Friday, February 08, 2008

Night Blocking (Sampler Stole Crawl)









I finally got around to blocking the Sampler Stole on my hands and knees using foam tiles, blocking wires and lots of pins.Bocking at night means that it will not be dry until some time tomorrow unless I get impatient and hit it with the hair dryer :-) I once again showed that I can knit an entire stole and still manage to screw up the grafting on the edging. Other than this, I think I did OK. Once I get a few shots of it off the wires, it will go to Yarn Place as a shop sample. and I can go back to knitting the Princess Shawls edging. Whew. No more stoles for awhile. I am still knitting on the "International Shawl" and there was some difficulty in and around row 105 just as fleegle predicted. Stuff just wouldn't line up as it should but I finally got through that patch and will continue on. Not the prettiest fixes but they will just have to do. My sister always warned me that patterns for knitting almosts always have errors in them but finding them while you are knitting lace really is not fun even with poor fleegle leading the way. I will try to get pictures once I make a little more headway. I am on a spinning jag so I started in on the Blue Moon merino/silk I got at Stitches West 2007. Yes, I held onto it for a year but that's nothing compared to some other things I have waiting to be spun. I plan to finish a few more things and then I hope to start a whole new slew of projects all at the same time so I can have lots and lots of variety. I have to make a decision about the two projects that are just sitting there, WRS and Shetland Tea Shawl. This weekend I'm going to pick them both up and try a few rows to see if I can kick start to finish them. It would be really nice to be able to get them done so I won't feel any guilt with new projects . Until my next post, have fun with whatever you are knitting!

26 comments:

Opal said...

The stole is beautiful! The spinning is beautiful! Everything! Beautiful!

I love the inspiration. *happy sigh*

Agneta said...

it's so beautiful. And the yarn youv'e spun real fine to. Will love to see what you will knit with it.

Knit Picking said...

Love the stole! The colours are gorgeous. I can't wait to see what you'll "lace up" with the fine yarn you just spun.

Laritza said...

OMG! The colors are spectacular! and you did a wonderful job as always.

Anonymous said...

My goodness, that's a gorgeous stole! And though I'm not exactly experienced in the ways of finding errors, I can't see a problems with the border nor the grafting. And that's a beautiful yarn you're spinning, too; it looks like it'd be heavenly to touch!

Janice in GA said...

The stole looks very nice! I do like the long color repeats and the way they shift along the stole.

Knitting long edging is absolutely one of the most tedious things on earth to me.

Anonymous said...

Breathtaking. Simply breathtaking.

Soo said...

Beautiful stole. I love the lace -- I've already spent 10 minutes just checking out the different stitches.

(And despite my staring at the photos I can't see any problem.)

fleegle said...

Dear Jane--

The stole is beautifully knitted and has interesting coloration. I am glad you finally finished it!

Dropped a stitch on International, so it has to wait for me to fix it--I hate fixing dropped stitches in lace. I forgot what row I am on--up to the last twisted flower.

Karla (ThreadBndr) said...

I love the stole. That's becoming my favorite shape for lace. It's flattering on all body types.

I can see what you mean about the color shifts. It was jarring in the border closeup a while back, but I don't think that it bothers me so much when looking at the entire blocked piece.

Carol said...

Beautiful. And I don't know what you are looking at when you say you screwed up grafting. It looks lovely. So there.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful stole. I really, really like that the colours don't complete with the pattern.

Judith said...

oh so gorgeous!! I love the Graceful colorways (that's what this yarn is, no?) but what I'm making with it is kindgergarten compared to this intricate shawl. thanks for sharing this lovely piece with us!

Lacefreak said...

Dear Opal,

Glad you like it! It's now with the people at Yarn Place since I made it as a store sample for them so all I have left now is the pictures :-)

Lacefreak said...

Dear Agneta,

Thank you. It's not as thin as some things I've spun but it's not bad.I have decided to try a Niebling pattern with it. It's the tablecloth (original in pink) from a previous blog post. It doesn't have a name printed in the magazine but I think I saw one of these knit up at Lacis in Berkeley so I will go see if she knowns what it's called.

Lacefreak said...

Dear Knit Picking,

Thank you! Over all I like how the colors came out and it looks nicer in person than in the pictures. I have started on a Niebling that was a tablecloth pattern with that hand spun because I'd like to see how it works with that type of lace. Hope it's not a terrible mistake :-)

Lacefreak said...

Dear Laritza,

I'm glad you approve :-) It really did come out pretty nicely over-all but no more stoles for awhile. That edging was murder!

Lacefreak said...

Dear Ria,

Thank you! The graft is only about an inch and a half that joins one end of the edging to the other end when you make it all the way around the stole. It's very obvious that I suck with the whole grafting thing, but it still manages to elude me. The Polworth really is very soft to the touch. Not as soft as Merino, but pretty darned good! It's a nice change of pace.

Lacefreak said...

Dear Janice,

I don't know why I hate it more when I edge a stole than a square or round shawl. Not that I love those either, but I think it's the fact that the ends are so short that it's frustrating how long it takes to reach them. You know you will zip through the short ends so it's sheer drudgery until you finish. It's a challenge to knit lace that will not look bad with variegated yarns sometimes but this one looks good :-)

Lacefreak said...

Dear Michellew,

Thank you! Lots of people have knit this pattern before me and I think they have all looked terrific too :-)

Lacefreak said...

Dear Soo,

Unless I take a close-up shot of the inch and a half graft site on the edging, you won't see the bad graft job. I guess it just stands out for me since I know I still can't graft. I'm happy you like this one :-)

Lacefreak said...

Dear fleegle,

I'm very glad to be done with this stole since I want to start a bunch of new projects so I can do the knitting/juggling thing. As for dropping of stitches "Ouch!" I hate it when I do it but I hope you can correct it with a crochet hook and that you don't have to pick back. I'm at the very start of the last flower myself. I hope there are no more errors in the chart (sigh).

Lacefreak said...

Dear Karla,

The shifts looked better once the stole was fully blocked but i still wish the changes were a little more subtle. Oh well. Can't have everything! I like stoles a lot myself since they tend to stay on me better than other shapes.

Lacefreak said...

Dear Carol,

LOL! OK, I will stop bitching about it :-) Glad you like how it came out!

Lacefreak said...

Dear Ted,

I'm pleasantly surprised that the patterns showed so well even with all those colors in the shawl. Now I will see how the handspun yarn fares with one of the Nieblings :-) I am hoping that the "mesh" will help break up the colors that are shifting and isolated the motifs enough so that it will look pretty. We shall see!

Lacefreak said...

Dear Judith,

Unless lace is hard-wired into your DNA, most people (myself included) start with lace patterns that are less complex. That does not make them less beautiful! Besides, anyone with the guts to try to knit lace is to be commended! I'm happy you enjoy my current lace work and hope you will like what I'm cooking up next :-)