Monday, November 19, 2007

Finished project!!

Early in the year I got a copy of Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby and immediately set about flagging the pages that had projects that I just HAD to make. Needless to say, there were quite a lot of things that I loved. I wanted a lace scarf to wear with my jean jacket and some of my turtle neck sweaters and decided that would be my first project. I had recently received my first few skeins of Sophie's Toes Sock Yarn from Emily Parson and I quickly cast on for the Bramble Leaf Scarf (page 98) in a particularly scrumptious semi-solid in the Deep Teal/Navy colorway from Emily's Layers of Color collection. The colors of the yarn are wonderful. It's mainly a midnight blue with shots of teal and even lavender in it. Yummy!
At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to use this heavier yarn (meaning not lace weight) for a lace scarf. I thought I liked it but couldn't decide. I kept on knitting. I got about half way though and discoved a mistake farther back. I wasn't feeling like tinking back to fix it (a difficult thing with lace if you aren't very careful - which I am usually not) so I put the project away for later. I picked it up again a month or so ago and fixed my mistake and finished it up. I love it and I LOVE the yarn weight with this scarf. I can't stop wearing it!
brambleleafscarf.jpg
I made a few modifications to the published pattern. Instead of the French Trellis border I used a shorter border, the narrow point border on page 183 of the book. Also, I only worked the center bramble leaf insertion one time instead of the two repeats called for in the pattern. I worked the bramble leaf insertion chart a total of 36 times.
I only had one skein of the yarn and I needed to make sure I had enough, so I made an overall smaller scarf. I'm glad I did because the yarn weight might have made the scarf more heavy than I would have liked if it had been bigger.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Halloween aftermath

Well, Halloween is over and done and a good time was had by all. Both the good little witch (or is she a cat - depends on who you ask) and the Jedi master Trick-or-Treated until Mommy dropped. Actually, Mommy's ears got really cold and she finally called an end to the festivities in order to thaw them out properly.

The witch costume was recycled from last year - at daughter's request (yeah!). I made the Jedi robe this year. I think it is going to get a lot of use.

I have done quite a bit of sewing during the past month. I finished two nighties for Shel. Both are made of fleece.



Next up, a Christmas party dress for Shelby. She picked out the fabric herself. She's partial to purple and pink and she loves glitzy.


Now I've got to go pack. We're off to Chicago for the weekend.