Print O' The Waves Stole

Yeah, remember that one?  Yup, it's time to continue the neverending attempt to get all my FO's written up...

Print O' The Waves Stole

Date: 

March 31 - July 6, 2008

Yarn:
Jade Sapphire Cashmere-Silk 2-ply in robin's egg 19

Needles:
US #6 Addi Turbo Lace 32" circulars

Pattern:
Print O' The Waves Stole by Eunny Jang (errata here)

The story:

This project was what I would consider to be my first "real" lace project ie lace with lace weight yarn. I knew I wanted to knit something for my mother-in-law and I spent a lot of time obsessing over what yarn and what pattern to knit.  Thank goodness for Ravelry!

In the end I decided upon the Print O' The Waves Stole because it seemed to have the most finished projects that I loved and was favoriting.  And I splurged on the cashmere-silk because, hey, it was a gift!  This yarn did not disappoint in the slightest - it was absolutely gorgeous and a pleasure and a delight to knit with, both for the color and the texture.  So pretty!  Even swatching was a delight for a change, especially as it really helped me understand and get the hang of the pattern without having to knit lots of horizontal repeats before getting to see it take shape.  Also, given that it was my first lace project, I also got to see the magical transformation that is blocking - all before getting started.

By the way, I have absolutely no idea why I used US #6 needles when the pattern calls for #4.  I believe I purchased the needles specially too - I think I just had a brain blip and made a mistake.  As a result the stole came out pretty big - 84" x 21" after blocking, although that's not far off the pattern size for lace weight (80" x 25") and actually narrower... but probably because I didn't block very aggressively. I was perfectly happy with the fabric I got from #6 too, although in retrospect, Sundara's recent lace tutorial on needle size is interesting.

The stole knit up pretty quickly actually - it was probably about a month's worth of regular knitting with some pauses in between.  I knit quite a bit of it in April, then took a break and came back to it for a little in early June, and finishing it off in time for my mother-in-law's birthday in early July.  I had left myself plenty of time to get the project done pretty much at my leisure which was nice, but by the time I finished it I was about 6-7 weeks pregnant - I was lucky and had pretty much no morning sickness to speak of but I was extremely tired during the first trimester so I didn't really have the energy to take good final photos and they are... rather lackluster to say the least.  Besides, the stole actually looks a lot better on my mother-in-law!  She was, by the way, really delighted with the gift, which I was really happy about.  Overall, this was a joy to knit for both the yarn, the color and the pattern, and it was not as tricky or slow going as I might have expected either.  Highly recommended!

In progress shots:

Finished shots:

Flickr set is here.

Ravelry link is here.

Comments

[Daphne]

It's beautiful. I was just checking it out in Ravelry and thinking, "that looks like a pregnant belly..." so came over here to check--congratulations!! He's going to be covered in handknits and I think we're all looking forward to those pictures.