New Lace

Even before finishing the Forest Path stole I had this idea to design something. I’ve always modified patterns in order to personalise them but this time I wanted to do something from scratch.

Here is Merilyn’s Stole.



It is my first, completely from scratch, lace design.

I'm using ColourmartUK 2/28 cashmere/silk and 2.5 mm straight needles. The chart was created using the free Knitters font and MS Excel. I think I enjoyed planning and charting everything almost as much as I'm enjoying knitting this stole.

Anyone who has the book, Heirloom Knitting, will recognize the different elements. It is a framed stole and the center is a modified version of the Alice Maud pattern. I’m knitting the edging using the Orenburg method. This way I will not have meters and meters of edging to attach once the body is finished.

As for Balmoral, well I’m at the halfway point on the edging. The Unst stole will also has to wait since I’ve become rather obsessed with finishing Merilyn. It’s all I want to work on. When I'm not packing or working on my new home, I'm knitting.

Happy knitting everyone.

A stroll through the Forest

Pattern: Forest Path Stole
Started: January 20th 2007
Finished: April 6th 2007
Yarn: Approximately 6 oz of JaggerSpun Zephyr in Jade
Needles: Knit Picks Options, 3.25 mm circular

Initially when I saw this pattern I knew I wanted to make it but without the seed stitch border. This is why I started with a provisional cast on and then jumped right in. However once I had finished the body all plans for a fancy knitted on edging went into the garbage. Because of the entrelac construction and the three lace patterns I just felt that there was too much going on and that more (fancy edging) would have just been too much. I’d also had enough of back-and-forth knitting so I decided to knit the border in the round.

I knew, though that I would need something to break up the monotony of all that seed stitch and thought that it would be fun to experiment with adding beads to the corners.


I’m not that sure how successful it was but it did help to make knitting the border a bit more interesting. The beads also add a bit of weight to the ends which, hopefully will help the stole to stay in place when worn.

I love the end result but I’m not that pleased with the blocking. I really don’t like the wavy edges. It might be time to invest in some blocking wires!

Not much time for blogging

Thanks for the nice comments. I really do appreciate it. I’m currently in the process of selling my home and moving into a much smaller space, so I’ve been really busy and haven’t had much time for blogging. Hopefully things will settle down by next month.

The Forest Path stole is finally finished. I actually finished knitting it last Friday but only got around to blocking it today. Here is a picture of it blocking.


I really enjoyed knitting this stole. I had tried entrelac years ago but just didn’t like it. I guess I just hadn’t found the right project for the technique. Once it’s blocked I’ll try to get some better pictures and do a better post.

Nearing the finish line!

I know it’s been a while. March was an abnormally eventful period in my otherwise quite routine life. There’ve been a lot of changes and through it all I’ve been knitting. There just hasn’t had much time for blogging.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I am a one project at a time kind of girl. Having three lace projects on the needle and several UFOs just wasn’t working for me. So I made a major push on the Forest Path stole and finished the body.



I’m now working on the border and hope to finish by next week.