A Night At The Opera...

WOW...It was the most amazing night! I finished the stole on Thursday night:



This is a close-up of the knitted part. Note the little seed beads in the middle. I sewed those on by hand...all 111 of them!

And now....


...The fringe...:



I don't even want to contemplate how many little beads went into that fringe. Here's a close up:



What I do know is that a diamond consists of 4 black bicone glass beads, and 40 silver-blue glass seed beads. The long fringe consists of 151 seed beads and 1 black teardrop glass bead. There are 21 fringes on each side, and this stole took me almost 5 months to complete. (For the complete Shawl Saga, go to this blog posting, scroll down to the post labels, and click on The Shawl Saga. It will give you a backwards blogline of the Saga)

But it was so worth it. By the way I changed the name. Snowdrop/Tulip Stole just didn't sound special enough for this project. So I've named it the Midnight Garden Stole.

And so without further ado: The Midnight Garden Stole in action on Phantom night:



(This cropped photo gave the best shot of the fringe).

We left the apartment at 5pm, and arrived at D'arcy McGee's Irish Pub at around 5:30ish and manage to procure a table on the patio.

This was the entertainment that greeted us:



Only in Ottawa can you enjoy authentic Irish Pub food whilst being serenaded by a Scottish Pipe Band! (We got a real kick out of that!)

When we arrived at the NAC, this was the view of the stage from our seats:



I have purposely posted the blurry one so no one can steal the photo and use it to break any copyright laws. (Incidentally the blurry yellow blob that is almost in the centre of the shot is the chandelier. When it was raised it was almost right above us!) We couldn't have dreamed of better seats! There was one part where flames shot up from the front of the stage and we could feel the blast of heat from them! It was incredible. The man who played the Phantom was not the headliner John Cudia (he only played for 4 days or so, then went on vacation), all I can say is Stephen Tewksbury had the most amazing voice! It was so powerful...a number of people who had heard the other guy said this one was by far the better performer, so we missed out on nothing.

All in all it was a fantastic and memorable night.

And what is a memorable night without a few souvenirs?

A Phantom Mask pin:



And I bought two of these mugs:

The mug when cold:



The mug when hot liquid is added (in this case coffee):



Isn't that cool?

Anyhoo now I am going to work on some socks, and the Aran-style sweater for my boyfriend.

TTFN and KEEP KNITTING!

Okay...there's a reason I haven't been blogging...

...and that reason is this:



I've been working on the beaded fringe for my stole. I have less than two weeks until Phantom of the Opera (at which I wish to wear said stole) and I am madly trying to finish this. I have not been able to vacuum my apartment for fear of sucking up the many beads that I have scattered on the floor (not intentionally), so I really hope I finish this soon.

I figure I should probably post a pic of my Campanula WIP:



I have finished turning the heel and am now making my way up the leg. I am hoping to have them finished by the end of the week.

This morning my boyfriend left me his bank card and told me to go spoil myself. I didn't really think too much about his reasons why, I just ran with it...

...straight to Yarn Forward:



I bought:
Sock yarn: (from top to bottom): Lana Grossa Meilenweit Colortweed #1009, Super Soxx Color #630.0067, Lana Grossa Meilenweit Tweed #135; a 3.5mm 80 cm circular needle for the Fall Turtleneck I'm designing; a mini sweater key chain; and the latest issue of Knitter's Magazine.

Then I bought a few more things (but these we can both enjoy):



The second seasons of The Muppet Show (I love Kermit!), and CSI: New York. The Tinker Toys are for me to attempt to make my own swift. ($17.99 vs. $65+) We will see how that goes.

Last but not least I received my latest order from The Loopy Ewe:



Happy Anniversary to Ewe from J Knits (sorry guys it was a limited edition yarn); a pattern specially made for the yarn; and Sheri added a row marker (you can kind of see it on the page).
I am really excited because my next order gives me Loopy Groupy status. I can't wait!

Well that's the update. Now it's back to beading.

TTFN and KEEP KNITTING!

WOW...where to begin...

I guess I'll start with the fact that I ACTUALLY WON A CONTEST! Yep that's right! I won the first contest in the Campanula KAL. All I had to do was post about the along on my blog...but still I win free sock yarn! Yippee.

Next: My boyfriend and I went to the Museum of Civilisation on Friday, and I took Campanula with me.

Campanula saw:



Cowichan Sweaters in the First Nations exhibits.

Then we went and saw the Canada Hall on the 3rd floor. This exhibit is very cool. It's like you are walking through a town, peering in windows and entering shops and things. I peeked into one window and saw a big spinning wheel, a knitting basket, and freshly knit socks hanging on a washing line. I tried to take a picture, but they all turned out too dark (they only had candlelight in that house).

We went past a display of a kitchen and I had to take a picture of the knitting basket with a pattern for a child's party dress underneath it:



We wandered into what was a book shop, but also sold musical instruments, jewellery and these:


Steel knitting pins and crochet hooks.

Finally we headed outside where we got an amazing view of the back of Parliament Hill:



and I did some knitting on a bench that was there, over-looking the river:



All in all it was a fantastic way to spend a morning, but we need to go back since we didn't see half of what was there.

Finally, if you live in Ottawa or Toronto check out this website:

http://www.findingfortygatheringknitting.blogspot.com/

These ladies have taken it upon themselves to fund shipments of knitted items to Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Northern Labrador. If you are interested you can drop your knitted item(s) off at Yarn Forward in Ottawa, and Knitomatic and the Knit Cafe in Toronto.

That's my news for the day!
TTFN and KEEP KNITTING!

Campanula KAL

I received my latest order from The Loopy Ewe:



The Claudia Handpainted in Baby Girl for the Campanula KAL:



The Cherry Tree Hill Supersock DK in Fall Foliage:



and a little something extra that Sheri added with my order:



A really cool stitch marker! Thanks Sheri!

I am now waiting for my next order to ship (I know...I know...I can't help it!) I ordered a skein of the Happy Anniversary to Ewe limited edition yarn by JKnits. I was shocked that I was actually able to buy a skein in the Sneak up! Can't wait for it to arrive!

Anyhoo, I guess I should go get to work...Campanula awaits!

TTFN and KEEP KNITTING!