I'm Just Here For The Yarn

stick a fork in it...

The Song of Hiawatha stole is DONE.  Here's the progress report, in a nutshell:

April 29: Cast on using provisional cast-on.  Tried four times to do Row 1, before realizing that I'd cast on 114 instead of 113 stitches.  Fixed problem.

April 30- early morning May 1: Completed first lace panel -- Starlight.

May 1: Completed second lace panel -- Feathers, and one repeat of third panel (Pine Trees).  kept losing stitches on Pine Trees; must have been dropping a YO or something.  Learned first rule of lace knitting: put it down when you're tired.

May 4: Finished plying first cone of yarn.  May need more.

May 5: Finished Pine Trees and moved onto Smoke of the Peace Pipe.  I hate this particular lace pattern, but am loving knitting the stole.

May 9:  Finished Smoke and moved on to second Starlight panel; had to rip entire panel out because of mistake I could neither identify nor fix.

May 10:  Sprained ankle.  Made lemonade out of lemons and took advantage of knitting time.  Got thru Starlight and on to side panels, where I ended up ripping back 12 rows.  Strained thumb on crutches; did not stop knitting.  May be somewhat obsessive.

May 15:  Discovered that I was missing a stitch; knit into row below and fixed it.  Vy. pleased.  Must remember special WS rows for the Flowers of the Field pattern -- to skip them breeds madness when the following RS rows WILL. NOT. WORK.  Learned how to create a YO when I missed one on the previous RS row.  Used this technique a LOT.  Reading Stargate SG-1 fan fic while knitting lace does not help me to remember to do the YOs.

May 19:  Finished side panels and 4 rows of garter -- bound off -- if I need those stitches, I can pull it out.  The pattern doesn't say which I should do.  (I later discovered that I needed those stitches.  Might've been nice if the pattern had told me to put them on waste yarn, but oh well.)

May 20:  Finished Feathers on Side 2 and the four rows of garter that divide sections.

May 23:  Bloody Smoke pattern.... it's a 9-row repeat, which means that over three repeats, there is a middle section of reverse stockinette.  I somehow changed the pattern on Side 1 somehow, so it's all stockinette, and I don't remember how.  Starlight is progressing beautifully and should be finished tomorrow.

May 24:  Finished center panels of Side 2; now on to side panels.  Seems to be going faster than the first half.

June 12: 4 of 10 repeats done on side panels!

June 13: The body is finished as of 10pm.  Glad I bought the 2nd cone of yarn -- I'm going to need it.

June 14:  Plied about 1000 yards of yarn in 4 hours for the edging.  The instructions for the edging make more sense when you actually do them.

(worked on the stole while home on leave)

June 22: THE STOLE IS FINISHED.  Had 3-4 hours of work left; knocked it out today.  As of 8:02pm, the knitting is done, the edges are grafted, and all the ends are woven in.

Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr, 1 cone plus ~300 yards, Navajo-plied on my Ashford Joy spinning wheel.
Needles: Addi Naturas, US size 7  (I tried to use Addi Turbos, but they were not pointy enough, and in retrospect, far too slippery.  Naturas are my new best friend.)

Now what?

dang, that's a lotta knitting...

Gads, I'm tired.  And a little distressed to see how my gauge has loosened up from the beginning of Side 1 to where I am with Side 2.  I can only hope that blocking will even it out some.  Ah, well, not a lot I can do about it... it's not like I'm going to rip it out and start over.  Hear my maniacal laughter at that idea...

I have to get up at Way Too Early tomorrow for a run I can't do, because I'm still on profile for my ankle, and then I have to go to the range tomorrow afternoon and into the evening for qualification on my 9mm handgun.  Wish I could take it to work on while I wait, but ah... no.  Gunpowder residue does not go with a lovely silk and wool blend.

And then I have to get up at Way, Way Too Early on Friday to catch the limo to the airport for my flight home for the holiday weekend.  Still haven't packed.  I'm such a slacker...  It'll get done, but I'm gonna be pooped.

Nighty night, kids.

oof

Pine Trees are done.  One row of Smoke, done.  (Had to rip back half a row of Smoke and a row of garter because I forgot to do the decreases.)  One Tasha, done.

I'm going to bed, so as to observe my cardinal rule of knitting lace: never knit lace while tired.  That way lies madness.

Nighty night, kids.

more stole updates

Finished the first half yesterday and picked up the provisional cast on... damn, that bugger was tight.  Must remember that phenomenon in future, not that I do a lot of knitting that uses it.

Did the first panel of Side 2 today -- Feathers.  Only 30 rows, and I made almost no mistakes.  Using stitch markers between repeats helped a lot.  Next is Pine Trees, which is good fun, and then Smoke, which I hated.  I hope it looks better blocked than it does now.  Right now the opposite Smoke panel looks like moths have been at it.

I started my fifth ball of yarn.  I have two good-sized hanks and two small hanks left.  I think I'm going to want at least two more balls of yarn -- hope it's in at Woolbearers so I can get it plied.  I really want to finish this before I ship out.  It'll be too hot to hold on my lap in theater.  (I want to pick up some sock yarn, too, and maybe some Manos to whip out a quick spindle bag.)

I can't wait to get to the edging.  it looks like it'll be fun to knit, and going around the corners will be an interesting challenge.

This pattern is definitely challenging, but it's so well-written, and the charts are so fabulous, that if you just take it section by section, the next thing you know, you're two feet into it and have completely forgotten to run a lifeline.

I can't wait to show my mom.  She's going to freak.  I so hope I get to give this to Gail myself; I want to see the look on her face when she sees it.  She knows I'm making something for her, but she has no idea the lengths I'm going to, literally and figuratively.

50%

The first half of the Song of Hiawatha Stole is complete.  I've even pulled out the provisional cast on and placed the stitches on the needles.  (I wish I had a smaller circ to put it on, but they're packed.)

I decide to bind off the bottom edge after all, on the theory that if I want the stitches, I can pop it out.  I considered making the side panel shorter, but my sister is nearly six feet tall; she can carry the extra length. 

This is going to be so beautiful.  I don't know how I'm going to wait to November to give it to her.  Thank god I have a blog (and that she doesn't know about it) where I can talk about it.  Otherwise I think I'd spontanaously combust.

Bedtime now.  Formation in the morning.

that was quick

Apparently I grossly overestimated the amount of time it would take me to complete two more lace repeats on this stole.  I just finished #9.  I'm going to go find food, come back, and do #10, then 4 rows of garter stitch.  What I don't know is if I'm supposed to bind off or put those stitches on waste yarn... I should re-read the instructions for the edging; that might give me a clue.

I can hardly believe what a quick knit this has been, even with all the ripping of stitches and hair.  If I continue to have this much free time, I might get this thing done before I leave.  Well, probably not. But it's good to have goals.

onward and outward

Eighth repeat done.  I'm wiped.  The last 4 rows were an utter slog.  I've been watching "Sense and Sensibility," and counting my stitches in a very upper-crusty English accent.

It almost made me homesick.  I think that when I get home, I shall have quite the backlash against being a modern, in-charge woman and embrace the housewife thing for a little while.  I do love being a Viking wife when I get the chance... I miss those few moments of pretend.

That, and I loved the "cottage" that the ladies Dashwood ended up living in, and I want it.  That, and the lovely little flock of sheep.

Bed time.

forward progress

I finished the sixth repeat on this last section of the first part of my sister's stole. That's progress, I swear. At an estimate, the whole thing is thus far about 40" long. I estimate that the remaining 4 repeats will total about 10 inches, and then there will be the other half to knit and the edging to knit on. I've only been at it for 20 days, and some of those days saw me get nothing done. others, only a row or two. Some saw me rip back multiple rows. But all in all, it's turning out beautifully, and I can't quite believe I'm going to give it away...

benchmark

I've reached a benchmark on the stole -- 5 out of ten repeats on the side panels completed.  Thank goodness.  If I keep plugging away at this, I'll have this end of the stole done by the end of the week.

I started this stole on April 29.  I started the side panels somewhere around May 11, after I sprained my ankle.  Excellent progress.

that crack was my brain breaking

Good grief, that was almost painful.  No, actually, it was painful.

There are two WS rows on the side panel section of the stole where there are decreases, one at either end.  I think I have to knit back every single time because I forget to do them, and this last time is no exception -- ripped back to do the first decrease, but forgot to do the second, and then proceeded to break my brain when the first section of the next row on the RS wouldn't work.  Totally would. NOT. work.  Argh.

Then I discovered that I was missing a stitch in another panel.  I've already ripped out 11 rows... not ripping out anymore.  I just went and knit into a stitch from the row below and I think I've got everything in the right place now... before, there was a triple increase that was off center, and it looked like ass. 

I wish that when I got frustrated with this project that I could stick it in a closet for a bit, but alas, I can't.  Sigh... poor me.  All this, and I sorely miss Wolfie, too.  Think I'll drown my sorrows in a good sleep.

So I'll just leave you with this...