On to the border April 3, 2008
I finished up the body of the vine stole late yesterday afternoon, and started swatching the third vine design. This is a double vine. As you vine back and forth, the gaps are filled with nice leaves. I think I like it. I’m going to work this new motif on my small Malabrigo swatch, and see how it goes.
Oh, and yeah, the left side of the border is a little wider than the right side. I decided I didn’t like all those superfluous knit stitches floating out there before the garter edging started, so I got rid of them. I like the resulting outer edge much better. Another option, that just occurred to me, is to put those extra two stitches back, but then separate them from the garter edging with a yarn over. Hm. I’ll have to give that a try, too.
After that I start the corner proceedings. Or maybe after swatching the side I’ll start knitting on the stole itself with the black Malabrigo Lace that arrived yesterday. The black is so deep that it was hard to get a picture of it this morning. Of course, it would have been a little easier if it hadn’t been raining, but there you go. As it is, it just looks like a black blob.
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The third picture shows you a closeup of the transition from the center motif to the next one. That worked out rather well, if I do say so myself.
I’m getting tire of calling this project: the vine stole. Ick. I’m looking for a real name for this design. I started calling it Old Growth this morning, but after a few hours I decided I didn’t like it. Here are the other names I came up with: Vine stole, Deep in the Woods, Grove, It’s a Jungle, Black Forest. This afternoon I got an email from Kristie. She didn’t like Old Growth any better than I did. These are the names she came up with: Old Growth Vines, Old Growth Forest, Creeping Vines, Dark Grove, Black Forest. I find it interesting that we both ended our lists with “Black Forest.” Of course, those two words paired together always remind me of the gorgeous forest in Germany of the same name. To my knowledge, that pine forest doesn’t have a lot of vines growing in it, is the thing. 
Vines and pines don’t always go hand in hand. Although, I guess I could throw caution into the wind, go native, and call the stole Schwartzwald. Any thoughts?
Today? Yesterday? I don’t know when. One day this week, recently, Knitting Daily featured their new waist shaping calculator. I haven’t tried this yet, but it looks promising.
~Kristie April 3
No rush on the border … I want to enjoy every moment of knitting this. I predict a lot more Malabrigo laceweight in my stash in the future. Also, Cathy at Twist told Jerry & Debbie that she was going to carry Malabrigo sock yarn soon. Can you imagine? Malabrigo socks? How decadent would that be?
I was planning on taking photos today to get up a blog post, but where’s the sun? I thought we lived in southern CA for pete’s sake.
Denise April 3
Hi Laura, I nominate the name “Bittersweet”, after the vine of the same name for your new lace shawl. It is lovely. I can’t wait to see the FO.
- Denise
Angela April 4
When I read your list of names with looking at the pictures I had a flash. Have you ever seen an old rock wall in the forest? Where it’s under the trees enough so that the light is filtered by leaves and dances in and out? The rock wall being a little less than perfect, having been there who knows how long, with moss and vines growing over the edges here and there? Well, that’s what this reminded me of. A rock/stone wall vine. With ferns scattered around……
(Mmm thank you. A perfect picture in my mind to start the day. :) )
britt April 4
i like creeping vines.
Karen April 4
It’s just so pretty!! And I feel lucky to get to watch the whole process as the stole progresses. I wish I could help you pick a name, but I’m so bad at that kind of stuff. Sounds like you’ve got some very creative people brainstorming with you though!
Robin April 4
I like Black Forest myself. Who cares if the actual Black Forest is pines and probably doesn’t have vines. I mean really, if someone is that knit-picky they can pick something else to knit!! (awww man, I made a funny)