Fearless Fibers Yarn

Knit or Get Off the Pot

It's been a while since I've actually completed a knitting project and it's starting to get me down. This is one of the problems with knitting multiple projects at one time, especially when I have little time for knitting. I have four projects going right now: a Ripple Stitch Throw that I've been working on slowly for several months, the zipper-front sweater from Vogue Knitting, the Ostrich Plumes Stole by Anne Hanson of KnitSpot, and a new project that I've been swatching and just cast on.

Each project seems to progress by the most minute amounts, as I find a few minutes here and there to add a row or two. The only exception is the Ostrich Plumes Stole. I've been enjoying that so much and the progress is so quick that it's been my project-of-choice of late. The poor Ripple Stitch Throw has been virtually ignored and the zipper-front sweater is still patiently waiting for the first sleeve to be completed. They are both a bit peeved to have seen me swatching for a new project.

I finally gave myself I good talking to last night. Knit or get off the pot, Deb! Finish something! With that message in mind, I sat down to watch Beauty and the Geek (stop laughing at me, please) and used the time to finish up the Ostrich Plumes Stole.

The Ostrich is one of those lace patterns that has lots of texture and bumpiness in its blocked state. I used my FF Laceweight Merino in Sunny Peach.


Even laid out over the back of chair, it curls inward and compresses and looks more like a scarf than a stole.



A good blocking will entirely change the look of it.



It will soon be time to unpin the stole and I can finally add another project to my finished list.

Here's a close up of the stitch detail stretched out for blocking.



Of course, now I have to decide what to do with this. I had planned to give it to a friend who lives down south where it's warm year round, but I'm beginning to think that perhaps the scale is wrong for her. It looks as though the stole will measure around 19 X 62 when done. This particular friend is fairly tall and big-boned, so I'm not sure that the 62 inch length will be long enough nor the 19 inch width wide enough for her.

I've considered giving this to my mortgage banker. I know that sounds a bit odd, but she was an absolute angel throughout the process of securing the mortgage for the house we just purchased. I didn't bore you during that process with all the horrid details, but the bank's remote loan processing made a mess of just about every step in the process. Documents were misplaced and had to be resubmitted. Paperwork was sent to us for the wrong loan type (uh no, I didn't apply for a 40 year interest-only adjustable with a ridiculous interest rate!). New paperwork had to be requested three times before anything was done to fix the loan type. The wrong purchase price for the home was used for the new paperwork. And that was just the beginning. Throughout the whole process, my local mortgage banker called me daily (and even gave me her personal cell phone number in case I needed her off hours), met with me several times, and generally put great pressure on the loan processing center to make their errors right.

In the end, despite the ridiculous number of errors and problems, we closed on time just 30 days from the date of the purchase agreement. Given the fiasco of the whole process, that was nothing short of a miracle and is mostly due to my banker's perserverance. I think perhaps that warrants an Ostrich Plumes Stole. I think the color will also be perfect for her.

Hmmmm. Will she think I'm insane if I show up at the bank and give her a handknit stole? Perhaps not. Her mother is a knitter and so she may know of the idiosyncratic ways of the knitter.

Whatever I decide to do with the stole, right now I'm just happy to have something finished!