FO--Celtic Knot Stole

I finished knitting the Celtic Knot Stole at the pub late Friday night/early Saturday morning and then wove in the ends Saturday morning.


When I had blocked the Seascape Stole, I discovered that by the time I had it on the blocking wires, it was pretty well dry, and that made it more difficult to block. So this time I put it on the wires first. I started that process yesterday, but I did not have much energy, so I did not end up putting it in the tub to soak until this morning. Per the designer's instructions, I let it soak for about an hour. Then I drained the tub and rinsed it a bit. Next I held it up to let the excess water drain off. Once the water stopped streaming off, I put it on a towel to blot up more of the water.

While it was soaking, parts of it had come off the blocking wires, so I threaded the edges back on. The wires help make a nice straight edge, and it beats using hundreds of pins to get a straight edge. Once that was done, I laid it out on the daybed I have in my spare room/craft room and started stretching and pinning it. It took probably at least half an hour to get it all pinned.


I took it off the wires this evening. I am pretty happy with it, but I may block it again before KC Irish Fest. I do not have a picture of it off the blocking wires yet, but I will post one once I get a good one.

Getting There

I know I have been bad about blogging. Most evenings I just do not think about it. That being said, I have made substantial process on the Celtic Knot Stole. I finished the main part of it last week, and I finished the first edge last night.


After finishing the main part, I started working on the edge. The designer has the edge charted so that the right side rows are read left to right instead of right to left like I am used to, so that kind of threw me for a loop. I ended up recharting it so it would be easier for me to deal with, and that helped me quite a bit.


Today I put the other end on the needles and removed the provisional cast on. So far all I have managed to do is knit the first row it called for and then do the crochet cast on to get the edge started. I am still new to this particular crochet cast on, and it is a bit tricky for me. Hopefully, I will be able to start this edge with fewer missteps than the other one.

Picking Up Speed

Since the designer of the Celtic Knot Stole has a full Excel chart available on her blog, I broke it into pattern repeat sections and told Excel to print each section on one page. So now instead of having to switch back and forth between charts on different pieces of paper, I have one sheet of paper and can go across the row without having to look at different charts. It has made a noticeable difference and I can now get anywhere from 4 to 6 rows done within 20 to 30 minutes.

I have not knitting that much these days--usually only on my lunch breaks at work or when I go to knitting group. Most evenings I spend online playing games and talking to friends (you know who you are). However, the Kansas City Irish Fest has announced that this year the knitting competition will be lace projects. This has actually motivated me to work on the stole more as I am determined to enter it in this year's competition on September 5.




I have actually made some progress since taking these photos. I even knit at the pub last night. One guy saw me get out my knitting and made a comment about how I was knitting too (my friend Brigette knits at the pub and had arrived before I did). I informed him that I am the original O'Dooley's Knitter.

Kim's Cakes

Okay, now that I have managed to get the computer and camera to transfer photos, here are the cakes I did for Kim's graduation party. Kim is finishing up her associates in Mortuary Science, so that gave me all sorts of possibilities for her graduation cake. However, the more I thought about it, I started having serious concerns about doing a theme cake. I am a bit superstitious and something just told me not to tempt fate. So I found a mortuary science symbol and used that instead.


The cake is chocolate with vanilla icing. I now see that one of the T's in congratulations did not get crossed, and I do not know if it is a situation where I just missed it or if I did it and the icing did not stick and went somewhere else.

Lately Kim and some of her classmates have taken to saying they want to go work in the basement. I guess it is a mortuary science thing, but I thought it was fitting for her cake.

Kim also is in the process of getting divorced and wanted a divorce cake. Well, I thought about getting really creative with that, but I decided not to do it. Instead I opted for tasteful.



I decided to do Corneil lace on the sides, but silly me, I did not thin out the icing enough, so my hand was kind of tired by the time I was done.



It is a four layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I baked two layers, then leveled and torted (split) them. It turned out really well--the cake was very moist. The decorative icing is vanilla.

Both cakes were a big hit and were pretty much demolished.

Lynn's Cake

My friend Lynn recently purchased a house with her fiancee, and they had their housewarming a few days after their respective birthdays. Lynn had asked me about doing the cake, and since she helped me move into my house, I was more than happy to do so. She indicated she wanted a My Little Pony cake. As she talked about it more, she said she wanted either Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash.

Well, I found a decent picture of Rainbow Dash, so I opted for that.


It is white cake with vanilla frosting.

Now to start thinking about Kim's graduation cake. She is getting her Associates in Mortuary Science.

Proscastination

I don't know what it is, but lately I just have not felt like knitting much. I even procrastinated on this blog post--I started thinking about a few weeks ago. I mentioned this to my friend Brian, and told him that I could envision my dad bursting into song and him (Brian) coming up with some pun. He told me I was an amateur crastinator until I got paid for it.

I started working on the Celtic Knot Stole by Sarah Kendra Hughes on February 13, 2009. I am not an accomplished lace knitter, so it has been slow to progress. If I am lucky I can get 3 or 4 rows done in an hour.


It is also not a good project to work on at the pub. Yes, I have knit complicated stuff at the pub before, and I have worked on this there before. I did finish up a couple pairs of socks during this time, but one those it was just a matter of weaving in the ends. I also managed to make another pair of Maine Morning Mitts for my friend Sharon.

Socks in Regia with peasant heel:


Socks in Lane Cervinia with sturdy heel:


Sharon's second pair of fingerless mitts:

Loot

A few weeks ago I participated in The Little Yarn Shop Hop on the Prairie. Well, yesterday while I was at lunch my cell phone rang. Jennifer, the owner of Settlers Farm, called and told me that I had won the grand prize--The Great American Afghan Kit, a bottle of Soak, and some needles.



My friends Karen, Merry, Reaona, and Stepheny also won prizes. Karen won a bag of Cascade Lana D'Oro, Stepheny won a shawl kit, and Merry won some teal Cascade, and I am not sure what Reaona won.

I looked over the pattern for the Great American Afghan, and I am not really interested in making it. However, I now have 23 skeins of Cascade 220 Wool Heathers in my yarn stash.


I am not quite sure what I will do with all of it, but who knows, maybe I will find a good use for it.