Bride's Stole

I'm finally finished with the second crocheted stole, this one for the bride.



Kristy may not even use it, but I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. If the weather turns nasty, or the evening grows chilly, her dress may not be warm enough. Hopefully with the stole she won't have to dig out an all weather jacket from her camping gear!

Speaking of the wedding dress, it had a close encounter of the cosmetic kind, and needed a quick bath in cool water. We only noticed the smudge because we had taken the dress out of the bag to compare the white yarn with the white dress. Not all "whites" are the same white. Despite what the pictures are trying to tell you, the dress and the stole are pretty much the same white. The photo of the stole was taken outside in the shadows and I just can't get the color to look right.

Boucle Stole

My stole for the wedding is done. It's 5 feet, 7 inches of boring single crochet. It turned out quite pretty though.



I made it from 2 - 6 oz (170g) balls of Red Heart's "TLC Amore" Color "3710 Rose". It's super simple.

Boucle Stole

Gauge doesn't matter too much for this item, but FYI I was getting about 11 sc over 4 inches.

With 7mm hook, chain 42, turn.

Single crochet (sc) in second chain from hook and in each chain across (40 sc), chain 1, turn. Repeat last row until stole is approximately 67 inches long.

It can be left this way, but for a more professional finish, change to a 5mm hook and without turning on final row, "crab stitch" (single crochet, but working backwards across the row) around entire piece skipping every 4th stitch or row so that edging lays flat. In other words, crab stitch in 3 stitches, skip 1 stitch and repeat. An extra stitch or two in the corners will help them lay flat.

The Outfit

So here is is, the outfit I will be wearing to my daughter's wedding. The wedding is to be held at a remote resort in the woods, so I didn't want to go overly dressy, but I still wanted to be "dressed up" to some extent. I spoke to my Mother-in-law a couple of days ago and it sounds like she will be wearing something similar.



The stole is a work-in-progress. I spent ALL day yesterday trying to come up with some type of stitch pattern that made the most of the boucle yarn I had chosen. I tried several lace stitches, some simpler open work stitches, even garter stitch. I also tried a variety of crochet stitches, in the end deciding on plain ol' single crochet. It's boring as all heck to do, but it really does seem to be the best for this particular yarn and the effect I am aiming for.




The brooch will either be worn on the sleeveless turtleneck, or to decoratively hold the ends of the stole. I'll only be wearing the stole if the weather warrants it.

Finally!

I have the outfit I'll wear to my daughter's wedding, or at least most of it. I need to make a stole. When I have a good start on that I'll post a picture of all the various elements together.

A big thanks to everyone who left comments and sent emails with suggestions. Special thanks to my mother-in-law, Jean, who cared enough to phone and offer encouragement and some much needed advice.

Shopping

I shopped all day yesterday looking for something to wear at my daughter's wedding. That was a dismal failure and it looks like I will have to look a little further from home.

I did find something that I wasn't actually looking for though (isn't that always the way?). Skirts. Two of them for less than $4 each. They were marked down from $24.97 to $14.99, then to only $4.99. Another customer in the change room told me that there would be an additional 25% taken off at the till. The final price was $3.48! I originally only bought the blue one. I haven't worn a dress or skirt in about 5 years so I really didn't think I would get much use out of it. After wearing the first one for a day I decided to go back and see if the only other one of the same size was still there. It's a bright coral color which is not one of "my" colors, but for $3.48, who cares? I'm holding the coral skirt in the photo.




Sorry about the blurry photo. I don't know why my camera refused to focus, but you get the general idea anyway. You can't really tell from the photo, but the skirts are pleated, with the top of the pleats stitched down.

Lost?

As I have mentioned before, my daughter is getting married in September. What I haven't mentioned is that the location the bride and groom have selected for the ceremony and reception is.....remote. Not as remote as a deserted island in the middle of the ocean accessible only by float plane, but remote enough that it requires a l-o-n-g trip down an active logging road.

Once you get there, it is quite beautiful and should make for a memorable ceremony and celebration.

My husband and I were fortunate enough to have the bride's Aunt and Uncle along for the trip. Our experienced remote-logging-roads-driver had no problem getting us to the site. We all took a good look around when we got there and made note of things like: who is signed up for which cabin? How late will the generator be running? How much fridge space can we count on? And how far is grandma's cabin from the "facilities"?

Being a typical Mother-of-the-Bride I also worried about things like: What does the mother of the bride wear to a wedding in the bush where the weather can be variable to say the least? How fancy is too fancy? How casual is too casual? What the heckity-peck is everyone else planning to wear?!! Can someone please wake me when this is all over?!

On the return trip, our fearless driver was less certain of the now-reversed forks in the road. Auntie and I took this picture of our driver and his navigator both leaning over a MAP determining that, yes indeedy, they had actually taken the "scenic" route and we would be doubling back to have a second look at those fishing and hunting possibilities we had passed along the way.



Anyway, lets keep this all in perspective shall we? All is well that ends well. It will end well......right? Right?

Note to all parents out there with daughters still young enough to be "influenced" and gently trained in the way you would have them go:

Fer Heaven's sake, promise her that you will make it worth her while to elope.....before its too late......and you find yourself car-sick and lost on a remote logging road.

Back On Track

The Peacock Feathers Shawl is back to row 166 and has a lifeline safely in place. Whew! You may recall that it was tossed in the corner for a Time-Out for bad behavior back on July 30th. I picked it up again Sunday, redid 6 of the rows and once again lost it. It was even for the same reason! I was undoing a misplaced centered double decrease and dropped one of the stitches. I angrily tossed it aside again for a few hours but then grit my teeth and ripped back, once again, to the lifeline.

Rows 157 to 161 have now been knit 3 times in total and I have gone on further, to row 166, and put in another lifeline. I WAS putting in the lifelines only at the top of each graph, but the next row is the one that I originally had problems with and I just could not bear losing 10 rows again! Better safe than sorry....

..........oh so very, very, major hissy-fit sorry!

Spammer "Comments"

Over the past couple of days my blog has become the victim of SPAM type trash disguised thinly as "comments". I have a feeling this is new and exciting territory for cyber-geeks and we will be seeing a lot more of it. As quickly as I find this type of garbage on my blog, I will be deleting it. In the meantime, please don't click on their "name" or go to their site(s). They sure don't need any additional encouragement.

My daughter has also experienced this kind of misuse of the comment feature on her blog and, like myself, was at first at a loss as to how to get rid of the comment. I've gone to Blogger Help and looked it up, which of course you can do too if you are experiencing the same problems, but I thought I would post my findings here and perhaps save you the trouble.

You have to be signed into your Blogger account (like when you want to make a post) and then go from that window to "View Blog". When at your blog, find the offending comment. If there is no garbage can icon at the end of it, hit your browser's "Refresh" button a couple of times and the icon should reappear. Click that and you will be taken to a window where you can delete comment. Be sure to check the "remove forever" box so that the whole comment is deleted, not just the content of the message. Otherwise it leaves the link to their webpage still active.

Stupid Blog spammers. I've had two of them. I originally left the first as it was quite mild, but this second one was so long that it was worth looking up how to get rid of them. What are they thinking anyway?! Do they think people will want to do business with an online site that obviously uses Spam to get customer referrals? BAH! I have a feeling this is going to become more and more of a problem.

Trimmed and Photographed

Hanging the sash up against a vertically positioned cutting board and using a rotary cutter made short work of the job of trimming the slippery fringe on the sash straight and even. It is now completely finished and awaiting the day of the wedding.

First the required ArtsyFartsy Photo of the sash hanging on a rhododendron bush. Unfortunately the still picture does not capture the full beauty of the beads sparkling in the sun while the fringe floats gently on the light breeze.



This next photo is just to give an idea of what the sash will look like against the white dress. No, it is not THE dress, it is an old towel, but should give you some idea of the effect.

Sash Now Blocking

Another FO, the 33rd of the year.



This is a beaded, lace sash being blocked. Note the newly acquired "blocking wires", (made from 36" X 1/16" stainless steel tigg welding rods). The sash did not strictly need blocking as hanging it for a few days is said to pull it into shape. I just wanted to even out some inconsistencies in the edging.

The sash is for my daughter's wedding dress so I had to be sure it was done in time for the September 10th wedding. With that safely out of the way I can now return to the knitting of the Peacock Feathers Shawl. I've nearly forgotten the trauma of having to frog the last 10 rows that I had knit.

Spinning Bliss

The PLAN was to spend the day with a number of other spinners, spinning at a guild members home. Somehow the Universe had other plans for me and I ended up spinning, alone, at a local park. It was pure spinning bliss.



The light breeze gently rustling the leaves of the trees, birds singing, colorful dragonflies darting about, chattering squirrels engaged in a scurrying game of tag....all the makings of a most enjoyable afternoon.

2005 Exhibition

I won ribbons! Eight of them.



When I was a kid I couldn't win a ribbon for the life of me. Being asthmatic and unathletic I always came in last in the Sports Day events I was forced to participate in. It was a humiliating experience best forgotten.

With the passing years (more than I would care to admit) has come a comforting perspective. Everyone has a talent. Mine is not in the athletic department. I'll never win a ribbon for running, ball throw or *ugh* team sports. It seems I CAN win ribbons though.......if I focus on doing the things I love.

All of the items in the "group photo" have been shown on my blog before. If you want to take another look I've provided the links.

Woven Rib Tank Top (1st)

Clementine (1st)

Leaf and Lace Baby Set (1st)

Handspun Cushion (2nd)

Socks (1st)

Handspun 2 ply mohair/wool blend (3rd)

Crocheted "Crusher" Hat (1st)

Recycled Bag (2nd)

While you're at it, check out the lovely BEST IN SHOW ribbon that Melanie won!

Yarn Harlot

Yesterday my daughter and I went to see Stephanie Pearl-Mcfee, "The Yarn Harlot", author of "Meditations For Women Who Knit Too Much".

"Monkey" came along too!



Many of the assembled fans entertained themselves by knitting and chatting while they awaited for Stephanie's arrival.



Monkey was no exception. He is still getting the hang of this knitting thing, so some helping hands were needed.



At last the star of the show arrived. She was entertaining and witty, just like her blog.



When her talk was over, she sat down to sign books. LOTS of books....



for LOTS of people.



Unfortunately we didn't want to keep our non-knitting-enthused driver waiting, so we had to leave without a picture of us rubbing shoulders with Stephanie-The-Author.

Monkey couldn't resist a last minute mad dash to caress "The Sock".



Kris caught him red handed....



....and he reluctantly put the sock back.



We allowed him one last climb on the giant "bookbookbook" before we left.

(K)nitty Gritty Sockette "Pattern"

I've been doing a bit of thinking about how best to write down and present the pattern for the sockettes. I made the prototype in commercial sock yarn but they were originally designed for a friend, and her intent is to make them up in handspun yarn, which can vary quite a bit in thickness. Gauge for socks is also a rather personal thing, so rather than specify a specific gauge and corresponding number of stitches to cast on, I've decided to tell you HOW I made them without getting into all the specifics. Obviously with this pared down so-called "pattern" you will have to be a bit of an experienced sock knitter. Mainly you will have to be familiar with some kind of toe-up technique as I've decided not to go into that in detail.



So here it is, pared down to just the (K)nitty Gritty Sockette "Pattern".

Using your favorite Toe-Up sock pattern, and an even number of stitches, work the sock toe until piece measures two and a half inches, in length, from the beginning.

Cast off approximately 1/6 of your total stitches, CENTERED OVER THE TOE. (This is where the sock opens to become a "shoe".)

If you were using double-pointed needles for the toe, change now to straights. Those using circular needles can continue on, but switch now to knitting back and forth, "flat".

Knit back and forth in stockinette (knit on right side, purl on wrong side) until the flat section of the sockette will reach (gently stretched) to the end of your heel. Note: This is considerably farther than with your normal sock, but we are not creating a turned heel.

Heel Shaping: (Edited with correction) Knit to within 3 stitches of the center of your row, K2 tog, k2, SSK, knit to end of row.
Purl one row.
Repeat last two rows.

Knit to center of row. Fold work in half, right sides together. Bind off remaining stitches using three needle bind off.

Work 2 rounds of single crochet* around foot opening, decreasing where necessary to create a snug fit. Crochet a strap to reach across instep, leaving an opening for a buttonhole. Sew on a matching button.

*Alternately, for those who don't crochet, or choose not to, you can keep the edge stitches from curling by working each row in the flat section as:

On right side: sl 1, knit across.
On wrong side: sl 1, k2, purl to last three stitches, K3.

Knit a narrow band long enough to reach across instep, creating a yo, k2tog buttonhole 1/4 inch before the end.

As I said, this is a very pared down, so-called, "pattern". If I've only succeeded in confusing and frustrating you, feel free to email me (address is on my profile page) and I'll try to better clarify what the heckity-peck I did. ;-)