Best laid plans ...

I always plan to blog. Really, I do. I just always forget. Or I decide that I don't really have anything interesting to blog about, which is sometimes true. But not always.

For example: I finished that helmet liner. Haven't blogged about it yet, though, have I?

Also want to change the blog theme to something springier, but I haven't had a chance to work much on that, either. Obviously, since we're still all brown and cream.

And I started my table runner. I'm using the Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights stole pattern with some pretty significant modifications. Most significant: my table runner is going to be MUCH, much smaller. That stole ends up 30"x90". My table is only 30"x54" or something like that. So obviously I had to make the pattern much skinnier and quite a bit shorter. I basically had to rewrite the whole pattern in order to do this. I'm leaving out two charts entirely, and about 2/3 of another. I'm shooting for about 12-15" wide and 78" long, which should be long enough to run the length of the table and have just the points hang off the ends. Which is the second most significant modification: I'm making the ends come to a point.

I'm also knitting the whole thing in one piece, instead of knitting two halves and then grafting them in the center. I didn't think a center graft would look very attractive sitting in the middle of my table. Especially the beaded 3-needle bindoff used in the original pattern. I'm sure it looks very beautiful in the stole, but I might want to put something in the middle of the table, and I don't want it to be wobbling back and forth on a seam.

I am leaving the beads in though. I love the way the model stole looks in the pale gold with deep, rusty red beads, so I'm copying that. I'm considering some drop beads in the center of each point, but we'll see. That'll depend mostly on whether I can find any pretty drop beads that match my seed beads. Which are freaking tiny, by the way. I'm trying to string them on my yarn (pure tussah silk from etsy seller stickchick ... it's gorgeous and so affordable!) and it's a huge pain. These are supposed to be size 11 Delicas (dark red and silver-lined), but they are the smallest 11s I've ever seen. I'm fairly certain that my size 14 crochet hook will be huge compared to these, and I'm pretty sure I've never seen a beading needle small enough to go through these. Don't get me wrong, I love them. They look gorgeous sitting here on the yarn as I'm stringing them. They almost look like a solid, metallic fabric. And I think the delicateness of them will help make sure they don't overpower the lace. But they're a pain. I'm having to string them by hand, one by one. And I have to string about 2,150 of them!

This better be worth it.

Pictures to come later. We're borrowing the in-laws' camera for vacation next week, so I'm hoping to snap a few shots of all my recent projects while we have it.