At Long Last.....


.......not just the Edwardian Lace Stole, but a photo in which I am smiling!! At long last. Indeed.


First - I know, I'm wearing that skirt again. It's my comfy skirt and I wear it all the time. And yes, with handknitted socks and clogs. So, that's out of the way.

Here is the Edwardian Lace Stole, from Heirloom Lace. It really is divine, though how useful it will be, I'm not sure. But is that the point of knitting - to make useful things? Not wholly, I think. But that's another story.

I could have knitted this stole in a month or so. Each repeat didn't take long at all - there are twenty-eight, so even if I'd knitted one a day, it would only have been a month. But six......... As I mentioned before, I just got bored with it. If it had been a sweater that I was looking forward to wearing, maybe I'd have hurried along a bit. The pattern was easy, though I had to get my head round the provisional cast-on and picking up the stitches from it, in order to knit the second half. It wasn't that this was difficult, it was more making sure I understood the directions. I have to say, whenever I had any kind of query, Sharon Miller at Heirloom was wonderful at helping out.

The really horrid bit of lace knitting is the blocking. How do people make it look so easy? I mean, they show a photo of their blocking in progress, and it all looks so perfect and even. I tell you, my attempt looked nothing like that. The edges weren't even - honestly, it was NOT a regular rectangle, as it tapered towards one end. I could not seem to manipulate the yarn to do exactly what I wanted. Maybe I was trying to stretch it too much width-ways to start off with and the yarn just had no more left to give when I reached the other end. I couldn't get the bloomin ends to match, and the pins had a life of their own: they kept popping out all over the place. And I'm impatient. Having washed the stole and throttled the life out of it, and then wrapped it in a towel and jumped on it a few times, it was pretty dry when I started pinning it out. So, after pinning for AGES, I gave it a quick blast with my most scary hairdrier and promptly unpinned it and tossed it over my shoulders. Bob's your uncle. Next time I am not attempting to block a lace ANYTHING without special, special wires.

I have another lace shawl to knit, in the KSH again. It's the Dove Shawl, and I've had the pattern since September. Will post a photo of it soon, though I think some of you may have come across it already. I'm fully expecting to take a long time knitting it, as I find the rows and rows of the same pattern repeats quite monotonous.

Thanks for the suggestions for Charlie's hat. I ordered some Twilley's in Ocean as soon as Jo mentioned it. Thanks Jo. And thanks Frankie, I looked at the Colinette after the event and like the look of it, so will try that out soon.

Friendsheep, the reason I'm so on track with my ufos, is that I don't have any new yarn to start anything else with. I've even had the KSH for the Dove Shawl since September!