Photo Finish!

The feather and fan stole was finished this morning. When I went to bed last night, I had about five rows to go and I was sorely tempted to stay up and finish it, but I worried that I might screw it up through fatigue so I resisted. When I woke up this morning I came trotting out in my nightgown, stopping only for a diet Coke, and finished it off. Then I admired it like crazy, made my husband do the same, and haven't knitted another stitch all day.

Here it is. I couldn't photograph it stretched out and get a good photo, as the aspect ratio is just too high.


Here it is hanging up with the light coming through it so the lace pattern is more visible:


Here's a close-up of the pattern, so you can see how badly it needs blocking. Scruffy looking, isn't it?


And here's a photo of the garter stitch edge, with chain selvege:


And here's the 55-gram left-over yarn. This ball reminds me of an immature sugar cone pine cone.



The scarf took 133 gm fingering weight wool yarn, hand-dyed, from Pippi Knee Socks. I think the yarn really made it beautiful. The design is my own, five repeats of an eighteen-stitch feather and fan, with a five-stitch garter stitch edging and a chain selvedge on each side. There's an eight-row garter stitch border at each end and 72 repeats of the four-row pattern. It's knitted on a US 8 Denise circular needle (for convenience only; it's knitted flat).

Now I can go back to my Argosy Baby Blanket, designed by Vyvyan Neel. I've knitted a number of Argosy scarves and this is my first non-scarf Argosy. I guess this makes me an Argonaut, doesn't it.

I put my blanket aside, after knitting ten repeats of the pattern rows, to finish the stole. Here it is, in my new orange knitting bag (which Amazon is, for some odd reason, selling as a diaper bag--go figure).


Here are some closer photos to show the texture and colors better:


Not exactly the typical baby colors, is it? The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Rainbow and I bought eight skeins. One skein makes about seventy pattern squares for me. It's knitted on KnitPicks Options US 4 needles. Right now I've got a hundred squares in a triangle shape and the sides are about 33 in. long. The blanket is actually more diamond-shaped than rectangular. I'll keep increasing until I've used half the yarn or the triangle is 45 in. on the sides, I think.


This really shows the colors and texture well:


The colors aren't quite as good here, but the texture is very visible.


All packed up and ready to go. This is really a very nice knitting bag. I particularly like the long straps that allow me to sling it on my shoulder.:


I really like everything about this project. I like the new bag, the yarn, the colors, the pattern, the needles, and the fabric. Of course, I'm still on the increasing side of the pattern and I may not like the long rows that are coming, but the decreasing side should make up for that.

So, tell me what you think of both projects, please.