Secret of the Stole Completed! (and other knitterly news)

The wonders of technology have played their part in the delays of this post, I would have posted yesterday but as all the camera batteries decided to die at the same moment, I only just scraped a photo before the light went arouond 4pm.

Still, I have pleasure in presenting..in various forms...my Secret of the stole.
a) directly off the needles (still needing a wash and block).


b) on the blocking board which by a miracle just fitted all the way around...

...see the crossover on the bottom, the twin forks of the beginning and the single point of the end.
..and just to prove it, here's the other side. Of course, the flip side of pinning in this way is the inevitable scalloped edge but what the hey!

c) A rough idea of what it will look like when worn.

And, yes, there are tails still there, you can see how eager I was to photograph the whole thing!

After washing, there was a fair amount of grey sludge loss so the whole thing looks a tad brighter and fluffier now it's lost it's machine oil coating. I'm really pleased with the overall look, still 50/50 as to whether to overdye it a bit stronger colour but as I still don't have a clue what the overall theme is, I'm not committing to anything quite yet! (I could work out the clues but, you see, every braincell is focussed on the 3 remaining projects and getting everything polished off for Christmas).

In other lacy news, I finshed clue 5 of the Mystic waters Shawl in record time, considering I'd put off knitting clue 4 'till the weekend/beginning of the week, I felt I'd got into the groove of the piece. I sort of can't wait for it to be completed but I'm already suffering lace knitting withdrawal symptoms, so what I'll pick up then, I just don't know!

Pretty, though, ain't it?

And I can't let another day go by without acknowledging my rockstar parcel I got from Charity.
Remember, she'd been to Blue Moon Fibre arts Sale? She picked up this colourful selection for me...

..there are FIVE skeins of Socks that rock lightweight sock yarn, some lovely merino laceweight that she hand-dyed especially for me, a cute box of chocolates and tinted lip balm, just right as the weather gets nippier!

In between re-arranging my life around lace, I have been fitting in other knitting..

..Squeezing this single sock into my travelling knitting, one more to go! I modified the original pattern to make it a bit longer overall, Just one more sock to knit (then another pair that i've promised for a friend),and I'm one project away from finishing my Christmas knitting, Woo hoo!

The fusion cardi has also been a quick(ish) knit for mindless times in between lace clue postings.
Both sleeves are now complete..

...Actually, I'm 3/4 through the front panels now, just haven't got a photo yet! The colours in this particular shade have been a bit random, I bought the pack for the gorgeous cobalt blue that features but there's been only small flashes of it in many balls and the front is quite dark. Still, it'll all look better when it's joined together with its ribbed button band and collar, you'll have to watch this space for that one.

With the new camera (for all the battery discharging faults), I do get the opportunity to get pictures like this one...
What's he dreaming about, d'you think?