center panel but it’s really going to bother me.

7/19
Chart H finished, finally. 5.10g left (put aside--don’t count in calculating final yardage)
Third skein 56.9g

7/20
Chart I and bind off finished, 46.8g left.
Used crocheted picot bind off--alternating sc, picot (ch3) except where indicated on chart (start with sc in first border st) and ch1 in between each stitch.
My knitting tends to be a bit on the tight side and I like to block lace aggressively so I thought I might need more room but the bind off ended up flaring, so I eliminated the ch1 for the second wing and it looked much better; went back and fixed the first wing.

8/19
Finally back home from our annual summer visit to my parents in FL; finished knitting today. Second wing, same as the first. No more major mishaps, ridiculously obvious oversights or misfortunate accidents but not sure how I feel about my stole. I love the pattern--it’s just beautiful, unusual enough to stand out but totally wearable, I adore the chunky, cushy mesh and I’m a sucker for nature-inspired motifs…but the stole feels like I knit all of the stress and sad of the summer into it. I think I’ll put it away for now and see how it feels next year?