By George, I think I’ve got it!  I’ve been looking longingly at the Forest Path Stole pattern ever since it came out.  I’ve read the directions and been terribly confused.  I was excited when Debi and Agnes started the Knit-a-Long because I really needed the support!  I actually started a day early because I had a meeting on the 1st.  And it turns out that it is not as difficult as I was making it out to be.  In the infamous words of Nike – you just have to do it!  I sat down and followed the directions and voila:

I am almost finished with the first tier.  As Debi has pointed out, the lace patterns are fairly simple.  I was a little horrified to see that one contained nupps!  If you’ve followed my blog for any time, you know that I have issues with nupps.  However, it turns out that the right needles make all the difference in the world.  I’m using Knit Picks Options needles and the extra pointy tip is just what’s needed to do the P5 tog.  That, and making sure that on the row before, you knit those stitches VERY, VERY loosely.  In fact, far looser than you think is necessary.  I tried to get a close up, but pre-blocking they look a little scrunched.

In sewing news I went up to Bellingham yesterday for my first embroidery class.  Two classes are offered with the machine – embroidery and mastery classes.  The mastery classes teach you all the features of your machine while the embroidery classes are really just for fun – you get to make a project.  I got up early, packed up my machine and assorted sewing notions and drove for an hour to get to the shop.  When I walked in and announced I was there for the embroidery class, I got a blank look – then they told me the class had been cancelled!  I was understandably annoyed.  It appears they hadn’t called me because I wasn’t on the list.  At least three times I had asked my saleslady to put me on the list and she said she couldn’t find it but promised me I was on it!  Apparently organization is not their strong suit.  However, they took pity on me and told me to bring in my machine and they would work with me.  By the time I got set up, three more people had arrived for class!!  So, they put together an impromtu class and I have to admit to being quite pleased with the results:

We used some type of sparkly fiber (I forgot what it’s called) that you lay on your fabric and press, giving a beautiful, irridescent background.  Then she showed us how to trim these and slide them into photo cards that you can get at Walmart.  Cute, eh?  She also gave me instructions for embroidery directly onto paper.  Can’t wait to try that out.

I only have to work one day this week and hope to get a lot done on my mother-in-law’s quilt.  When I get it laid out for basting, I’ll take a picture.  I leave you with this darling email I got from my daughter-in-law.  Could any grandchild be any cuter?

Isobel’s at this stage right now that she thinks the right way to 
hold a book is when the picture’s the right-side-up, i.e. when the 
head is above the feet. Unfortunately there’s this one place in one 
of her Curious George books, George is sitting up in one page and 
standing up-side-down on his hand in the other. She would just sit 
there turning the book around over and over again, trying to get both 
pictures the right-side-up at the same time, which of course will 
never happen. 😀