Purple Ice

Breaking news on the pendants and earrings front: 2 pendants and 5 pairs of earrings left (order here - scroll down to the bottom)! Thanks to everyone who has ordered! :)

And yes, I think the Black Currant kidsilk haze Ice Queen was the winner! Although my friend was quite drawn to the Candy Girl. I may end up knitting her both...just because she would look amazing in them!

Here's my start (the color is off!):

I am using my provisional cast-on (which I love with a burning passion) although others have been using a beaded picot cast on with great success. There's a thread on Ravelry about it, if you are interested! I am knitting the stockinette version, but with the bead chart for the garter stitch version.

One thing I wanted to note about Ice Queen: it is very very important to block it; completely submerge it in water and stretch it out. When you finish it, it will look too short. But lace blocks out quite a bit. You needn't use pins or wires, but make sure to stretch it lengthwise and don't worry about the width, as it will snug to your face a bit if you block it long and narrow. Ok, maybe two things to note; you will get different blocking results with different yarns, so be sure to swatch!

And some answers:

Lorraine and Rachel asked where I get my beads. A better question would be where *don't* I get my beads?! ;) The ones shown in my last post were from a couple of local bead stores: Legendary Beads and Ubeadquitous, neither of which have online ordering. But I've ordered seed beads from Out on a Whim, Fire Mountain Gems and Earthfaire. They all have a nice selection. A word of caution about beads: not all of them are color fast in water! In particular, red beads have issues, and I have used beads (thankfully only for swatches!) that lost all of their color during felting. I don't have a problem using them in Ice Queen because I probably won't be washing it a lot, but it's definitely something to remember: test your beads first!

And Rhonda asked when you use the US 5 needles. It is only for the top edging after you have finished the charts, and the picot bind off on both top and bottom.

I am so excited to see all of your Ice Queens! You all make my day. :)

And thank you all for playing along with my meme!