I Finished Some Things!

Last year, two women that I know through the Internet (and one I met briefly) had still births. One was at about 6-7 months, the other one was full term. When the first woman announced her angel baby, I had just gotten started using the Singer 327 and said I'd knit a blanket to donate to a local hospital. The knit side and crochet edging.

The blanket took hardly any time to make....but doing something to the edges to stop the curling?.....15 months?! Okay, it took me about a week.

The purl side, which is usually considered the 'right' side with a tuck stitch pattern.

Over last summer, I made a couple tank tops, somewhat successful. Then I started the big white shawl to take on our cruise. Once I had that finished, I started a bathing suit cover up. I knew right away I wouldn't have it done before the cruise. After the cruise I was too sick, then it was Christmas...........I finally decided recently to get it finished. I worked really hard for a few weeks and made progress, but I needed another break. Once I had finished a big section and it was off the machine, I couldn't wait to knit something.

Then my mother phoned and talked about being freezing while waiting at a hospital for a pre-op appointment for my Dad. A few days later I saw a lightbulb....I could knit up a quick, lacey shawl using a tuck lace stitch. I took photos of all my cone yarn and had Mom pick out a couple---none of which I wanted to use, LOL. I did some swatching with a possible yarn, but after remembering some http://www.elann.com/ laceweight marinating in the stash.....almost 6000 yards of it.....This is Singer Card 3, every other needle out of work, 1L out of work, 1R in work (opposite to what the manual showed to do). I really liked it when it was weighted down/stretched on the machine.

I noticed after a bit that one needle latch didn't seem to be working properly. I had to constantly watch it and correct the issue when I could. Then there were two near fatal incidents where I learned to re-set a punchcard!

I like both the knit side:and the purl side: I did nothing special to the edges. I used 93grams, or almost 1200 yds of Elann Peruvian Baby Lace Merino. It's as light as a feather. The colour is "Parchment" I think, a soft creamy colour, and combined with the errors, gives a vintage feel. I swatched it to be 21" but ended up pinning it out to 19" wide and about 8ft long.
I draped it around myself for awhile, petting it, stretching and playing with it. Being so light, it can be bunched up skinny like a scarf, or spread like a stole. If Mom's not careful, she might discover it stolen..... ;) This would be a great project to use up some coned mystery yarns I have.....now that I know how to do it, it should take only a few hours to make one! (It took me one evening + one morning to swatch, and the afternoon and evening to knit, then I blocked it out around 11pm. MANY thanks to Rob for taking care of the kids and ordering pizza so I could concentrate; I couldn't have gotten it done so quickly without him!).