Jubilee Knitting Weekend

The long 4 day weekend we've just had to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee has provided me with lots of knitting time. I've mainly worked on 3 designs plus a bit of work on and off on a secret project which I really need to finish tonight.

This beaded stole was started over a year ago and it's probably nearly a year ago when I put it down and hardly touched it till a few weeks ago. Apart from a big set back yesterday morning when I realised I'd got carried away and worked one of the set up charts too many times ending up with too many stitches. I ended up having to rip back a bunch of rows. My top advice to lace knitters is to use lifelines and yesterday i wished I'd followed my own advice. If I'd put in a lifeline at the beginning of the last time I worked the set up chart, I could have ripped back in a matter of minutes. As it happens it took me nearly 2 hours to fix the whole mess. I'm back on track now though and on to the main charts. This stole is worked in 2 havles and this is the second half. It has lots of beads and is going to be beautiful.... I hop.

 After changing my mind about the body and shape of the Sekku shawl (also knows as the Sekku shawl of doom because it's been ripped back so many times) the progress has been great since I settled on a short row crescent shape. I'm only a few rows away from finishing the short row section, then there'll be another lace and bead edging. We're off to the Royal Cornwall Show on Friday so this may be my take along knitting for the day.

 I've done a whole lot of work on my Silky Camel beaded shawl too. I've now worked nearly 2 repeats of the second part of the shawl. The rows are getting long now and there's quite a few beads which slows thing down a bit. I'd love to finish these 3 shawls by the weekend but I think that's a tall order.

 Saturday was spent doing a lot of pattern writing and internet stuff but Sunday and Monday were very relaxing. On Sunday we went for a short walk along the seafront in Looe.

 The weather wasn't great and it was a fairly short walk...

 ... but Sam (our Jack Russell cross who's 10 1/2 years old now) loved it anyway.

When we came home we watched the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant. The TV coverage went on for about 5 hours I think. We missed the first hour of it and I'm glad we did as it was the most boring thing I've seen on TV in ages. Don't get me wrong, some of the boats were great. I enjoyed seeing the manpower section with rowing boats and kayaks especially the royal rowing boat, Gloriana (I was knitting the silky camel beaded shawl while watching it and i'm tempted to call the silky camel shawl Gloriana). But as the hours and boats went by it did get rather boring and the BBC coverage was awful and dull. They seemed to have brought out all their main presenters who kept telling us how amazing it all was. Well it didn't seem that amazing from my sofa. However, I'm very impressed with the Queen and the Duke who stood for the whole time in pouring rain. There's no way I could have done that.

On Monday, which seemed to be the best day of the long weekend weather-wise, we decided to head up to the lake. It was flat calm which is very rare so Simon and Emily took the kayaks out. Vanessa was working unfortunately.

 Sam and i enjoyed the lake from the shore. Sam kept an eye out for Simon and Em and guarded my chair.

 While I was knitting. It was sunny and fairly warm and pleasant. It was quite funny watching a sailing lesson and a windsurfing lesson going on with no wind at all. The boats and surfers hardly moved.

 Here's Simon:

 and Emily:

The wind then picked up and it got rather chilly. Simon and Em took the sailing boat (a mirror dinghy) out while Simon's dad and I took the dogs for a walk around the lake - we didn't walk all the way around.

I finished a shawl that's been on the needles almost as long as the beaded stole. No idea why as it's actually a pretty fast knit. Last night I blocked it and then I saw something. Can you see it?

 Yes, it's a dropped stitch that's started unravelling. I quickly caught the stitch and secured it with a stitch marker.

 Today, when the shawl was dry, I secured the stitch with a piece of waste yarn. The repair is visible.

 But I don't think it's too bad. I'm a bit worried about it as this is knitted in Supreme Sock which is 50/50 silk and merino and a very slippery yarn. But the dropped stitch was about midway and i'm not ripping back half the shawl to re-knit it.

 Here are some other blocking pics. This shawl is knitted sideways in a garter stitch eyelet pattern with beaded edgings..

I've got several shawls ready to photograph now and I've got a photography student who's asked if she can do some photos for me (she needs them for her portfolio) so I'm hoping to organise a photoshoot very soon. I'd love to get some of these patterns ready for Woolfest but I'm quickly running out of time. I'm in denial about Woolfest by the way. I've got tons to do and teh time is quickly running out.