NYE Stole

After receiving a digital camera for Christmas, the next logical step was to start a knitting blog. I knit all the time, but long, wordy descriptions quickly become boring. It's all about the pictures. I may have procrastinated a little... it's only two months after Christmas after all... but that means I have a backlog of knitting to hopefully keep you entertained, as I attempt to complete more schoolwork than FOs. My blog will be more technical, I imagine, rather than anecdotal. I'm not as wordy and eloquent as some of the knitting bloggers I enjoy reading. Ah, well. If nothing else, this is for me.

This past New Year's Eve, my girlfriend, D, and I had dinner reservations at the Ritz. I had this gorgeous, black lace and cream strapless gown that I originally wore to my senior prom a few years back. Being that I spent more of that night in the bathroom than the ballroom, this dress deserved another chance at a happy memory. Although it was Miami, I'm always chilly, so that's where the knitting comes in. I decided to knit myself a lace stole to throw around my shoulders.

The stats:
Pattern: Cozy, by Danielle Schoonover in Knitty.
Yarn: Jagger Spun Zephyr wool/silk
Needles: Size 4 Clove Bamboo Straights

I looked long and hard for a stitch pattern, and a stitch dictionary really would have come in handy. I actually purchased a pattern when I purchased the yarn, however I didn't realize that it was for a triangular shawl when I wanted something rectangular. In the end, I went with Cozy, which was originally written for a worsted weight yarn. I took it down to laceweight and, after extensive swatching, I cast on 133 sts for 22 pattern repeats. Also, I strung the yarn with 100 hematite beads that I knit into either end.

Now for the pictures. I would have like to make them a bit bigger, however, that distorted my templates and I'm not html savvy enough to figure it out at this point. If you're so inclined, however, you can see bigger versions of each picture by clicking on them.

First we have the stole in the midst of blocking. Because I didn't receive my yarn which I ordered online until December 6th, and I was in the midst finals, I was knitting every spare second and some that I really couldn't spare. I originally wanted to make it longer, but I completed 50 repeats, and it blocked out to approximately 20"x72", a decent sized stole if I say so myself. It was well past 2am on New Year's Eve morning by the time I finished pinning it all out.


The pattern really translated nicely to the lighter yarn.


Here's a rather stiff picture of me in the apartment lobby. We were running a little late, but I wanted a full lenth picture of me in my dress.


I look much more relaxed during dinner, sipping on one of numerous glasses of champagne that night. We were seated right under a vent, so although I was warm enough outside, I was quite chilly inside and kept my stole on the entire time. I really need to work on my photo editing skills and take care of my inevitable red-eye.


It was certainly a night that did my beautiful dress justice. Pardon me a moment of non-knitting vanity. Here's a picture of the back of my hair at the end of the night. It's one of a handful of times in my life in which I've had my hair done, and I really felt like a princess that night.



I'm quite enamoured with lace. I see many more lace projects in my near future.