Melanie writes in DC with SURPRISE!

I got so super frustrated with the Over the Knee Stockings and decided to write to the publisher. I found that their website had a thing that said you could write comments, and I submitted it in that way. Two days later (Thursday night really), I'm opening my email and see an email from Melanie Falick herself in my inbox!! She asked what the specific problem was so they could see what's going on in the pattern and get back to me. I told her about all of my difficulties and she sent me an email today to let me know she forwarded my mail to the editor who should be getting back to me about what to do.

With having received that first email under my belt, I set off on Friday to Washington DC to meet Betsy and her husband (it's still so odd to use that word!!). I had a SURPRISE to give them! I think they liked it...Here are a TON of pictures of it:


TONS of fringe and a fabulous stitch pattern. How could I not?


Here, the recipients show us just how big the afghan was. (finished dimensions ended up being close to 51 x 54")


It really does look like they liked it eh?


Close up of the stitch pattern.

I used two strands of Lamb's Pride Bulky in Creme together on size 15 needles. I got the yarn from Flying Fingers. I started on Susan Bates circs, but I really despised them. I kept having to push the stitches onto the needle part from the wire and it was pretty annoying. I changed to Addi Turbos in the end, which was a dangerous move because I fell in love with them. I really hate the idea of buying multiple pairs of circs though, which is why I usually use my Denises. In this case, however, I found the Denise needles to have too gradual of a tip which meant that I was trying to knit a stitch an inch onto the needle already, which was also pretty annoying. Most important skill I learned on this project would have to be how to drop stitches in the middle of the work to correct mistakes that had occurred in previous rows. I used this SEVERAL times, because it was just going to be obnoxious to undo all those rows of 152 stitches at a time!

I think they really liked it, and when they start churning out children I think I'm prepared enough to knit them blankets and trinkets. :-p

On the sock front, I wanted to take pictures of it while I was in DC with the Lincoln Monument or something silly like that a la Yarn Harlot. But the stocking wasn't really that recognizable. It's coming along though. I've made measurements and am proceeding to decrease as necessary. I've only completed one full repeat of the lace pattern so far (10 rows), But I think it's going to be alright. I'm a little nervous that I'm not compensating enough for the stretch of the material, but we'll just have to wait and see.