Summer Squares take eight: Dark Star

For those of you following my Summer Squares Project, today brings us to the final chart for the second project (The Blue Quartet.) I posted the Quartet Edging chart earlier today at the Summer Squares group. Today also brings us to the first chart for our third project! The third project is a stole called Dark Star. There are five squares, which are just knit one after another. Once the five squares are done, a border is picked up around the entire rectangle and knit in the round. Once the border is complete, an edging is added. This is the one project in The Summer Squares Suite that has (optional) beads. I am using EmmaLou yarn, from Land O Lace, in a fabulous color. There are several close shades of purple and the effect is almost like crushed velvet to me. You cannot appreciate it in this picture. I have a 1200 yard skein. The beads are Japanese 8/0 transparent light amethyst rainbow. I am using a US 1 needle. You can see more of the project in today's video. The picture is of the first square in this new project and is called Moonshine. You see it still on the needles, in a totally unblocked state. It will look a bit different blocked... I have also been playing with some fiber my friend Judith sent me, in preparation for a fun winter project a few of us will be doing. The colored skein is tencel and sw wool, but our project involves merino/silk fiber, which still has to be dyed. The small white skein is actually a sample of that fiber. It involves spinning, beads and lace. That is all I can say! The spindle is from Elizabeth, at Greensleeves. It is called a Vixen and has a Satine whorl, a Mahogany shaft, weights less than 1 ounce and spins wonderfully.

My video today is about a different technique you can use to add beads to your lace. Instead of using a crochet hook, I take a "dental floss threader" and a length of beading thread and use that to both store the beads and add one to my knitting when needed. For me this technique is slower, but it does avoid the possibility of dropping a tin of small beads! You can get beading thread at most shops that sell seed beads. You can get "floss threaders" at most large drug stores, and on line here. It costs US$3.29 for 25 of them, in a nice plastic case! You will have a lifetime supply for yourself and a few friends. I use them for adding beads, as you see in this video, but I also use them to string beads onto yarn when I knit with beads pre-strung. You might need some in you knitting bag...

I'll be back next week with the second square in the Dark Star project, and maybe a video of how I block this project. Until then, keep knitting!