Two Hundred and Fifty Six stitches on each of four sides

results in a mighty long round of lace. I have avoided calculating exactly how many stitches a round has, a sort of knitterly avoidance, but I do realise that is why on an average nights knitting I will only 'work-around' the blanket four or five times. So today, there is more of the blankets slow progress, a simple low tech solution to a mistake that I just kept making, a finished project(yay!), and even more pens. Those things are absolutely as addictive as stashing fibre and yarn and patterns and books.

There are some projects that are easy and difficult at the same time, for different reasons. This blanket should be fairly easy, and straightforward, the center is garter, the next band is garter, and this band is in a simple 12 stitch lace repeat. All of that is perfectly reasonable to expect to be able to knit without to much in the way of stress or problems. So far I have reknit several sections of this blanket, in the past few days I have reknit the first few rounds of the darker grey band, again and again. For some reason I could not work 12 repeats of the 12 stitch lace repeat into 148 stitches. Simply I would get distracted and put the yarn over in the wrong place, or the decreases in the wrong place ... and I never found out until I was a stitch or seven out at the end. I tried stitch markers, but to place them on meant I had to work a round and slip each into place (I didn't have 48 stitch markers handy that could be clipped on). Eventually I sat and thought, there had to be a quicker and more adjustable way to mark the 12 stitch repeats without having to work a round. I threaded up a needle with a few meters of white yarn, and passed the needle back and forwards between every 12th stitch - it worked. I could easily pull out the yarn if I got to the end and was out by a stitch or two ... and work out which stitches on the previous round were sticking together, and looking like a single stitch.

That little 12 stitch guide was enough to get me started, I was away. Last time I knit this lace band it was in dark blue, and I am liking the more subtle transition from the mid grey to the dark grey. This time I am also remembering to knit the lace as garter stitch - last time I knit every round knit .. and the lace looked good, but different to what was intended. Things are looking good so far ..... fingers (and needles crossed).

The finished project was a wee doily, a lace linen doily that I turned into a ballet bun cover. I try to be a conscientious ballet mum, and send smallest cub along with her hair up ballet style. But those shear hair nets sold to keep buns tidy are frail, and easily torn and never to be found when one needs one. Her hair is so wispy it needs something to contain it. I wanted to make a Lacey bun-cover, and a doily seemed a good pattern. This tuned out larger than I intended, but I was able to thread elastic around one of the middle rounds of eyelet holes, and so create a ruffle (or fluffle as smallest bear calls it) beyond the bun cover.

And a photo being worn, pretty, she describes it as a little hat .. and I'd have to say her teddy bear has been spotted wearing it. An odd look really, a sort of Victorian maids lace cap in pink on a worn much loved teddy bear. I've been having thoughts about it as well. I might have to make one as a rosette to wear, what about double layered in several shades of yarn?

And pens, because a blog post without pens would be really odd now, somehwere along the line I acquired the orange one to the right in this image. I loved the orange one, and remembered Andy's Pens, where he sold me the (in order from right to left), Bright Yellow, Lime Green, Tweed, and Marshmallow versions. These arrived yesterday, and I'm kicking myself for not ordering the Jelly Pink, its all about the name really isn't it? And yes you are right, I don't need so many pens at once, but I think do I need to see them in a display on my desk, in a clear glass vase, to cheer me up. There really is something nice about using nice tools and equipment, and when the nice tools are simple inexpensive pens like this - I feel like I can indulge. I even ordered a turquoise refill from the same place (you didn't need to know that some refills come in Magenta, Turquoise and Purple, as well as boring old blue, blue-black and black did you?).

so I'm off to work my way around several hundred stitches, and stir the celery-bacon & barley soup, and generally settle down for a quiet Sunday evening.

take care
Stella

Knit, frog, knit, tink, knit, frog, knit, frog some more ...

That, my online friends is an accurate report of the weeks knitting. True to the blogs name there has indeed been far more frogging than knitting this week, and yet oddly I felt confident to start a new lace project ... and there was a new Vintage Purls Sock yarn club kit. The important part of that sentence is yarn, as in the club kits are no longer all about sock patterns but have extended excitingly into patterns that can be knit with sock yarn but are not socks. I understand there will be at least one sock pattern .. for the die hard sock knitters in her fan base.

So, today, the frog report, remember when a frog report was a fairly frequent part of every post, and the knit report, the new project introduction, and the planning of the Fair Isle Tam.

Frogging, and sometimes Tinking, was the major knit activity this week. Following last weeks post I did completely frog the blue lace band of the Sheltland yarn blanket, that was the easy task. I frogged straight onto a nostepinne, seemed a sensible move as I planned to knit it straight back up again.

Post frogging, the stitches sat waiting for me to slide them back onto the needle. I do like this shetland yarn, slightly sticky so it behaves it self, no stitches disappearing into themselves and running away.

But it was not so simple, I some how snagged one of the corners and could not drop down a few stitches and repair the damage. This was the garter stitch section where I had knit with two yarns to avoid purling, and the corner was where the two yarns were twisted together. Dropping down and picking up and understanding how the yarns worked up the corner, interlaced with each other and then worked away from the corner, well, that was apparently beyond me.

The ten or twelve rows I tried to drop stitches down and knit back up got increasingly more muddily and less like the other corners, the more times I tried, the more of a mess I made, so I frogged back a few more rows, until the corner was neat and started to finish the grey section again. Some times there is nothing else that will work but work it properly.

All that happened before Thursday, so when Thursday night came around, knit night I was at a loss about what to take to knit. I had no made much progress on a chart for my Fair Isle Tam, and I didn't want to risk mucking up the blanket any more. So I did what any sane knitter would do, 15 minutes before being due at knit night ... I opened Ravelry and hunted down a pattern. I wanted to knit a quick lace cover that smallest bear could use to tidy up her ballet bun. I found a Lace Luncheon Mat and printed it and grabbed pink linen and needles as I ran out the door. Appart from the fact it is going to be twice the size I need ... it is a good choice. Now I just need to frog it and knit it on much smaller needles ......

The tam is a knitters study project, and the second and last class is next weekend. That sort of put a little bit of urgency into sorting a chart. Inspired by Kate Davies and Spilly Jane, I am working towards a cute tam, not really fair isle but pretty and pictorial. I've assembled an assortment of knitting motifs from my knit books, and made a start. For now all I'm sure of is that there will be a couple holding hands .. and possibly a cat, or dog, or fox, or hearts .. or something equally twee. And no, they won't be knit in golden yellow, that is just the colour pencil that came to hand. Once I've planned to layout I will play with colours.

And the recent highlight of the stash was the addition of the first of 3 sock yarn kits from Vintage Purls. As usual a lovely colour and an amazing pattern, I might just use that lace to edge the Shetland yarn shawl. And of course there was chocolate, two kinds, dark my favorite and milk which is a favorite for sharing. Yarn, new pattern and lace, it really doesn't take much to brighten my week.

so .. I hope your week past and ahead has significantly less frogging and tinking than mine, and that some one does something nice for you on Valentines ..... there is already a nice pen here for me (more about that next post), and I've been making heart shaped pita breads for the cubs lunch boxes.

na Stella