A Winter Queen

 I finally  managed to finish my Summer Queen stole. This was a very interesting stole to knit. It's the first time that I have knitted a stole with a double edging. The main body of the stole is knitted with the yarn held double. When you get to the edging you place a life line in your last row of the main body (I left a KnitPicks cable in)  and then drop one strand of the yarn and continue with one strand for the first edge. Once that edge is completed you pick up the stitches on the life line and knit the second edge.

The stole is nice and long so you can wrap it around you with ease.

As for the stats. The yarn is Morris Empire 2 ply in Midnight Blue and the needle size is 4.0mm.

Something done

Finally! It's taken quite some time but I have managed to complete something. This is the Emily Dickinson shawl which was a commission for someone on Ravelry.

I came close to finishing it a couple of weeks ago but then I ran out of yarn 26 rows from the end. So more yarn had to be ordered and it arrived on Friday. I was anxious to finish the shawl so I grab a few moments between undertaking activities with some visitors from Holland and managed to finish the shawl. 

So, here she is. Knitted in Jamieson & Smith 1 ply cobweb yarn on 3.5mm needles. And I used 6/0 beads in black.

No knitting

I have been rather under the weather with a cold and thus I've not been knitting. Wait, let me rephrase that, I haven't been knitting much. The reduction in knitting also means that I have no progress to show you.

But I did receive something rather magnificent this week from Ozifarmer over on Ravelry. She sent me this wonderful needlecase in exchange for a shawl that I knitted for her.

Have a look at it. Its so clever. It has a zipped pouch for my cables. Another pouch for accessories and even a pouch to hold my knitting gauge!

I love it. Thank you Dawn!

New beginnings

There is something delicious about starting a new project. You select a pattern (or it selects you) and then you hunt for the right yarn and you dream about the completed project. Sometimes I get a little carried away doing this and before I know it I have several new projects on my needles. That recently happened again.

First I cast on for the Summer Queen KAL. This is going to be a stole. The main part is knitted with the yarn held double and the edging will be done with a single strand of yarn. I'm using Morris Empire 2 ply in Midnight Blue. Here is clue one completed and last night I started clue 2.

While waiting for clue 2 I cast on the Elm Scarf. This is one of the side projects in the Back to the Garden KAL. What? You haven't joined up yet? Well hurry over right now and join up for 12 weeks of fun. The first part of the main project will be released tomorrow. I'm knitting this scarf in Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 2 ply in Peony on 2.25mm needles. And I am adding some lovely opaque pink 8/0 beads.

And my third project is the Emily Dickinson shawl which I am knitting on commission for someone on Ravelry. This is strictly daytime knitting as the yarn in Jamieson and Smith cobweb weight in black. The pattern is easy but the yarn makes it a little tricky and casting on 545 sts was no joke. Some of the rows that require beads are taking me nearly an hour to knit. I will be relieved once the decreases really start taking hold because as you can see it's all stitches and hardly any rows!