Stitches West is a week away and it is pretty nearly crunch time – as we have some pieces we want to finish knitting by then.  Sarah is ambitiously chugging away at her Snow Leopard Capelet – it is going to be a stunning garment!  And I am nearly done with the Bella Bella Capelet (note:  we need to find a better name for these sassy little cape-like things!).  I am planning to finish the lace edging on the One-Needle Q’mitl so that piece will be done.  And there is a lovely little lace piece that is SO CLOSE – I think we can do that too!

At night in bed before I go to sleep, I knit little leaves and flowers – in hopes that we will get inspired to put them together into hair ornaments to wear at Stitches (just for fun!). 

And while you are shaking your heads and wondering if we actually are stark raving mad or just a little bit raving mad, I will regale you with 2 anecdotes regarding the blocking of Bella Bella.

Bella Bella has 2 lace triangular gussets (which we call wings) knit of magenta bamboo.  I think I might have bought it at the Puyallup Fair a few years ago, but cannot recall exactly.  Anyhow, I am pretty sure it is a hand-dyed yarn.  Gorgeous color (a bit splitty to knit, but we all have our less-desirable characteristics..).   I decided to block the wings before sewing them into place since 1) that would ensure I get the lace spread out nicely, and 2) Bella Bella is rather ungainly and I have had to block it in sections anyway.

I dropped the wings into a basin of cool water — and they started gushing magenta dye! 

I swished them around, spilled out the purple water and replaced it with clean water, dropped them back in and whoosh!  more magenta dye!  I did this about 6 times – even letting them sit and soak for half-an-hour or more between clean baths.  By the 4^th time, the water was paler purple.  And after the 6^th time it was merely tinged with gray.  So, I called it good and laid the wings out to dry, stretching them to show the lace to best advantage (and making sure they were sized to fit the openings they were destined to fill).

They blocked beautifully – and they seem as brilliantly colored as ever.  So, all’s well that ends well.  But I am SO glad I blocked them separately!

The 2^nd story is about the body of Bella Bella.  The whole piece is made with bell-like stitch patterns and the bottom hem has a set of 35 large, bold bells knit in wool.  When I was blocking these bells, I realized that they would need support – the weight of the wet wool of which they were wrought (try saying that 10 times quickly!) would collapse the bells.  So, I thought, hmm, what could I use?  Nothing sprang to mind and I was headed out of the laundry room to find George (who has great spatial ability and is good at improvising these sorts of things), when my eye lit on….a glass vase filled with wine corks!  Perfect!  Brilliant!  My kids like to save them for cork boards and trivets – and we happened to have a nice supply after the Holiday festivities….  Moments later, I was happily popping a wine cork into each woolly bell and voilá!