29 April 2010

WIP Wednesday (Thursday edition): The stole has a name

Henceforth the stole will be called Aphros. And for those of you not winding up your Spring Semester of Ancient Greek today, aphros means "sea foam" in Greek. I kept thinking about the notion of Aphrodite (the goddess who arose from the foam of the sea), but this stole isn't really about a goddess, even if you feel like one wrapped up in it. More about the tracks left in the sand by those little waves near the shore and the delicate, trailing seaweed; the beauty found at the water's edge, if you will.

Right now the stole is blocking with only one edge knitted on. I wanted to make sure I liked the edging (I do!) before knitting on the second. The Seafoam pattern is so lovely I was tempted to make the stole just one giant seafoam swatch, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to include something a little lacier at the short edges, to have something more than just a rectangle. There's nothing wrong with those purely rectangular stoles, just this isn't one of them.

As you will see when I release the pattern, the body stitch is amazingly simple, so this will be a perfect summer travel project (in July a little pile of lace in your lap is bearable, a sweater's worth of wool is not). And the lace edging, while more complex, is something you can do if you know how to increase (and at the end of the body of this stole you will be a yarnover champ), decrease (you know you can k2tog!), and cast off (just for a few stitches every eight rows).

Here are a few blocking shots of what I have now. Hopefully, I'll have time to write up the pattern and get the edging done on the other end in the next few days, so that when Nick returns from his shmancy conference we can get some good snaps.
Aphros blocking (note the action figures supervising)

Aphros edging - sorry for the blurry shot
Aphros body

3 comments:

  1. Very pretty - even the action figures look impressed!

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  2. That is so pretty! I love the stitch pattern!

    Do you have approx estimates of yarn (laceweight I'm guessing?) and yardage? I've been thinking about doing a summer shawl and this would be perfect!

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  3. I'm so anxious to see this!

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