Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Things I've Learned from the Silver Belle


Every project is a learning opportunity, and the Belle has been the equivalent of a 4 hour course plus labs! There have been the obvious lessons of learning how to work cables and trinity stitch, but a few more subtle ones, too. Here are they are (so far):
- Read the pattern one more time than you think is necessary (learned from reversing the left and right edging bands)
- Pay attention to the cable crosses (learned from tinking back several rows several times)
- Check Ravelry and Google to see what other people have learned while making the same pattern
- Use small hair clips (butterfly clips) to hold pieces togehter while you try them on (actually, I learned this one a while ago), and
- Do not bind off pieces while you are working on other pieces! Instead , put the live stitches on waste yarn and assemble everything with those little clips so you can try on before you bind off! I learned this after I bound off the peplum and realized later that it was too short.

I'm sure I'll learn several more things before this is over, but with the peplum (now lengthened) and one sleeve/bodice complete the end is in sight!

Over the weekend I took time off from knitting to make this little item! A gym friend and fellow baroque music fan gave me the tile last fall, and I knew it should be a hot pad. There are always plenty of wine corks around, so I trimmed some of them so the tile would be flush with the frame and glued everything together. Cute, no?

It was a beautiful 70 degree weekend so I worked outside, too, pruning roses and grape vines and planting petunias in window boxes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You're demonstrating a very good, mature attitude about your "learning experience" ;)

Just teasing of course. I try to take the same attitude, at least after cursing.

Thanks for the tips.