The Mermaid Stole

This was my go-to knit when I was feeling the wedding stress. I started this stole with a kit I bought in Michigan in June, and added many other yarns from my stash in the process to flesh it out. The original idea was to knit a scarf, but I decided to go with a shawl/stole width.

There are all sorts of yarns and materials in here: rayon, nylon, sequins, wool, cotton, silk, etc. There are several ribbon yarns and novelty yarns. I skipped the fun fur, however. I'm completely in love with the glitz in this project.

I decided to call it the Mermaid stole because all the blues and glitz made me imagine the sort of stole a mermaid might knit for herself. It would be made up of everything found in the sea and on the beach.

I cast on 150 stitches on size 13 circulars, and after the first row went to size 11's. Every row was a different yarn. I left a long tail on each end with each yarn, about 18 inches in length. I would have been okay with leaving a 12 inch tail on each end. Then I switched back to size 13's to bind off.

I braided the tails together, three at a shot, and made them about 6 inches long. To continue the mermaid theme, I strung bits of shells and some whole shells into the fringe. I really like the effect, but the shells do add a good bit of weight to the stole.

I really enjoyed the garter stitch non-stress of this. It was sheer fun to combine the yarns in different ways to get different effects. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I bought more yarn and novelty yarns in creams, greens, and browns to make a lap blanket in this same style. Haven't cast on yet, but will soon!

Thank you to Maria for being my model! (We finally got a good sunny afternoon for the shoot!)