simple garter stitch
I happened to pick up a stash of this great water-colored fringed ribbon yarn (Phentex Yarns Fashion Eight) that I just couldn't resist. But then what to do with it? Surfing Ravelry.com for some yarn/pattern inspirations, I found the "Rave Bolero Jacket" by Barbara Breiter published for Crystal Palace Yarns and immediately was thinking of my sister.
Her birthday was about a month away which should give me plenty of time to knit this cute little summer bolero.
The yarn was close enough to the original although I did change some measurements for my sister. The pieces knit up quickly and I felt in control of my schedule... then came our little road trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. What an amazing place in the middle of the continent!
view from the "High Dune": ~650 feet (198 m)Suddenly, I was only about a week away from my sister's birthday and I still had sew the bolero together, finish and mail it to her. Ohhh, cutting it close!
I happened to have a great color matching yarn in my stash (NaturallyCaron.com Country - Spruce) that I doubled up with the fuzzy yarn for a round of sc with hook size 4.25 mm (US 6/G).
Although it now had some hold to it (it was a bit stretchy before), I experimented with an additional row of the turquoise Country yarn by repeating sc, skip next sc, 3 dc in sc, skip next sc all the way around, and around the sleeve edges. This gave it a nice scalloped finish. But there was still something missing...
scalloped edge and a quick "Chain Flower"
I had to mail the package today for it to arrive in time and needed to come up with something quick and easy...
A "Chain Flower" brooch with a button as the flower's center would do it. I started with a magic loop into which I repeated: sc, *12 chs, sc* repeat 16 times. Attached it, packaged it, and off to the post office I was.
Yikes, that was a bit too close for comfort but it turned out really nice, I think.
