Goldregen Fini (UFO no more)

Goldregen by Herbert Niebling. I used Habu indigo dyed silk thread purchased during Stitches West many years ago. US 0000 for the first half, US 000 up until the edge blooms and then US 00 with crochet cast-off. Approx. 36 inches across, it makes for a nice little scarf sized Niebling. This is a two year old UFO that is now done at last.

I was knitting along on this project without a care in the world when I had "needle failure" where the needle and cable parted ways. The repair of all the dropped stitches was so traumatic that I didn't want to even look at this after I fixed it. That's all history now. It's so pretty that I am looking for another good Niebling to knit using this thread. I know it sounds like crazy talk but I have two nieces who are finally interested in having something I knit. I can't make one and then not have one for the other niece so I will search my patterns for something that will be comparable yet different.

In the mean time, I still have other UFO's that I will be looking to finish while I'm knitting more Nieblings. Life is good!

30 More Rows (My Lace Went To Mexico And All I Got Was This Lousy Tee Shirt)

Lest you think I never work on my UFO's (some of them so old that I am ashamed to even contemplate it) here are a few pictures of Goldregen. It took a vacation to a resort in Mexico and here are a few pictures to show where we were. Slippery slithery silk. It takes me much longer to knit this because of the utter terror of possibly dropping a stitch. Dropped stitches are bad. Very very bad. No dropping of stitches allowed so it takes FOREVER to go around this sucker one time.

Just 30 more rows.....

Pfingstrose (Something for "E")

Pfingstrose by Herbert Niebling. US 000 in the center and US 00 for the remainder using Filato Di Cantu # 30 thread. The pattern is wonderful to knit and the cloth is restrained yet elegant in my eyes. This is a gift for a co-worker who is known as "E". No first name. Just "E". He is set to retire in October to pursue his passion for writing.

One of the hazards of using "vintage" thread, is the fact that not all skeins match in color. Some are older and have taken on a light and lovely cream color, some remain stark white. Because I knit mostly at night, I could not see the color difference. I also blocked this at night against a black background and still did not catch it. It was not until I saw it in daylight that I could see the difference. The change to a more brilliant white starts just after I've begun the final set of edge leaves. At first I thought to rip it out and re-knit, but I'm going to leave it. I actually like the way it looks and in some lights the whole cloth looks to be a uniform color. If, after he sees it, "E" wants me to re-do the edge, I will do it but until then it's just "one of those odd knitting things" that sometimes happens to me.

Needless to say, I will bring my skeins out into the light to sort them for color before my next project with this thread but even this happenstance is not enough to put me off of using it. Yes, it's that good to work with.

I will be continuing to knit a UFO as well as casting on a few new projects. One of these projects is quite large and will take awhile to finish so I may be posting progress shots of that one. The others are so short that progress shots just don't feel necessary.

For those of you who want a laugh, you might want to go over to The Panopticon

for a little "spirited" humor about Herbert Niebling :-) Until the next post!