trying to be a better blogger - Moonfleet
So it occurs to me that this blog would be more readable if my posts were on a single topic, like maybe a single project. And I would be a better blogger if I managed to post every time I finished something. So let's try this for awhile. (That paragraph is going to be embarrassing four months from now when I haven't gotten around to posting anything... oh well.)
My most recent FO is Moonfleet! Moonfleet was one of those mystery KALs that I love so much. This one was a KAL run by The Unique Sheep, and the pattern was for a laceweight stole in Eos, their 50/50 merino/tussah silk blend, with beads by Earthfaire.
I got this yarn in plenty of time to start the stole when the first clue came out, but I didn't. My excuse was that I wasn't done with Evenstar, and its beads were taking up the bead bowl I use, but I'm not sure what my real reason was. I guess I'm a fairly monogamous knitter at heart, and I wasn't having startitis or anything, so I just didn't cast on. The yarn, however, was lovely.
I chose the Casual Friday colorway, dyed with the Unique Sheep's gradiance method: that's one hank of yarn divided up into four little hanks, each one a little different in color. Mine was a particularly subtle color selection, going from sky blue to a light greyish purple. You can definitely tell in person, but it's even a little hard to see the color change in pictures. Speaking of which...
The left end is the blue end and the right end is the purple end. The bottom end is my dog.
The beads, chosen by someone at Earthfaire, were perfect and gorgeous. There are size 8 seed beads in a color called Metallic Navy Iris. They were mainly a very shiny navy blue, but did vary from bead to bead... some more purple, some more green, some more blue. I loved them because they were all a lot darker than the yarn, and so they were easy to see against the knitting. There are also magatamas (drop beads) at the points on the ends, these were in the color Gunmetal.
I finally started the shawl on Midsummer's Eve, just before clue 7 came out. Mostly, the knitting went very well, but there were a few setbacks. I think the worst part was when I noticed that I had forgotten a bead, nearly two repeats down. Now, I'm a bit neurotic, so I decided I needed to rip and re-knit. I dropped something like 11 stitches down an entire repeat before I noticed that I was one repeat off from where the error was. (Actually, first I tried dropping less than 11 stitches, but I soon found that dropping an entire vertical and horizontal repeat was easier to pick up again.) So then I reknit that repeat, moved to the next one, dropped those 11 stitches down one repeat, and then just dropped the center stitch down another repeat. I put the bead there, re-knit what I had dropped, and moved on. Yay!
Um, and that particular variety of neurotic may have happened again later in the stole. At least I know what I want and I'm not afraid to go for it.
Other than that, things went swimmingly and I was caught up in time for number 9, the final clue. Then I finished that one and blocked a couple days later. Weirdly, I felt that this didn't need extensive blocking, despite being lace. The holes just seemed to open up when I lay the (soaked) thing out. I did pin out the points on the border. I think it worked very nicely. My theory is that the beads were heavy and held down the fabric wherever I put it.
And that was it! All done!
All in all, it was a fun knit. I liked the yarn ok, although even 50% silk makes me like a yarn less. I am tickled to death that it's tussah silk, and I think that this stole may be destined for my vegan friend, just so that she can appreciate that no silkworms, or buggies of any other sort, died for it. (I know, the stole is not vegan, but she has particular reasons for being vegan that she tries not to lose sight of, and I think she'll like it.)
I really liked this, but I think I might not be signing up for the next Unique Sheep KAL. I may have just made a large, irresponsible yarn purchase from Quince & Co., and I'm feeling somewhat guilty.
Oh, and if anyone's wondering, Evenstar is dry now and has been given away to a dear friend who, I believe, will make good use of it.
How about one last Moonfleet pic for the road?
My most recent FO is Moonfleet! Moonfleet was one of those mystery KALs that I love so much. This one was a KAL run by The Unique Sheep, and the pattern was for a laceweight stole in Eos, their 50/50 merino/tussah silk blend, with beads by Earthfaire.
I got this yarn in plenty of time to start the stole when the first clue came out, but I didn't. My excuse was that I wasn't done with Evenstar, and its beads were taking up the bead bowl I use, but I'm not sure what my real reason was. I guess I'm a fairly monogamous knitter at heart, and I wasn't having startitis or anything, so I just didn't cast on. The yarn, however, was lovely.
I chose the Casual Friday colorway, dyed with the Unique Sheep's gradiance method: that's one hank of yarn divided up into four little hanks, each one a little different in color. Mine was a particularly subtle color selection, going from sky blue to a light greyish purple. You can definitely tell in person, but it's even a little hard to see the color change in pictures. Speaking of which...
The left end is the blue end and the right end is the purple end. The bottom end is my dog.
The beads, chosen by someone at Earthfaire, were perfect and gorgeous. There are size 8 seed beads in a color called Metallic Navy Iris. They were mainly a very shiny navy blue, but did vary from bead to bead... some more purple, some more green, some more blue. I loved them because they were all a lot darker than the yarn, and so they were easy to see against the knitting. There are also magatamas (drop beads) at the points on the ends, these were in the color Gunmetal.
I finally started the shawl on Midsummer's Eve, just before clue 7 came out. Mostly, the knitting went very well, but there were a few setbacks. I think the worst part was when I noticed that I had forgotten a bead, nearly two repeats down. Now, I'm a bit neurotic, so I decided I needed to rip and re-knit. I dropped something like 11 stitches down an entire repeat before I noticed that I was one repeat off from where the error was. (Actually, first I tried dropping less than 11 stitches, but I soon found that dropping an entire vertical and horizontal repeat was easier to pick up again.) So then I reknit that repeat, moved to the next one, dropped those 11 stitches down one repeat, and then just dropped the center stitch down another repeat. I put the bead there, re-knit what I had dropped, and moved on. Yay!
Um, and that particular variety of neurotic may have happened again later in the stole. At least I know what I want and I'm not afraid to go for it.
Other than that, things went swimmingly and I was caught up in time for number 9, the final clue. Then I finished that one and blocked a couple days later. Weirdly, I felt that this didn't need extensive blocking, despite being lace. The holes just seemed to open up when I lay the (soaked) thing out. I did pin out the points on the border. I think it worked very nicely. My theory is that the beads were heavy and held down the fabric wherever I put it.
And that was it! All done!
All in all, it was a fun knit. I liked the yarn ok, although even 50% silk makes me like a yarn less. I am tickled to death that it's tussah silk, and I think that this stole may be destined for my vegan friend, just so that she can appreciate that no silkworms, or buggies of any other sort, died for it. (I know, the stole is not vegan, but she has particular reasons for being vegan that she tries not to lose sight of, and I think she'll like it.)
I really liked this, but I think I might not be signing up for the next Unique Sheep KAL. I may have just made a large, irresponsible yarn purchase from Quince & Co., and I'm feeling somewhat guilty.
Oh, and if anyone's wondering, Evenstar is dry now and has been given away to a dear friend who, I believe, will make good use of it.
How about one last Moonfleet pic for the road?
posted by Anisa at
1:41 AM
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