Finally finished! Bleeding Hearts Stole

• Pattern:  Anne Hanson’s Bleeding Hearts Stole, from Interweave Knits Spring 2008
• Yarn:  The Painted Sheep Jasmine, 50/50 merino/silk laceweight, dyed by my friend Kris Gonzalez in the most beautiful, subtle variegated browns
• Needles:  Knit Picks Harmony, US size 4 (3.5mm)
• Mods:  I did not switch to a larger needle size for the bleeding hearts portion of the stole. Partly, I was too lazy, and partly, because I thought that flared ends might look nice.  And I did not knit two equal halves, as detailed in my previous post.
• Ravelry link here

I am completely in love with this stole, partly because it took over a year to knit (with interruptions), but I love the design, and it was fun to knit.

To block the stole, I put it in the sink with some cool water and Soak Wash (I had a sample of the Citrus fragrance, mmm!) for about 20 minutes, then put it on a towel, rolled it up, and went across the rolled towel with my knees.  Then I used blocking wires to go through every little point on the edging – that was really a pain, but at least I had blocking wires!  It would have been much worse with just pins.  Then, I stretched it out and pinned the wires in place on some interlocking foam tiles I have.  At first I stretched it really long and wasn’t able to stretch it as wide as I wanted, so I moved the ends closer together and was able to stretch out the width some more.  Here’s what it looked like blocking – not much, since it’s brown yarn on black tiles..

But it gives you an idea of the process. I didn’t have quite enough blocks for the whole length of the stole, so I had to improvise. This gave less than ideal blocking for part of it, but I don’t think it’s too noticeable in the end.

It took about a day to dry, and then I got this:

Here’s a closer look:

Aaaah..  I love it!

 

Mediterranean Lace Shawl Beginnings

From A Gathering of Lace, Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Iris on Knitpicks Harmony 3.25mm needles.

This is a daunting project, but it is so gorgeous I must do it! It’s actually the border that grabbed me, so hopefully I’ll get there some day. I plan to do fewer repeats for a smaller shawl.

 

Tilted Duster notes

Final blocking before wearing. Mainly to correct the major stockinette curling of the sides. It worked beautifully!

This was the first project I’ve done which really required seaming. I just used the Peruvia to seam, and despite the fact that it’s a soft single ply, I didn’t have any problems with the yarn breaking or shedding.  The side seams (above) were mattress stitch, and the armhole seams (below) were a combination of vertical to horizontal weaving and mattress stitch. I am really proud of them!

Here’s another view of my mattress stitch below. Edith (our au pair) commented that the garment looked cute as a vest and said I should just stop there! But my butt gets cold, so I continued on..

Blocking front and back pieces prior to seaming. I used my handy-dandy blocking wires and some interlocking foam rubber tiles as my board.

Here are the sleeves, knit both at once on a long circular. Much better than having to seam them! I made them an inch longer than recommended in the pattern.

Gauge swatch for the Tilted Duster. Interestingly, I had to go down two needle sizes to an 8 to get gauge. Usually, I’m a tight knitter and have to go up!