I got started on the entrelac stole this weekend - great knitting while we were accumulating a foot of snow on Saturday! While the stole is working out as I had expected, there are a couple of issues - aren’t there always? Heheh…
I imagined the stole with 3 to 4 lace panels across the width (depending upon which tier was being worked) and it was with that in mind that I began to work. I cast on 100 stitches and did the set-up triangles and the first tier of lace blocks. I have four balls of that light pink yarn in the photo and had hoped to use it to both begin and end the stole. However, I had to start a third ball in order to finish the first tier of blocks. Crud - there wasn’t going to be enough yarn. It was then I began to get a little suspicious.
I transferred the stitches to a 60” circular needle this morning so I could spread the stole out and get a reasonable photograph of it. Lo and behold, it was wide enough for a small afghan, let alone a stole. Unblocked, it’s 44” wide. Blocked, it would be big enough to wrap a mummy in. Well poop!
Actually, this isn’t so terrible. It does mean that I’m going to have to rip the work and start over which is never very much fun I guess. I figure if it’s 44” wide now, doing 2 - 3 blocks over the width (rather than 3 - 4) should come out around 33”. I realize that’s still pretty wide for a stole (and that’s unblocked), but I do want it to be generous - I just don’t want it giving the farm away! That should also solve the problem of the light pink yarn. Doing the set-up triangles and the first tier shouldn’t run me over 2 balls now. So all I have to do is frog it and re-start it.
Onwards :)
I have a fair quantity of each of the two yarns in the photo below and would like to incorporate the both into the stole.
The problem, to my eye anyway, is that they seem close enough in color to be visually confusing if place side-by-side - which they would be in the stole. Myria says very firmly that the ball on the right is much lighter in tone and sufficiently different in texture that there wouldn’t be a problem. I’m thinking that the color on the left (I have 4 balls of that) could be dyed a little darker to emphasize the difference between it and the color on the right. What do you think?
There was some dyeing this weekend too :)
This is Silver Mauve and the whole story can be found over at The Dye Pot. This yarn had a substantial microfiber component so dyeing it was an interesting experiment.
Hope you all had great weekends and that your collective Mondays are mellow :)
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How long do you want the stole to be? Could you rip out enough and make the 44 inches even longer (wider) and make that the length instead of the short side of a stole? You probably don’t have enough pink to do both sides if you would do that, though. Maybe you could shade from light on one side to darker on the other, though. Just something else to think about.
Charlotte - I did think of that - doing it the long way rather than across the width but you’re right. I wouldn’t have enough yarn to manage a symmetrical color arrangement. I wanted to go light, medium, medium dark and dark at the center and then back out through medium dark, medium to light on the other end.
Same deal with the shading from light at one end to dark at the other. It lacks symmetry and that’s something I would like to preserve with the color since I’ll be using different patterns with the lace. On the other hand, I could mirror the lace patterns too.
Hmmm…
do you remember ever doing shade and tone charts in an art class- you know, when you build charts of tone on tone with exactly the same increase/decrease increments of difference between them? going by that, i think you do need just a bit more dye in your darker pink although there is definitely some contrast already there according to the pic on my monitor- of course i also always think ‘let the dyer beware’ when i try to come up with any kind of predictable color so i should hesitate to suggest doing it-
that is going to be a most spectacular item- cannot wait to watch your progress-
stay happy-
Barb - Let the dyer beware? *Snicker* I’m pretty much in agreement with you here and I also think the darker yarn (the one on the left) would benifit from further darkening.
No I have to decide what to use (what type, what color) and how much!
The stole is going to be gorgeous when you get it together. Perfection takes time and buckets of patience.
Opal - Thanks :) I’m really not looking for perfection; I figure that’s beyond me. But a harmonious blend of colors and patterns - that I think is acheivable.
Besides, if any of us ever did acheive perfection in our knitting, why would we ever knit again? And I’m not ready to give this up just yet!
