Forest Path Stole

My "summer of finishing" just keeps rolling along. This week I've finished the Forest Path Stole from the Summer 2003 issue of Interweave Knits. When I started this pattern back in 2004, it was a big struggle. It is a lace, entrelac pattern which was exceedingly hard to keep up with as a fairly new lace knitter. So it often languished in my knitting basket as other less challenging projects intervened. But suddenly, when I decided to dive in and finish it this summer, it was amazingly simple. It's like a light bulb went on. Just goes to show what experience will do for you. I am so thrilled to have this to wear this winter! Nothing like cashmere to make a girl feel good. Here are the specs:

Pattern: Forest Path Stole
Designer: Faina M. Letoutchaia
Published: Summer 2003 Interweave Knits
Finished size: 32" x 88"
Yarn: Cashmere America 2 ply 100% Cashmere
Yardage: ~2200 yds.

Knitting FO

Yea! I finished the baby gift for one of James' friends. One of those last minute things that was not going smoothly. The cap was done using the edging from a baby bonnet in a little Vogue Knitting on the Go book, then finished in stockinette by evenly decreasing down to about 8 sts. The booties are from a Debbie Bliss baby book and done in her Cashmerino, but the first one came out so huge that I had to completely redesign it to cut the size by about half. The test knitter for that pattern must be a REALLY tight knitter! Oh well, they came out really cute so I need to write the pattern changes down in case I want to do another pair. Now it's time to go get my cello practice in.

Frosted Fern Finished

Well, I'm feeling a little better about it today now that I've got all the ends finished and it's on the table. I still don't care so much for the solid border and if I did it again, I think I'd figure out how to replace that. Here are a couple of photos of the finished doily.





And I finally got started on Lyra today. I thought my arm was going to fall off before I got that skein of Tencel wound into balls! 2200 yards is a lot of winding! At first I was kind of worried about the long color changes pooling, but now that I'm going, it doesn't look like that is going to be so much of a problem. What I am worried about is being able to see the pattern with is multi-colored yarn. It's still too early to make the call, but I wouldn't be surprised if I had to start over with a solid color. Maybe by next weekend I'll have enough to solicit some opinions.

This was a pretty productive weekend considering I spent all of Saturday spinning. Tall Pines had a spin-in instead of our usual January meeting since it would have fallen on New Year's Day. We had a good turn out with 4 or 5 new spinners. Esther's new wheel got here just in time, so we put it together there and she was able to finish the bobbin she started at my house, and almost finish another one! All were impressed with how nice it was. Looks like she's just a natural spinner. Sure made me look like a good teacher!