Christmas Secrets

Here is one of the Christmas secrets I was keeping.

It was a Christmas present to my sister.

The pattern is the Black Olives Stole. I had just enough of the 100% rayon cone left to make this second stole. Plus I knew she would love it!

I lost my blocking mattress so now I'm using a pink insulation board. Worked great! Pinned it on the bed then moved it to finish drying on the upstairs stairwell.

Black Olives

Well, I had a first today!

I added my Black Olives pattern to Ravelry...for sale!

I hope others like it as much as I do!



Description:
A summer stole knit with 100% rayon. This easy lace pattern has direct links to tutorials. This is a charted pattern. No grafting required. Size 5 needles.

for $4.00

Upstairs

My dd is planning on attending a Homecoming dance. She has had her dress for a few months and we thought a nice warm wrap would look pretty and functional for a cool October evening. She decided on the Upstairs Shawl (it is rectangular) after looking through the millions of choices on Ravelry.

We then had to find the perfect yarn. Of course I had procrastinated on picking out the yarn so time started to become an issue. We ordered some pink lace weight online. It looked the perfect color on the monitor but was too purple of a pink in real life. Then we tried Cascade Sock yarn. It is so very soft but after knitting up a swatch it was just too brown of a pink. Our last attempt was successful. It is Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in the Peppermint colorway. It is very, very soft and a pleasure to knit!

The pattern is knitting up fairly fast. Although I am working hard to get it done by Sept 21st to make the Seasons of Lace deadline. Plus the dance is early October so I want it done soon anyway. I am almost halfway done and I started it Sept 3rd.

The original pattern is in German. There is a Free Ravelry download of the pattern in English.

I decided to start the pattern with a Provisional Crocheted Cast-on so that each end would look the same for the bind off. I may also decide to add a small knit on border on the short edges. Then I wouldn't have to think about the bind off not being stretchy enough when it comes time to block it.

I can't wait to see it blocked! I wasn't enjoying this pattern when I did the swatch. It just didn't look right. We even decided to start looking for a different pattern. Then I blocked the swatch! Wow! That changed our minds completely!

Black Olives

Finished and blocked!

Size: 20" x 69"

The yarn is one cone of Rayon Petalspun (Art. 2025) from Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co. in black. This yarn is very soft. I just weighed what is left of my one pound cone. It is about 8oz. So I used about 1/2 of the cone.

It was knit on size 5 bamboo needles. I used circulars because that is what I had available at the time I started this project.

The pattern is one I was writing up to be a cloth pattern but upon knitting the cloth it cried out to be a stole. I thought it would look nice with a knit on border that complemented the diagonal main body. I plan to write up the pattern and make it available on Ravelry.

I chose this yarn because I wanted this stole to be able to be used with my swimsuit at the pool on those cool days. I didn't want to worry it would lose its blocking if it got wet. The pool closed before I finished but I did get to throw it over my shoulders once while I knit on the first border. I also wanted the yarn to have a bit of a sheen to it so it would go nicely with some of my outfits. (Not this particular outfit! I wore this so the lace would show up nicely in the photos.)

Tick, Tock

I'm biding my time.

I love knitting socks so I signed up for "Summer of Socks". (Link to group at Ravelry) Sign ups are now closed because the start date is fast upon us...Saturday June 21st! But that also means that I've been waiting and waiting to cast on for a sock. I really miss having a sock project along in my purse to take up those wasted minutes that present themselves unexpectedly.

I haven't cast on another lace project either because I also signed up for Seasons of Lace. (Link to group at Ravelry) Lace socks also count! Anything lace! It also begins June 21st. Sign up for that group is still open a few more days I think.

And I thought, "Hey, if I'm going to be knitting lace why not sign up for the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl Along group?" Whew, what a mouthful. Cut and paste comes in handy. Here's the Ravelry link for that group. The first "clue" was posted on the 14th of June. I'm still swatching and waiting for the starting gun for Seasons of Lace before I officially cast on for this circular shawl. Sign up is still open for that as well (as of today anyway).

I also started messing around with a new cloth pattern but it turned into a stole with a knitted on border on both ends. I've swatched for that too...but not with the yarn I want to use exactly. I've swatched and blocked with 100% mercerized cotton (fingering weight). I'm currently swatching with Euroflax linen (sport weight). But I've got some yarn (cotton/linen blend, lace weight?) on order to experiment with. I didn't want to spend a lot of money since this is all an experiment. And I wanted a yarn that I could wear over my swimming suit at the pool. Some not-so-hot days I'd rather throw on a cover up than an old beach towel. I'm cautiously optimistic about this project at this point.


Since there aren't any pictures...
This is Caesar. We inherited him from my mother-in-law after her fall last October. He is a friendly bird and loves to greet daddy when he gets home from work. He also loves his veggie/noodles, showers and chattering! He doesn't like to be pet but he does like to sit on your finger, or head, or toes, or whatever. This picture shows him getting comfortable on my daughter's arm with his foot up. Look at all those new little head feathers!