I can stop any time I want...

Pattern: Lady Eleanor, by Kathleen Power Johnson (Scarf Style)
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, colorway 203, 12 full balls and a little bit of a 13th ball
Mods: Knit to a longer length than called for in the pattern (approx. 95 inches long), did not work crocheted edge, did not fringe

I love, love, love this stole. I just never got tired of the pattern, and I never got tired of the yarn or the colorway. I had originally intended to work the crocheted edge but leave off the fringe, but after I washed and dried it, I decided that it didn't need the crocheted edge either. I didn't stretch it to block it, just laid it flat, smoothed it out and left it to dry. The post-wash fabric has a wonderful drape and is so soft.





I finished Lady E in time to wear her yesterday, when Mark and I took a little road trip to one of our favorite local wineries to celebrate our anniversary (10/01):



Since we were so close, Mark suggested that we make a stop at Kathy Zimmerman's shop — Kathy's Kreations — in Ligonier. As an anniversary gift, he bought me a copy of The Opinionated Knitter, a skein of Colinette Jitterbug and some dpn point protectors that I'd been meaning to pick up. I'm a lucky girl!

Lesson learned.

I'm calling these my "England socks" since they were started in May while sitting in London's King's Cross Station as Mark and I waited for a train to take us to York. I knit on them very little while we were actually in England, and when we got back, I put them down for a long time, only picking them up long enough to knit a couple of rows here and there. The yarn is Colinette's Jitterbug in the "toscana" colorway, and it amuses me to no end that this yarn that was manufactured in the UK and shipped to the US traveled back to the UK and then back to the US with me.

This is my regular plain vanilla sock pattern, but with a slightly longer leg that I would normally knit. Since I have relatively short feet, the yardage commonly found in most sock yarns is not usually an issue for me. But when I got to the toe of the second sock of this pair, it became clear that I might not have enough yarn to finish. In desperation, I weighed the completed sock and the sock-in-progress to see if I'd make it. I checked the shop I bought the yarn from for more (no dice) and finally resorted to cutting off all of my cast-on tails and grafting them to the working yarn to try to finish. Also no dice. I would say that I ended up just a few feet short of what I needed to finish, so instead of trying to locate more online, I just subbed some completely non-matching Claudia's leftovers that I had lying around. See the blue toe?



Oh well. They are still comfortable, and no one will be the wiser when my shoes are on. Next time, though, I will pay more attention to my yardage!

The Lady at 72 inches.

She's about 72 inches long (stretched a bit but unblocked) and I'd say that I am about halfway through the tenth ball of yarn. I'm still not sure when I will stop. I just keep wrapping it around myself, and I figure that I will quit knitting when the length feels "right" (or when I run out of yarn, whichever comes first).

See yinz Hurricane Knitters this Wednesday (7 p.m.) at Barnes & Noble at the Waterworks!