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 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.

When I got home from my trip on Sunday night, there was a package waiting for me. It was my apron, from Stephanie! I was super excited when I saw that she made my apron, because she posted a picture of the fabric she was using a while ago, and I LOVED it. Here’s the finished apron… very cute!

My favorite thing about this apron is the ruffle… it’s cute, but not too cutesy, and made from perfect little pleats. I’m sure those took a while to make!

And in lace news, I managed to make a lot of progress on the stole over the weekend. It’s amazing how much you can get done when you have a few extra hours on your hands at the airport. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my iPod with me (it’s my preferred method of avoiding chatty people when traveling), so I had to explain to no less than 10 people what I was doing. No, this is not the same as cross stitch. Crochet only uses one needle. No, I don’t crochet. The lace is made from holes in the knitting. Yes, they are supposed to be there. No, it isn’t hard. Yes, I have to count my stitches (so SHUT UP!). Yes, you could make doilies this way, or you could crochet them. The cord between my needles is to hold them together so I don’t lose one (ha! not really!). No, I don’t think that I could take over the plane with my knitting needles. Yes, it is OK for me to have these on an airplane. Oh, your [insert elderly female relative here] knits… that’s nice. AAAARRGH! That is the last time I travel without the iPod.

Anyway, I managed to get through the nupps section and onto the final border on the first side of the stole. I only have about 10 more rows to go on this side, then I have to go back and knit the border on the other side. Almost done!

I’ve been looking for smaller green beads for my Malabrigo sweater too. Shopping for beads on the internet is impossible. I think I may just start knitting the sweater and keep looking for beads until I get to the lace section.