Helping to ease cancer

This blanket has been a labor of love. I asked for fiber, Chris sent it. I asked for knitting and designing, the incredible knitters did it. Now, I've done my part with sewing and edging the blanket - all 48" x 64" of it!

We are 26% toward our goal of $2000.00. If you haven't donated yet, please visit the American Cancer Society site we have set up and donate anything you can to help.

Thank you so much!

See it on Ravelry

Seriously, I'm sewing!

...waylayed a few days by oral surgery but I'm back on track now!

Fiber can be finicky and I've decided to block again as sewing progresses which should make the final few seams a breeze.

I wish you could touch this for yourself - it is incredible!

Scotch Thistle Stole

Scotch Grace Thistle finished (8)
Originally uploaded by kniterella

A little break from stitching on the charity blanket netted a couple of photos.

Details on Ravelry but for those of you who have not joined up yet:

Scotch Thistle Lace Stole
500 yards of Briar Rose Fibers Grace
Size 5 needles
Finished size: 68" long, 17 1/2" wide

This was a quick knit (seriously!) that was cast-on the first day of Spring Break and finished a little more than a week later.

Better photos may come later. My favorites are always the modeled shots.

Edited to add modeled photos - more thanks to Bugg.

Tomten!

This is the second Tomten I've knit and the first for an adult. What follows is a brief run down of the project. I picked up the yarn at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool show from Chris at Briar Rose. ( Insert gushing sigh here)
Every time this sweater was pulled out in public to knit I ended up giving out the website. The colors are gorgeous and the yarn was a delight to work with. I used approximately 10 skeins of Beth Ann. Using a US size nine needle, I alternated between skeins at the end of every row and ended up with a few small remnants. I over estimated how much yarn I would need to complete the project and have a few extra skeins in my stash. I'm sure to come up with something to do with it on Ravelry. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!


My source, the indispensable, The Opinionated Knitter (page 42 - 43). (Insert another gushing sigh) I used the same numbers for my sweater as written in the directions for the kids version. My blind following resulted in a sweater that was a wee too narrow for the Scandinavian shoulders I possess. By the time this revelation had sufficiently sunk in I had already knit both sleeves. Poo. The thought of ripping back to what amounted to the very beginnings to adjust for the necessary width made me cringe. So I knitted on - sure I would come up with a solution - or gift the sweater to a smaller person in my life. In the end I decided to add a button band of sorts across the whole front edge of the sweater. This had the added benefit of adding much needed length to the collar.

The collar features some fancy mitre work. Another bit of EZ genius. I decided the collar would be mostly open and put the mitre on the inside so it would be visible when worn. For a reference check out pg 84 of The Opinionated Knitter.

Yummy garter stitch goodness. Heavens it's tasty and expeditious!

Spring is approaching, despite the dumping of a few inches this week. I find my Tomten the perfect weight for walking the pooch, counting the robins, in our balmy 40 degree weather.
More details of this project can be found at my blog.