PLT Mystery Stole 3

I finished clue 4 last night. I am very intrigued as to what the theme could be. I'm not very good at things like this as I can never relate to what the symbols mean etc so I have not attempted any guesses as to what the theme may be.

I just know the Zephyr is lovely yarn to knit with, I like Melanies other patterns and the instructions are clear so all in all it's a lovely knit and a lovely shawl, that doesn't mean to say I'm not looking forward to what the clue is......


Elsewhere on the knitting front only socks have progressed in so far as I have turned the heel on the 1st Elemente sock and started the 2nd Hundertwasser sock..... I am hoping after jobs are done to get back onto the VLT shawl I am getting ready for finishing the main body of the shawl and to move onto something different....

Discovering Borders.....

Nothing like being adventurous (or is that stupid) in your first venture into designing is there????


I've spent days getting my head round borders and the maths associated of trying to make a border fit to a shawl, counting rows and stitches etc etc..... then the best way to attach them and considering I've ever only done one stole with a knitted on border before I think the answer is stupid rather than adventurous. It really doesn't help when your husband can get his head round what you're trying to doing better than you and he can't even knit, it really is insult to injury..... anyway undeterred I have got this far.....

Both are edgings from Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting book (this book has become my bible recently) the bottom one is the Doris edging and the top one is the Rippled Diamond Edging... I have modified the Diamond edging slightly and added a bead to the centre of the motif to tie in with my beaded flower motifs in the main body of the shawl......

I think the Diamond edging is the one I am going to go for as although on this sample it looks too wide, I have to remember this is a swatch and the final stole will have 10 full motifs across plus borders..... plus it was a bit more interesting to knit than the Doris edging, but I drew the line at a knitted lace border ;o)

I have also decided that I have done enough 'playing' now and to actually start to knit this stole, because I know myself well and if I continue playing I will just go backwards way and nothing will ever be produced from this playing....

Birthday Girl!!!!

Happy 40th Birthday Tanya

As some of you may or may not have noticed on my sidebar under the heading of "On the Needles" I had something entitled "Lacy Surprise" I can now reveal this is what it was....

First steps....

Nearly Halfway....

Pre-Blocking....

Blocking...

Finished!!!

As you've probably all guessed by now this is Hanami by the talented Melanie otherwise known as Pink Lemon Twist, the creator of the Mystery Stole along that's gripping the lace knitting world at the moment..... It's a beautiful and unusual pattern in that it's asymmetrical and as always with PLT it has a theme....

For those of you out there contemplating knitting this, do so it's quite an easy pattern to work. One tip I would say is when you get to the non-basket weave section I would highlight either all the K2tog or the Sl1-K2tog-psso making it easier when you're knitting from the chart to see what is what when glancing down at the chart. I also wrote the number of all the plain knit stitches between these other stitches so I wasn't counting all the time and it did make it a lot easier and quicker..... Here's the details of materials I used...

Yarn: Yarn Treehouse Bloom Colour C09 yarn held double to give correct weight for pattern

Needles: Knit Pick Classic Circ 3.25mm

Beads: Size 9 Güttermann Blue lined Lilac seed beads

Variations:I omitted the ruffle option and worked 6 garter stitch rows after the last pattern block and added beads on the CO edge

It probably took me 5 weeks of knitting but I was only knitting 5 out of every 7, due to my lace knitting schedule I've set up to allow me to work on different projects ; yes I know it sounds sad but at least all my projects get attention and it works for me.... some days I did more, others I didn't do any.

I loved knitting the stole and would definitely do another at a future date which I think is always a good recommendation for a pattern, the basket weave after doing the first repeat was probably the most enjoyable bit.... I think when I do a second one of these then I would perhaps repeat chart C a 2nd time, repeat half of chart F again and finally just do half the number of rows of Chart G.

The yarn from Yarn Treehouse was as lovely as ever and think it lends itself well to the pattern.... I had 10g left out of 2 x 50g balls (held double) working an extra repeat of basket weave and a further full repeat of Chart G.

As you've probably now guessed from the title of this post this is for my friend Tanya who is 40 today; I couldn't post any earlier as she reads my blog from time to time and I didn't want to give the surprise away.... that's the only drawback of your knitting friends who read your blog you can't post photos and details of their presents as you knit!!!!

So Tanya when you read this I hope you had a lovely and memorable 40th birthday despite yet more rain.......

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY TANYA!!!!!

Finally....

Well after a minor set back last night when I nearly finished the last repeat and I dropped a stitch and developed a hole... I put it down in disgust and left it and sorted the mess out this morning and finally came up with this....




I think I prefer this to the 1st nested version, I don't think I want to go any closer with the motifs seeing it's my first voyage into design and knitted lace. I do think once there are more motifs it will look better but if I was going to do a scarf definitely the stacked on top of each other motifs work best.....

Nesting.....

After Fleegle commented about nesting the motifs rather than stacking them, I swatched again last night and came up with this.....

Here's a full view so you can compare the two....

Mmmmm I like both, but perhaps the nested ones should be nearer to each other?

Comments as always greatfully received....

Mmmm Decsion time....

I completed another repeat last night...



I quite like the lozenges sat on top of each other. The other option is to add rows in between the lozenge pattern repeats and perhaps put another motif in, but I think it might make it too busy.

The motif on it's own keeps your interest whilst knitting without being too intense if you follow me, so perhaps time to leave it alone an think about a suitable border.....

All comments gratefully appreciated.....