How ironic is that title? Well, if you live from my northern edge of the mid-Atlantic northeast, it’s not funny at all. A local friend is waiting and hoping that the rising James doesn’t flood his garden plot, and Kathy has some scary, impressive, raging river shots on her blog…
However, timing aside, this post is about a long-forgotten finished object. Way back in the spring of 2008, the River Citiy Knitters guild had the very talented Renee Leverington design a stole for their KAL. (Knit A Long, for those not in the know.)
Project: My First Mystery KAL Shawl As the project’s name suggests, it was my first mystery KAL. To date, it’s my only one too.
Pattern: River Dance. It was offered only in charts, which was fine for me because I tend to use charts more than words, but don’t have a strong preference for one over the other, but a few members just didn’t like or couldn’t get the hang of reading charts. What I didn’t like was the segmented design, which reminded me of a cross stitch sampler, and I never cared much for those either.
Yarn: The intent was to have all the guild members who had participated in the KAL show up at the holiday party sporting their stoles, so I contacted Amanda and got this lovely wine-colored superwash. Happily, I didn’t use up all I bought, so I have more for another project one of these days.
Needles: My Ravelry notes say I cast on with a #8, then knitted with #7 straights. Well over a year, almost two later, we’ll have to trust those notes.
Verdict: I’m not really mystery KAL material. I don’t like surprises in my knitting, especially in my lace. I am sorry it took me about 15 months to lightly block this bugger, but it finally told me with whom it should live, and that person happens to be capable of blocking it to her own heart’s desire. Especially with superwash, I feared that if I blocked it HARD, as I like to do, she’d not have the option to leave it a little denser if she thought she’d like it that way.
Got your curiousity up? Good.
We still have two more items to review from yesterday’s marathon blocking session. Both of them have been given FO report time here, so I’ll just flash blocked photos and ramble a bit.
… and that’s what I did this weekend. Not very exciting, but productive just the same! How was your weekend?
This Pearl Blue Panda Silk came home with me. I’m thinking it will be a scarf, probably for the to be gifted pile, but I’m open to suggestions. It’s very soft and silky (duh?), but it really is bamboo and wool with a dash (5%) of silk. I’m still looking forward to the soy version, due out in a month or so. I love knitting with wool and alpaca, but I’m also very fond of soy and bamboo. Heck, here lately, you can add cotton to the mix too. I’m just all about soft, squooshy yarns, it seems.
and the employee supervising said stations noted my fabric bag and asked if I’d seen their cart of similar bags, 1/2 off. I said no, and tried to present my best, “Really, not interested!” aura, but I’m glad I failed. It wasn’t the 
been mad for little bows. The colors washed out in the close-up; they’re close to true in the first photo. The contrast stitching is done in that pale pink. Truly, I would have paid LOTS more for this bag. It’s as though someone designed it with me in mind.
Inside, there are three little pockets. The standard, flat zippered pocket built into the side, and two cell phone sized pockets. The one on the left was too narrow for my phone, but the second pocket holds my phone just fine. Everyone keep their fingers crossed that this bargain holds up until I get tired of it, please?
I’m sure you’re quite tired of reading about my little bargain bag, but I really am blown away at how well-designed it is. It even has the little “feet” I like on bags! 
Friday afternoon marked the arrival of one of my recent 
Chan Knits 