Lady Eleanor's in rehab

This is the Lady Eleanor Stole from Scarf Style. It was my stealth knitting for a couple of weeks, but is no longer a secret because I gave it to my mom for her birthday yesterday. You may remember that she had a total knee replacement last week. The treatment for her resulting pulmonary emboli kicked in and they finally kicked her out of the hospital, so yesterday was her first full day of physical therapy in the rehab center. Wow, what a difference a day (with professional support and guidance) makes! She made huge strides, literally and figuratively, so there was definite reason to celebrate on this particular birthday, although in a very different way than usual.

The wrap is made from one colorway of Paton's Soy Wool Silk. I have always been curious about this technique, entrelac, which looks like woven strips of knitting but is actually all connected and knit in one solid piece from a variegated skein of yarn. So clever and way easier than it appears! My pic doesn't show the fringe very well, but that's a nice touch on this project. You can see a better shot of the fringe on another wrap here or in the 456 examples of it on Ravelry. I originally meant to learn to knit backward so I could eliminate the need for frequent turning while knitting this project, but I never did get around to it and the turning really didn't bother me after all. I'll still probably learn backward knitting sometime just because I'm curious about it.

Leah and I popped in at a knit night on the way home and had a thoroughly enjoyable time chatting and noshing with a bunch of knitters, spinners, dyers, and all-round friendly folks. What a refreshing way to round off another great day.

amused. or not.

We are easily amused 'round here, as evidenced by the ooh...ahhh response to whatever happens to Scott's glass goodies as they go through the annealing process. Yup, it's all pretty and it's all good, except when we want the buttons and the beads for Leah's Sylvi sweater coat to MATCH. The buttons turned out as we hoped, but the beads for the flower centers were not encased in clear glass and turned a much stronger purple. Common sense would suggest that making more beads, using the same glass rods and encasing in clear, just like the buttons, would net that same soft plummy-purple on an amber base with slight iridescent haze over top, right?

RIGHT?!

Um, no, apparently not.

That'll get you mossy greens. Beautiful, indeed, but not what we were aiming for.
So, it has been decreed that the original beads will remain in place, not perfectly matching the buttons, but pretty nonetheless. And the beadmakerbaker has told his #1 pain-in-the-butt non-paying and highly demanding customer :::waving howdy ho, that's me!::: to take her special orders for a flying leap. :-)

Meanwhile, hey, guess what my sister wore as a wrap for her company's Christmas party this year?

It's the Lady Eleanor stole that I knit for my mom a little over a year ago. WooHoo for knits that get used, and in such a stylin' way!

(I'm working on getting Bren to hand over that dress so I can snip off that chiffon outer layer and nuno felt it into a jacket or something for her. She still cringes at the thought, but I know she'll go for it eventually.)

After about a dozen false starts on knitting projects that just haven't worked out lately, I seem to finally have something workable underway.

This is a big fat cone of tweedy goodness scored at a stash swap last weekend. I'm knitting two strands at a time, aiming for a gansey for Scott. As long as it has his beloved seed stitch and a cable or two, he'll be a happy guy. It's the least I can do, after rejecting so many of his pretty (but wrong) beads!

Lastly, a big thanks to Amy at Live, Learn, Knit for passing the Kreativ Blogger award our way. I'm supposed to then pass it on to some bloggers whose work I enjoy, so here's to:

Laurie at Issues With Knitting
Ruth at Knitting On Impulse
Karrie at Delaney's Duds
Lorraine at Of Faith and Fiber
Maria at Passing Down Crazy
Pat at Pat's Knitting and Quilting
and Faith at The Needle and The Damage Done