Knitting ADD

July 04, 2007

There. I admitted it.

I've had a short conversation with my BFINM about starting a second Mystery Stole #3 (only two more days left if you want to join the group!). With the exception of my current knitting purgatory (aka rows 85-89), I'm liking this project a whole lot.

So why not start another? Maybe the second one will have beads, since Nancy has pointed me to an online source of beads that looks VERY promising. I still have my two skeins (minus two swatches) of Elann Baby Lace Merino in Parchment... I still have my 8 or so skeins of cranberry-red superfine alpaca...

Then I found that I needed to wear a shawl/stole last Sunday to church - you see, Mr. W. and I spent some time outdoors on Friday and Saturday and I was wearing a tank top and for some reason I don't regard the sunshine in the Pacific Northwest to be as serious a threat as I did when I was in northern California and my shoulders and neck turned a vibrant shade of lobster red and any shirt that had armhole seams that was appropriate for church was painful so I had to wear a tank top and a wrap....

It was that day that I realized that I needed a wrap that was NOT wool - or at least a much less sturdy wool. Here comes the idea to make up a simple wrap in cotton or linen for the inevitable next sunburn.

Okay, back to the MS3. It takes (for me) some concentration, since so far there isn't a repetitive pattern. Lots of chart work. Maybe what I want is a lacy-ish thing that has some rhythm...

Since I live in BFE, I went a'surfing. I found the Lillie of the Valley stole over at Black Purl. When I googled for "lily of the valley" +stole I came across Maeve's post showing a LOTV that she'd completed. The same, only different...

(Any hope of a point is long gone - it's the ADD; that's my story and I'm sticking to it)

Okay, so here's my question: Would it be overkill to substitute beads for the nupps on the Lily of the Valley pattern? Maybe every other one?

Of course, by the time I finish this new pattern (translation: idea), I probably won't need to worry about the whole sunburn reason to have a stole. Does that matter to me? Nope.

Now, the ADD doesn't only apply to the stole knitting. Remember I got some (other) new yarn from elann? For the Zigzag sweater over on Knitty? The sweater that I was gonna make all kinds of mods to? Do you notice the use of past tense here?

I've changed my mind. (surprise!) I'm not sure which sweater I'm going knit up in the new yarn - I just know that (for now) it's not going to be Zigzag.

My "Kinda Bella" has been languishing for months. I've got the neckline lace edging done. I have the bodice and sleeves done. All that's left (other than seaming) is to do the torso bit. The pattern calls for ribbing. I'm thinking of some sort of A-line action. Do I want to finish it on the machine, or leave it in the KnitNest that surrounds my comfy chair so that I can (theoretically) have it available for mindless TV knitting?

Of course, the MS3 and Kinda Bella aren't my only knitting UFO's, but they're the ones that are speaking to me right now (not to mention a possible Lillie of the Valley Stole....).

What to do, what to do??? permalink 2 Comments:

At 7/06/2007 12:11 AM,  Anonymous Babbled Back:  

I replaced the nupps in the Swallowtail shawl with beads and it worked out great. Go for it!

At 7/10/2007 1:21 PM,  Karen Babbled Back:  

Hi! I just made my sister a Lily of the Valley stole for her wedding - of course it was so warm she didn't need to wear it. While I was poking around and checking out patterns with lily of the valley in them I ran across several mentions of using beads instead of nupps. I chose nupps (my sister liked them - see my blog at http://knittingsymphony.blogspot.com for the gory details) but I bet the beads would be great. You could even vary the size of the beads or do some of each (such as beads in the side pattern, nupps in the center) to capitalize on the variation in size of the flowers as they go up the stalk or the amount of "showiness" of each panel of the stole. Keep us posted as to what you decide to do - even if you decide to wait a while! Also, get in touch if you find you need help with nupps or whatever. I definitely made peace with them after that stole!

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