Still Knitting

I have been knitting pretty constantly since the beginning of my vacation. It has almost become a job, but I still love doing it. I went away for a few days to relax by Lake of Bays in Muskoka. I justsat on the beach and looked at the sky and knit. As the cloud formations drifted by the Ooh La Lace Dress was knit back to normal. The alternating of 2 balls at once is not visible from the outside. I am just starting the third repeat. When the third repeat is finished I will have passed where I was when I had to frog.

My alternate WIP is a summer top by Lana Grossa. It is almost finished. I'll try to post a photo soon

Tink Tink Tink ......

The saga of the Ooh La Lace Dress continues. I took a deep breath girded my loins and plunged into correcting the damage. Actually I gathered up my knitting and skeins and drove over to my LYS where sympathetic knitters could comfort me in my grief and help me stay determined to do what must be done. I ripped back to the life line (more life lines needed in the future). I then proceeded to swatch each remaining skein of yarn. All the knitters agreed that it was impossible to determine the relative shade of the yarn by strand alone, so the swatches were necessary. I have labeled each swatch and skein from darkest to lightest (photo below). Now I am tinking (unknitting stitch by stitch) the remaining 4 rows of lighter yarn. Once this is done, I will commence to knit from darkest to lightest skein alternating skeins. Proving that I can do the right thing.

Ooh La Lace Pour Moi

I finally have my lace summer dress (by Shirley Paden, in Lace Style) on the needles. First the yarn, Flaxen, took forever to arrive from Hand Maiden. But it is so beautiful and so worth it. Then I had to wind the skeins into balls. It took two attempts to get the cast on right. The original pattern has a slit in the back, but I am knitting this circular with no slit. I did not make a swatch because the pattern has a 45 stitch, 26 row repeat, and uses 6 needle sizes. I am a loose knitter so I am hoping that by starting with the needle size in the pattern I will allow enough ease for walking. After I knit past the area where the slit would be I will take the piece off of the needles for a fitting. If it works out I will then proceed to gradually decrease to a needle size 3 sizes smaller than what the pattern requires, because that it is the difference that typically gives me gauge. I will also not have a turtleneck or buttons down the back. A jewel neckline should allow enough ease to wiggle into the dress.