The secret is out

Secret of the Stole - CoffeePot Rock Fey
Originally uploaded by WoodlandSprite

While we were getting some much needed rain and doing battle in the house to determine who would wimp out first and turn on the heat, I was diligently working on finishing off the Secret of the Stole (whose name, by the way, is actually Guinevere). It got to a point where I would wrap the finished portion of the stole around me while knitting away on the end. Turns out I'm not so good at estimating yardage requirements when I switch yarn around, as I wound up running out and having to rummage in the shop for more yarn.

Details and more info can be found over here.

Bundt Cake?

I don't know what it is, but on occasion, when I knit from a yarn cake, it starts turning into a bundt cake or gumdrop shape!

This would be a CoffeePot Rock Bundt Cake - along with some beads that I used in the Secret of the Stole (whose name, by the way, is Guinevere). It seems I managed to get a FO this month after all ;) and before the week of "rest" from regular work that I've scheduled at the end of the month!

The stole appears to be a bit monstrous, even though I only knit a little bit of the middle clue (the designated location to add or subtract length). In its unblocked state, the stole is approximately 8 feet long...and it took about 10 ounces of fingering weight yarn knit on size 6 needles. I did have to break into another skein of yarn, and while the colorway is the same, the 2 ounces at the end are definitely more saturated - I did ease the transition, so the changeover isn't too abrupt to the eye. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to block this baby out with blocking wires or if I'm just going to lay it out wet - I'm leaning towards the latter - I'm lazy when it comes to rectangles, especially if I'm fairly certain that it can be coaxed easily into shape while damp. Stay tuned :) FO post coming up shortly!

Slow and Steady wins the race...

Well, okay - maybe it doesn't win the *race* but it still allows for a respectable finish, right? :)

Toppled off track by tendinitis (it's better thanks, and now my office looks wierd as the desk height has been changed and I keep a small herd of mice to allow for left and right hand mousing along with my already owned strange looking "ergo friendly" mice)... I have fallen behind on the Secret of the Stole. Some nice relaxing time was spent "catching up" over thanksgiving...though I went and ran out of yarn - I've added another ball on, alternating with what I had remaining of the original ball to try to blend the join more.

As for guessing the name of the stole, I'm definitely clueless - I had several guesses for each of the hints, and I'm still trying to make sense of it! Ah well, I'm enjoying seeing the other finished stoles though :)

Sadly, I've made next to no progress on the other projects on the needles - though once this one is finished and blocking, I'll probably dive back into the Secret of Chrysopolis and Frolic - or even the Mitered Squares...though the miters may have to wait until after I untangle the yarn - one of the cats who never before has shown interest in my knitting bags, upset the one with the miter yarn in it and proceeded to have himself a grand wrestling session. Apparently he's gotten it all out of his system now because he hasn't made eyes at any of my knitting since!

Weekend Knitting

Seems I've been taking a little bit of a much needed break over the weekends to relax, recharge and knit.

One of the knit alongs that I seem to have been sucked into, the Secret of the Stole, has captured my attention - it's not what I think of as "typical" lace, as there are rather long stretches of straight knitting, though it has enough going on what with the motifs and beads to keep me entertained while I hang out with the cat :D

Since each hint is conveniently sent out on a Friday, it means if I'm not slated for other activities over the weekend, I spend the weekend knitting on it, often times finishing the hint sometime during the weekend.


completion of hint 2, unblocked of course :)

The stole is coming together quite smoothly, and the variegation of the CoffeePot Rock is quite alright in this pattern. The beads, unfortunately, don't really show up real well in the photo - I've decided to go with both the iridescent and the luster beads - the luster ones do show up much more readily as they are "solid" in color.

Seems I'm entranced with lace these days, with 2 of the 4 projects on the needles being lace (the other two are frolic and a pair of very complex socks...but more on those later). I've also joined *another* mystery shawl kal - the Mystic Waters KAL, and I'm trying to decide if I can spin up enough yarn out of a gorgeous wool-silk blend that Raquel gave me for my birthday the year I learned to spin....all this time it's been sitting quietly trying to decide what it wanted to become and it is starting to mumble at long last...the big question is whether or not I can spin finely enough to get over 1200 meters out of the fiber I have on hand....

Choices Choices...

As I continue procrastinating working on Avast (the zipper arrived the other day...I really need to get working on fixing down the hems so I can take the sweater to a tailor to have the zipper installed - before the cool weather hits! (though considering how the summer is going, there's no end in sight!)) ...Anyhow, as I was saying before I got distracted, I've been procrastinating...by selecting yarn. The problem is I can't decide which yarn to use....

The specifications: 1200+ yards lace weight yarn plus beads for the Secret of the Stole knit along (there's still time to sign up if you haven't already!)

My current options (yes, I know I went a bit overboard with the two middle bags of beads, and no, I haven't a clue what to do with all the extras since I tried spinning beads onto yarn and I've decided that while it is pretty, it is definitely not practical):


various Spritely Goods laceweight yarns - click on the photo to go to Flickr for more details (and a bigger pic!)
I can't decide - I've got the choice of merino or alpaca....and then luster or iridescent beads (well, for the blue anyway)...

...course, never one to follow instructions, I also became entranced with some other beads that would match my CoffeePot Rock colorway quite nicely. Course, this would mean the stole would be knit in fingering weight yarn....


Spritely Goods Fey in CoffeePot Rock
Course, the decision if I opt for this yarn is whether to use just the luster beads or the iridescent or both...

I really can't decide. Anyone have guidance? :)