DK the Nautical Knitter

We have our first prize to give away in the Secret of Stole KAL. To find out the criteria for winning you must be a member of the KAL. Don’t worry, if you didn’t make it in time for this one we just might have another prize give-a-way soon, just keep watching, you never know.If you haven’t joined the KAL yet, come on in, only a few weeks left to join.Good luck everyone. DK

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Tomorrow will be one week since I started the Secret of the Stole KAL and I am so excited that we already have 500+ members. That means that if even half of those participating right now complete this stole there will be 250 beautiful stoles out there somewhere that I had a part in creating. Man, what a trip.

My friends call me an enabler and Websters defines the term:

a. To supply with the means, knowledge, or opportunity; make able

I think I have to admit it and confess that I have found my calling. If you haven’t signed up yet, what are you waiting for????

Boy I can’t wait for October 5th!

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The general info and swatch chart have been completed and uploaded to the Secret of the Stole KAL site. It was a lot of work actually putting down everything I could think of to help the members get started on this lovely stole without mentioning the theme or giving away the secret.

If you haven’t joined the group yet, we would love to have you.

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Late last night we put the finishing touches on the buttons for the new KAL, Secret of the Stole. Please feel free to grab one and enable your blog readers to discover the Secret of the Stole for themselves.

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Well, I think I have finally done it. I have figuratively gone off the deep end of the boat. Just when I was clocking along at a pretty good clip on my current lace (and other) projects a theme for a stole hit me like a brick. I began feverishly designing and charting this stole pattern and the theme just flowed onto the graph. So, one thing led to another last night and around midnight central time I realized that this would be a great KAL stole.

Since the Mystery Stole #3 is winding down I realized there needed to be a little time for a breather, but this stole would be a great one to be worn on New Year’s Eve. With those things in mind we should be able to begin on time and complete the stole in time for those NYE parties. So, without further ado, I present to you:

Secret of the Stole
First Clue - October 5, 2007

I have created a Yahoo group by the same name if you would like to join. For those of you on Ravelry, I created a group there by the same name as well but will be distributing the clues hints only on the Yahoo group. Button coming soon…

UPDATE: To view more information about the Secret of the Stole I and the new Secret of the Stole II, please go to the new Secret of the Stole site http://www.knitwith.us/kal/secret-of-the-stole and you can now purchase the finished pattern in full from that site at http://www.knitwith.us/patterns/ or you can purchase the pattern directly from here as a digital download in .pdf for $7.00.

We started this new knitting site KnitWith.Us to provide a single location for the most up to date information, enjoy.

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The fabric arrived last week that I ordered for the vests for the Czech costumes that I am going to make for next year’s National Polka Festival. It is a black brocade with pink, blue and lavender flowers throughout on a brass colored vine. This fabric will be used for the men’s and woman’s vests, the stripe around the bottom of the skirt, and as ribbon embellishment throughout the costumes as needed. I am hoping to have enough fabric to make vests for myself, my husband, dad, and grandson William. To get an idea of what the costumes will look like you can go here. Throughout this process I would love to have comments and suggestions. Progress photos will be posted as the costumes develop.

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My Mystery Stole #3 will now be known to me and mine as Dragon Wings.  In my opinion this is a much better name for my completed stole.  Let me explain.

I have decided not to do the “wing” section of the Mystery Stole #3. The theme of this stole is Swan Lake, because the designer developed an asymmetrical design with a pointed shaped end and a feathery wing shape to the other end. I had every intention of completing this stole as designed, but after seeing other’s finished stoles I realized that if I did complete the stole as designed I would probably never wear it.

Sometimes it pays to be behind others working on a project like this because you can see what the finished product will look like before you get there. Having said that, I am not fond of the feathery wing portion of the stole and have decided to follow (somewhat) the designer’s instructions for a symmetrical version.

Once I decided to knit the symmetrical version I wanted to knit this stole all in one piece (no grafting). I have the directions for completing the symmetrical version in all one piece, but as best I can tell the central swirl design is not there and I can’t get my head around charting the decreases to come to the point at the other end. SOOOOO, I am just going to do the two sections separately and graft them together. Stay tuned…..

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Mystery Stole, Clue 4, Chart E is complete and as I was nearing row 302 on chart F (the row at which one must decide whether to lengthen the stole or not) I found an error I had made two rows back as I was nearing the end of row 297. I started tinking only to figure out that I had to fix the second row back, not the row I was tinking down to. The error was fixed by taking another needle and (carefully) tinking that lower row, knitting that row back correctly and then re-knitting the top, tinked row. If this is marginally confusing to you that is ok because it was ridiculously difficult to perform this task too. The stole is now back on track and I have decided to lengthen it as per the instructions. Here is the stole through row 299.

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We spent a long weekend at the boat recently and realized that the air conditioning was not working properly. Scott proceeded to check out the wiring and found out the the water pump that pumps in sea water to cool the unit was not working. Luckily the previous owner had bought one and never installed it. So, after much sweat and a few tense moments wondering if the seacocks were really closed or not it was time to test the unit. It works beautifully now and this past weekend we spent at the boat we stayed inside through the hottest part of the day and it was wonderful.

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We have been slowly wading through the books and posting them for sale. Problem is that when you list them for sale you have to house them somewhere until they sell. Here is our temporary solution. Yes, free postal supplies come in handy for more than just shipping. We really could have used a two car garage.

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