Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments. You make me blush. ;)

Sherie asked, “I've been wanting to try ColorMart's yarn, did you use one or two strands?”
I used the yarn single stranded. This yarn really fluffed up and lost it’s stringy appearance after washing. I think, in the future, I’ll wash it before knitting.

This may have been a bit of beginner’s luck or perhaps inspiration from beyond. I will have to try designing something else, just to make sure.

It's a bit hectic here since I have only a few weeks to get everything packed up. I hate packing and have been procrastinating, but now it’s down to the wire. I’ve been threatened with confiscation of my needles if I don’t start getting down to business. So the needles and yarn have been packed away for now. I’ll be back in June.

Happy Knitting!

Merilyn's Stole

Here she is. I felt she deserved a blog post all her own!



Pattern: Merilyn’s Stole – My own design using patterns from Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller
Yarn: CoulourMartUK 2/28 Cashmere Silk in Polka Dot – approx. 70g (1500m)
Needles: Aero 2.5mm straight needles
Started: April 14, 2007
Finished: May 3rd, 2007

I liked the look of the framed shawls in the book and wanted to see if I could design something myself. I used the Bead Diamond pattern for the frame and also for the center of the Alice Maud pattern. I also replaced the outer edges of Alice Maud with the Rose Bud pattern. The stole was constructed using the Orenburg method. First I knitted the bottom edging, then picked up the stitched required for the body and knitted the body, the right and the left edging at the same time. Once the body was completed I knitted on the top edging. This left just the small edging seam to sew up. I think this is such an ingenious method of construction. It does require a lot of planning so that the edging ends at the correct place. I miscalculated the number of pattern repeats and so my top edging didn’t end with a complete edging repeat.

These pictures are close-ups of the edging, the Alice Maud pattern and my modification of the Alice Maud center pattern.



Here she is in all her glory.




This shawl was designed in honour and named after my mother, who passed away nine years ago. Mother’s day was always a special day for us and every year I try to do something special to honour her memory. I had initially planned to wear this stole when I went to visit her grave, however plans changed. I have given it to someone who needed something special to remind her of how special she is. It is now with it’s new owner who I’m sure will love wearing it as much as I loved making it. I loved making it so much that I’ve already cast on for a second one.
Happy knitting everyone.

Friday Miscellany

I’ve been so busy packing and cleaning that I’ve forgotten to blog. So this is going to be a long one.

I finally organized my stash and now have five boxes of yarn to give away. It is amazing what you can accumulate in over 20+ years of knitting. I'm a terrible pack-rat who never throws anything out. So this has been a really difficult but necessary process for me. The yarn is going to my LYS and the owner will donate it to several local day camps and schools, to be used in their arts and crafts programs. This is a far better fate than languishing in my stash.

While organizing the stash I discovered these:

Two skeins of 45% yak/ 55% silk yarn. You can find this yarn at either Dimitys Dry Goods or Treenway Silks. I’ve purchased from both places and had excellent service. The good thing about Treenway, for me, is that it’s Canadian (located in BC). So I don’t have to worry about duty. I believe this is the same yarn Missalicefaye is using for her Pine Tree Palatine scarf. I purchased this yarn over a year ago and promptly forgot about it. It's now time to make something with it. I’m not sure what yet, but it will definitely be something Orenburg. I’ve been toying with the idea of making an Orenburg shawl using motifs from the book Artic Lace.

The other yarn, a more recent acquisition, is Flaxen from Hand Maiden. It’s a 65% silk/ 35% Linen blend. I love all things Hand Maiden and cannot resist silk/silk blend yarns. This one just followed me home and I have no idea what to do with it.

I’ve also managed to find time for knitting and Merilyn’s Stole is now finished.



My goal was to finish this by May 12th but it went faster than expected. Sorry but this is the best I can do right now. Photography really is not one of my strengths, but I’m trying. It’s supposed to be a nice weekend so I’ll try to get some better pictures.

Thanks everyone for the comments. They are truly appreciated. Since I never expected to get any comments, I’m not really sure how to best respond to them. I guess I’ll just wing it.

Ellipsisknits asked if I would be providing details of the pattern. For this one I think I’ll leave it as a one off. This was my first attempt at designing and I fudged so much of this and found so many errors in my charts that I’d be ashamed to send it out into the blogosphere in it’s present state.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy knitting!