Nateyclause put two skeins of Handmaiden’s Sea Silk in my stocking. I hadn’t even asked for any. I’d never seen it. My first thought was, “why not the silk by Debbie Bliss?” because I had dropped atomic hints about that, but he said he liked this better.

It’s beautiful. We went through my Victorian Lace Today book together to pick a pattern, and both agreed on the same stole. The Sea Silk is thicker then regular laceweight yarn by a little, so I experimented a bit. Instead of size 4 needles, I swatched with a size 7. I did one repeat of both patterns in the stole, which ended up being a 55 stitch x 24 row swatch. Then I blocked it.

Now I can’t stop touching it.

It would be significantly bigger than the pattern, to ridiculous proportions, if I knit it straight. Plus, I’d need to get another skein or two, or maybe three. We checked the store where he bought it, and they were sold out, so my only option would be to order online and hope the skeins matched, as there are no die lots or even color name that I could find.

Anyway, I reduced the number of repeats and switched to a size 6 needle, just to tighten things up a bit, and to allow for the stretch, which I’ve read this yarn does in a way similar to cotton.

I’ll show you the pictured stole from the book, and my progress tomorrow, provided I’m not throwing up. Veronica finally succumbed to the bug that has claimed most all of our extended family, which we have been in constant contact with through Christmas, trips to the city, a wedding, and New Years Eve. We are the last family with kids to get it, tho’ the illness has claimed both child and parent in everyone else’s. They’ve been dropping like flies.

I thought we were in the clear, but in the car on the way home last night, poor Veronica lost her lunch. Now I’m just hoping that unlike everyone else’s family, it remains confined to just her. She’s doing well today. She doesn’t seem sick, but we haven’t fed her either.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Back to Christmas, Nate was extremely happy at the reduced size of the new stockings. He had a sweet smile on his face after stuffing mine, which was very rewarding to see because I knew I had helped by making the receptacle less intimidating. (Our last stockings were huge, and seemingly unfillable. They kept stretching. It was insane). That’s gratitude-for-handknits that made the effort so worth it.