Almost Ending the Year

One more photoless project recently....Just before I learned how to do two items at the same time on one circular by doing the Maine Morning Mitts, I made a pair of ribbed, tipless gloves like I've made in the past, for the same gift exchange game. They were in Sean's Sheep "Armytage" in the cream/grey/black colourway that I also used for felted clogs last year. So, go look at the clogs, then at the other fingerless gloves and photoshop them in your mind :)

But here is a project with some pictures. I loved the creamy alpaca stole I made for my mom in late summer, and made a black one for me, using an unknown cone yarn. I could have used some black alpaca, but I wanted the stole for the cruise, and didn't think I really needed it to be in alpaca. Although with the windy, cool nights, and the air conditioning on board, alpaca would have been fine. There were a couple of rough starts again....I set up the needles and the card with the same formation (opposite needles in working position to what the manual said), but it didn't work. So I had to do it like the manual showed, and it came out the same as my mom's. I hadn't kept track of how many needles I had used for hers, but I thought it was 80-0-80. I love it when it's weighted down on the machine, but once off the machine it relaxes and really loses the openness. I don't know if blocking the alpaca out tightly helped it, but I have since heard that this is a common problem with tuck lace.

At one point I thought I was up the creek without a cruiseship, but I kept my wits and fixed the error by ripping out and re-setting the punchcard. Made me feel like some highly trained mechanic, LOL.Another odd thing...the corners stretched out a bit. And, it collects dog hair like crazy! Lucy wrapped it around like a skirt one day and it got covered. I tried washing it, but the dog hair gets woven in and trapped. It also seems to have faded a touch. And the long edges curl under, but gosh, I really don't care. I'm just happy to finally have a black stole, LOL.