A Little Stash Enhancement!

While I was at the Knitters' Retreat, I did buy a little bit of yarn for the Stash! This white 100% silk, lace weight from Pagan Creations is for a shawl for my GD, who will graduate from high school next June. I am planning on a long rectangular shawl, as I feel that if she does not wear it, she can always use it as a runner on a dresser or table. I am awaiting the book on Victorian Lace Today to choose a pattern.

Pagan Creations is a little shop run by a gal in the Campbell River area of BC and so if I need more I can easily get it for the shawl. There are approximately 593 metres on this skein, so I will see how far it goes with the pattern I choose.

These five skeins are from The Plymouth Italian Collection Turino Silk. I was told that it might drape a bit, but if it is washed in the machine, tossed in the dryer for a wee bit and then put out flat to dry that it would 'get back into shape'!

The lighter colour grey mix will comprise the body of the sweater, and the dark and medium grey mix, along with the deep turquoise will give me a bit of colour work! I have been seriously thinking of making a Sitcom Chic cardi with some colour work on the bottom!

I am loving this sweater that I made from the blue denim and I will change a few things on the pattern and I think it could be a winner. I will knit the entire sweater with the same size needle - using a smaller needle for three rows of ribbing on a 3.75 mm needle and then changing to a 5 mm needle gives a 'pulled in' look to the bottom of the sleeves and body. I will change the ribbing to a seed stitch finish for 5 or 6 rows on the body and the bottom of the sleeves and knit about 6 stitches in seed stitch up the fronts of the body - there is only one button near the top, so button placement is not a big issue. I think I may have written about this before. I will finish the neck with an I-cord treatment. In the original pattern, you picked up stitches for the front - no need to go there again!

I finished stitching up the Cul de Sac vest, and I am so not liking this picking up stitches around finished work. I changed the pattern on the French Vanilla I showed you, as it was designed to knit the two fronts and then pick up and knit the button and buttonhole bands. NO!, I refuse to do that - I am knitting the left side first and I added eight stitches to the front edge which I am working in seed/moss stitch. Once the left side is completed, I will mark the spots on it for the buttons and then on the right side knit the buttonholes into the band as I work up the sweater!

I was telling Shelley, who ran the Knitters' Retreat that I would appreciate a workshop on finishing edges, along with the various methods of casting on and casting off and when they are the best method. I usually knit the side edges of stockinette stitch by knitting garter stitch on the first and last stitch of the back and then the side edge of the fronts, as I find this edge to be neat to sew up. Now what about an edge that needs stitches picked up when the body is knit in stockinette stitch? I learned from Sally Melville books that when knitting garter stitch to always slip the first stitch as if you were going to purl, put the yarn to the back and knit across. This makes for a lovely finished edge and an edge that makes picking up stitches so neat and easy.

I know there is a book out there on finishing, and perhaps that is what I need, but I wonder how you finish your edges.

Jo, of Celtic Memory Yarns and I did a swap of dyes and yarn and I got the beautiful Silk and Cashmere that I knit Cul de Sac from and she was also finishing off her Cul de Sac off yesterday as well! I know she had tried other methods, and was talking about an I-cord finish, so I will be anxious to see how she made out.

Am I thrilled with this vest! The fact it is completed, except for the buttons, puts my mood high on the scale. The finishing, I am not thrilled much - could I have done better - I am not sure - mood a little lower on the scale! Will I wear it, probably next fall/winter when the agony of this vest is a memory - mood mixed! I want to do another garment with Celtic Knots and it will probably not be for a bit! Today I plan to visit my LYS for some simple buttons for the vest and once they are sewn on, Cul de Sac will make her debut on the blog.

Jo and I were not sure why Elsebeth Lavold called the vest Cul de Sac, but after time spent with the finishing, Jo, I begin to think it could be a cul de sac that you enter and then can never find the exit!! That is how it felt yesterday, as I knit with ever diminishing amounts of yarn. I did not knit four rows on the two arm openings as called for, because I would have run out, but I am happy with the number of rows I knit - a pick up row, k 2 rows and a cast off row! She's done - 'nough said!!