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Showing posts with label bridesmaid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bridesmaid. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Finished!

Joining Ginny for the week's yarn along.

I'm grateful that my last yarn along post wasn't deleted in the midst of Blogger's troubles last week; but some of the comments on it were, and I wasn't able to respond to others, which makes me sad. So if you commented on my last post ... know that I read it, and thank you!

I've just been knitting along with this final bridesmaid stole--it's a little less than 2/3 finished, unless I poop out after 8 repeats, which would make it almost 3/4.

I have, however, started blocking the others. Two so far. I've been having a little trouble getting all the pins in before this yarn (Kidsilk Haze) starts drying out, so with the second one I used a spray bottle.

AND I now have blocking wires. Lacing them through the edges is kind of tedious, but it does make it easier to keep them straight, and it lets me pull an entire edge a little further rather than attempt to make the thing wider pin by pin (and hoping they all line up in the end).

I only have the one with me, so photos of the other will come soon, hopefully by next week.

I don't really have good photos of this one either ... but here's what I have. It is the third stole I knit; the pattern is Upstairs.


My attempt to model it in the bathroom. Bleh.


I love how this yarn blocks. It has a beautiful sheen to it, and lightweight as it is, it really is warm. I don't have before-and-after pics (although I have some photos from when I was knitting it here and on Ravelry), but here it is side-by-side with a stole-in-progress to give you an idea.

I really do need to get better pictures of it at some point. And definitely at the wedding, but that's 59 days away. (Not that I'm counting or anything. :) )

As for reading--same as last week, except that I've finished What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us. A book of beautiful short stories; I really enjoyed it.

Monday, January 17, 2011

almost done ... bridesmaid stole #1: "seascape"

The next batch of Rowan Kidsilke Haze arrived a few days ago, so I can start the next bridesmaid stole soon. Depending on whether I decide to try out a different pattern (as opposed to having all the stoles be the same), I need to buy a new pair of needles first. In the meantime I've been knitting a cover for Keith's Kindle to take a break from all the lace. (He carries it around everywhere in his coat pocket.)

I've been waiting for a sunny day to take pictures, and it appears that the angle of light through the window was too sunny and a bit blinding; but there are pictures nonetheless.


This pattern is called "Seascape," and it's fairly easy once you get into the flow of it, although repeating the same chart seven times for the middle got a little boring. (This is why I'm contemplating switching things up a bit for the next stole and trying a different pattern, such as Dancing Cranes.) The picture above gives some sense of the size. (And of the general state of our living room: my books and papers all over the place.)

You can see that it's sort of lumpy and rumpled looking, as opposed to smooth and fluid. That's because I haven't blocked it yet. This will involve soaking the stole until it's good and thoroughly wet, carefully rolling and squeezing in a towel to remove the excess water, then pinning it out and letting it dry. It opens up the lacy openings in the fabric that make up the pattern--which means that it will get a little longer and wider in the process--and will make it look less ... well, "homemade," and more like this. (Except I'm also afraid it will make my mistakes more obvious. But practice really does make perfect: most of my mistakes are in the first half of the stole.)

I'm debating whether or not I should wait to block it so that I can use the unblocked size as reference to make sure any other pattern I choose to knit matches up. But I also want to make sure I'm happy with the blocked size ... and just see what it looks like.