I had a post written in my head for today (admit it, you do this too), all about the perfect yarn and the perfect pattern, and how sometimes the two don’t go together, and blah blah blah. Really, it was a great post. Or maybe it will be someday (later this week, perhaps). Instead I’m going to revisit my public service announcement from earlier this year, and encourage everyone who reads my blog and who meets the blood donation eligibility requirements to make an appointment today to donate blood.

As an incentive to get you to donate, Martha is having a contest to get knitbloggers and their friends to donate blood. So, go, now… search for your local blood donation center, make an appointment to donate, help save a life (or two, or three), leave a comment for Martha, and possibly get some fibery goodness in return. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

After you’ve made your blood donation appointment, come back here and check out this crazy knitter… It’s a woman who knit a Ferrari - using TWELVE miles of yarn. She’s also knit a toilet, pedestal sink, and wing back chair. Seriously. Insane.

At long last, pictures of the Estonian Garden Stole - a project I began long, long ago. Click to make them bigger.

Pattern: Estonian Garden Stole, by Fiber Trends This is a great pattern, if you don’t mind lots of repetitiveness in the main part of the stole, and all the nupps in the border, which take some time to execute, but really aren’t that bad. I think this would be a good pattern for a beginning lace knitter. The first 2/3 of the pattern is extremely simple, and by the time you get to the borders, you’re definitely ready for a bit more of a challenge.

Yarn: Somewhat Solid Silk Laceweight yarn from Sundara Yarn (click for a pre-knit picture) I purchased this yarn after visiting Sundara’s site earlier this year. Much to my delight, she had a skein of silk laceweight yarn that looked like a perfect match for a silk sundress of mine. As you can see, it was indeed the perfect yarn to knit a wrap to go with my dress! Even though this yarn was the most expensive that I’ve ever purchased, it was well worth it. The silk laceweight is fabulous to knit with, and the 1000 yards of yarn kept me knitting on the same project all summer. I figure this yarn cost me about $12/month of knitting. Not a terrible hit to the yarn budget at all, if you ask me! If you’re looking to splurge on some fabulous silk laceweight for a shawl, Sundara’s yarn should definitely be at the top of your list.

Needles: Crystal Palace Bamboo circulars, size US5. This was my first experience with Crystal Palace bamboo circs, and I really, really liked them. These needles had a swivel ball join between the cord and the needle, which was really useful. The cord was somewhat flexible, although not as much as the Addi cord, but the swivel join made having an uber-flexible cord much less important. For the most part, I didn’t have any problems getting my stitches over the joins, although yarn-overs occassionally gave me some trouble. Finally, the points on the Crystal Place needles were perfectly shaped - just the right pointiness to do the complicated maneuvers required to knit the evil nupps (P5tog!).

Pattern modifications: None. The pattern was very well written, as I’ve found to be true of all Fiber Trends pattterns. With such a fine yarn, I probably could have gone down a needle size or two, while adding more widthwise and/or lengthwise repeats, which would have given a more dense knit fabric. However, I’m very happy with the light, airy fabric produced on the size 5 needles. I’m not sure if it comes across in the photos, but the finished stole is very, very lightweight. Just what I wanted!

The blog is broken. I didn’t cause it (I don’t think). This stinks. Hopefully I can get my old template back up tomorrow, and get everything else working properly - for now, I’m going generic.

Update: Fixed! Whew! Not sure what happened, but now everything seems to be working again.

I love knitting scarves. They can be as simple or complex as you want to make them, but generally are just a single stitch pattern repeated over and over again until the scarf is as long as you want it to be. No shaping. No gauge/sizing worries. Most yarns will do the job. All in all, they are pretty worry free to knit. When was the last time you heard of someone frogging a scarf?

The downside to all of this is that I don’t live in a very scarf friendly area. It’s 70+ degrees (F) for 7 months a year, and in the winter, daytime temperatures are usually in the 50s, with lots of rain. Not exactly prime scarf wearing weather. So, instead of knitting scarves for myself, I knit them for friends in cooler climates.

This scarf, for example, is off to a friend in Idaho who works at a ski resort. She’ll make good use of it I’m sure!

I knit this over the last week, mostly while in various auto shop waiting rooms. It’s the second “My so-called scarf” that I’ve made. I love the herringbone stitch pattern.

Specs:Pattern - My so called scarf

Yarn - Manos del Uruguay, I’m not sure which colorway

Needles - Susan Bates size 11 circular. They aren’t my favorite needles, but they’re the only size 11’s that I own.

And about the Estonian Garden Stole… no modeled pictures yet. The stole deserves to be photographed properly, and these days there’s not quite enough light left in the evenings after work. Hopefully there will be some time next weekend to take pictures of it.

The Estonian Garden stole is complete! Only 5 months after I started. Yikes! In my defense, I went weeks at a time without knitting a stitch on it over the summer.

Here she is, blocking.

And a closeup:

Details and modeled shots later, after the blocking is complete. Now I’m off to enjoy my final day of vacation/sabbatical before going back to work on Monday.