Here is a close up of the lace pattern.

I have also been working on the Rona Shawl.  Here is the proof…

Tonight, I also finished this year’s hat for my grandson.  So far I have given him a Christmas hat every year of his life.  He will now have three.  Photos of the hat tomorrow.

Rocky from Rock N’ Knit
Deb (aka iaisknitter on Ravelry) and
Yvonne from Purlin’ Goldens

Congratulations to the winners!!  If you won, please shoot me an email (not in the comments, please) with your postal address and I will send them out this week!

There has been some actual knitting going on over here as well.  Here is a photo of my latest Charleston, knit for ******* for Christmas.  Could this be you?  Since you read my blog, I can’t say…HAHA…

[youtube]itxU0fNtbvo[/youtube]

Here is the list of bags you see in the video and their contents.

Bag #1 – Pattern – Sunflower Designs “Iris“; Yarn – Xie Bamboo Fiber #469

Bag #2 – Pattern – Knitpicks “Rona“; Yarn Knitpicks “Dye your own lace weight” that I dyed in blueberries

Bag #3 – Pattern – Sunflower Designs “Hydrangea“; Yarn – Xie Bamboo Fiber #492

Bag #5 – Pattern – “DaVinci Shawl“; Yarn – Yarn Place “Touch” (this yarn is so soft!!)

The winning bag was #4 – Pattern – Knitting Delight – “Way of Life Stole“; Yarn – Knitpicks “Alpaca Cloud” Moss colorway

If you would like to knit along with me on the winning project, you can find the instructions here.  It is a yahoo group and you have to join to get the pattern parts.  Leave me a comment if you want to knit along with me.  If you don’t, that is ok, just stay tuned to watch my progress.  Catch ya later, I’m off to cast on!!  Whee!!!

Whoo Hoo!  One Christmas gift completed, several to go….

I have been waiting for what seems like forever to do this post.  In August our son Bryan was married and I did a short blog post about it.  I have been unable to post photos of the wedding because the stole that I made for his bride was the pattern for the Secret of the Stole III.  Now that the last hint has been released I can finally show you a few of the thousands of photos their “official” photographer (Mr. K) took of the nuptials.  I still cannot reveal the name of the stole, but the photos cannot wait any longer.

The above photos were taken during Sara’s bridal shoot.  She was a beautiful bride!  The ceremony (below) was performed outdoors at her parent’s cabin in Colorado.  The mountains as a backdrop made this, truly, a most scenic wedding setting.  The beauty of the mountains, trees, and lakes and, the intimate ceremony with close family and friends, made this a memory that they will forever cherish.

If you would like to see more of the Amazing wedding images that Mr. K shot, as well as his other incredible photography work, please hop over to his site at ScottFillmer.com and click on Gallery at the top of the page.  I will be revealing the name of the stole pattern in about a week with additional photos.  Fair Winds.

This is the day I have been working toward. All this lace knitting that I have not been able to share with you is finally complete and will be revealed within the next two months. The Secret of the Stole III KAL group is now open for new members and now the work really begins. I really love this part though, because it keeps me very busy and invariably learning new things.

If you would like to join the group click on the image and sign up. See you there…

The test knitting began in earnest, and then everything came to a screeching to a halt! The chart was not right, something was amiss. Time to rip and rework from the beginning.

Five times I went through this process, one time was not the fault of a chart in error though. It was the fault of being on the boat and not paying attention to the stitch that was running down the ladder like a freight train without brakes! Blame it on the dolphins that were playing nearby!

Anyway, apparently the sixth time is the charm and now the chart and the test knitting are steaming right along. Whoo hoo! The issue I was having with the chart was due to pushing the limits of my knowledge and trying to learn more about design.

One of the reasons I work on these knit a longs is so that I can challenge myself and continue to figure out why a particular pattern is working out the way it is, or is not. Learning new things can sometimes be painful, but most of the time it is well worth the effort.

Here is a photo of Sots and the Secret of the Stole III in progress. He is happily cruising along now.

What’s that you say? You say you can’t see it? Hmmm, I guess you will have to wait until the knit a long in August to get a better look….

Sign-ups are not open for the knit a long yet, but if you would like to be notified when sign-ups begin for the Secret of the Stole III KAL, please join the Nautical Knitter Designs Yahoo group.

Happy Knitting…

I received a wonderful swap package from my friend Kimberly in Berlin. Here is the booty.

What a wonderful swap partner! She sent me wonderful sock yarn in two yummy colors, a German knitting/crochet magazine, and loads of little goodies, including a sheep cookie cutter. The cream of the swap, however, was the rare as gold skein of Wollmeise yarn and the truly thoughtful double point knitting needle case that she made for me! I also especially liked the stitch markers she and Alida, her daughter, made for me. I put the needle case to use right away. I filled it with all the double points I could find in my office and then rolled it up, tied it with the pretty black velvet ribbon, and put it away. Man, what a wonderful gift! I was going crazy with my double points all over the place and not having enough time to make myself one of these wonderful organizers. Thanks Kimberly, et al!

We have been so busy lately with traveling and the Secret of the Stole II KAL (and our day jobs) that it has been impossible to find time to do much of anything else. I did manage to finish one of the sleeves for my father’s costume while we were on the boat last weekend. This sleeve will be attached to the tuxedo shirt that I took the sleeves off of a while back. It will be gathered at the shoulder and the scalloped edge you see at the bottom will be finished off with black satin stitch. Hopefully all will go well with this project and I can move on to my skirt and all the vests I have to make. Look for lots of posts on the progress of the costumes coming up, because the festival is at the end of May and there is so much to do still.

Another finished project is my Secret of the Stole II. About half way through the Secret of the Stole II KAL, I decided to redesign the shape of the stole. This meant, that I needed to chart the changes, keep up with putting them on the group site every week, and knit an entirely new stole to reflect the new pattern design. I have been knitting like a madwoman (hence the lack of blog posts) to get the revised stole completed before everyone else and so that we can go do a photo shoot for the pattern cover this weekend. I am happy to report that as of today the revised shape stole pattern has been completed and blocked.

The original stole yarn requirements were lace weight yarn and size 3 needles. When I decided to knit the new version of the pattern I wanted a larger, thicker, warmer stole so I went with dk weight yarn and size 5 needles. The stole blocked out to 93″ x 24″. It is alpaca and luscious. This one is all mine!!!

The original pattern will be sold under a different name and will be similar to this one, but the shape is different. Right now, (until March 21) we have both patterns for pre-purchase on the Knitwith.us web site for $10. After March 21 the price for the patterns will be $7 each. If you would like to pre-purchase, the links to both patterns will be sent to you on March 21, 2008.

I mentioned that we were on the boat last weekend. It was so pretty when we arrived that Mr. K was able to pressure wash the boat while I sat on the dock and knitted. Right about the time he completed pressure washing and began peeling the vinyl letters off the side and stern of the boat (we are changing the name of her to Island Zephyr) the wind began picking up. By the time he was finished with the last letter the weather radio was reporting gale warnings for the next 24 hours. They weren’t kidding! We slept on a rockin and rollin boat that night. It was really pretty cool!

The next day when the seas subsided, we had two very special visitors into the very narrow channel of the marina. We think they chased schools of fish into the channel and had a feast. Afterwards, as they were leaving, we believe they were mating! Too cool!

Well, that is about all I can think of to tell you guys right now. More frequent posting should be on the way since the knit a long is just about over. As if there isn’t enough to keep us all busy and just in case you didn’t know already, Spring Knitty is up…..

Fair Winds, D

Here are the first 29 rows of my Civil War Shawl KAL and behind me you can see where I work on it the most.  College basketball provides  a great block of 3+ hours of knitting time for me.  The shawl is growing slowly, stay tuned…