Found Some Cute Socks

Just a quick check in. Not much knitting has been going on because I have been working in an office instead of at home. Slows ya down. I am almost done with the next-to-last row I am going to do on Dianna, so that's about 16 more squares and a bunch of half squares left. I do like doing this project. And I swear I will next finish my unfinished lace projects...before starting something new, which I also swear or affirm will be blue.

I did get a new inspiration. I was on Ravelry looking at new projects that came through, and there were some VERY interesting socks. They are called Boxcar Socks and are by Carissa Knits. Go look at them!

Now that you are back, aren't those cool? I love interesting shapes in socks. Of course I have loads of skeins of yarn that would make really cool hexagons, so I am itching to do this one!

I guess when Dianna is done I will quickly sit there and knit that last couple of hours on the languishing Hopscotches (which I have to fix an error in--not good trying to do slip stitch patterns in a darkened room, drinking wine).

That's it for me. I hope to finally get those finished photos of the purple vest done--it is sitting in my bathroom waiting for me to do so. Then I will post pix!

Dianna Grows

Well, I sat around all day today and most of yesterday waiting for some emergency work. Today's never arrived, so I got all but one square of tier 12 done on Dianna (I took the picture at this point because all the sqares are on one part of the needle and I can straighten it out.

It doesn't look very big in the picture, but the squares really stretch out, so I know it's going to be a lot bigger than it looks now. I am fairly happy with how the colors are coming along, and much happier with this second skein of Kureyon sock yarn. I am over halfway through and no knots so far. At this point, a knot would not be the end of the world anyway.

I am currently thinking of doing about 15 tiers of squares. I hope that will give me enough to do the half squares and perhaps a three-needle bind off, like Marcia at the yarn shop suggested. That might make an interesting and neat edge. A lot of people are making little points along the edges of each square, but I think I'd rather do some kind of edging.

This is just an extra close-up of the work in progress. It actually looks better on the reverse side, which is the back, in the unblocked state. You can see the green beads better in this one. Well, I think this will be pretty.

That's all the knitting I have done for the past few days, other than slowly working on Hopscotch socks when I am somewhere I can't do beads. I didn't get to spend as much time as usual at the yarn shop on Saturday, which is too bad, since all the fun kids were there. (Or at least a lot of them!)

Sigh, I don't have any wise words or interesting advice today. Just a bit irritated that I waited all day for work that still hasn't come in yet. I hope I am not expected to do it in my sleep.

Succumbed to New Yarn Yearning

Hmm, maybe New Yarn Yearning, or NYY, is a new diagnosis knitters may have. I seem to have succumbed to NYY badly with respect to the yarn I saw at Hill Country Weavers a week or two ago and could not stop thinking about.



So yesterday, since my work is on some interminable hold, Beccano and I journeyed to south Austin and I got some yarn. We had a nice trip, even though there was a huge delay due to an accident--we listened to music and he analyzed it for me (including telling me exactly what guitars members of various bands use, etc.).

Above is the one I really wanted. I ended up not getting my favorite color, which was a red, just because I already have a lot of red laceweight. This is a natural brown, so it has lots of bits of other colors in it. The brand is Isager Strik, from Denmark (well, I do have one reader who can read the website, but she probably already has). This yarn, Tvinni Tweed, is so lovely, though. Not sure what kind of wool it is, but it feels nothern, like Shetland stuff. I see another shawl from it, though it could be a nice cardigan, too. I have two skeins, so more than a thousand yards. I just have never seen yarn quite like this, so I had to get it. The photo shows a very realistic depiction of the color.
Beccano begged me to get the one above, too. He loves the color, which is also very accurate in the photo, for once. It is called Almond Green, but it is really a heather of a lot of subtle colors. I would like to make a lace stole from this. It is softer than the other, and is Højlandsgarn, whatever that means. It is made in Scotland, though, which hints it might be Shetland yarn, too. But I think it says merino on it (or the other one does--I am not at home so I can't check). I have three skeins of this, which is about 900 yards or so.
Finally, here is the Knit Picks yarn I kept forgetting to show you, for a second Lady Janevest. I will probably do a swatch to make sure it blocks, over the weekend. The colorway is Creme Brulee (with an accent mark I am too lazy to put in, but hey, didn't my Danish look good?). It looks pretty yellow to me.

Speaking of Lady Jane, the author contacted me on Ravelry and let me know that she put the binding off instructions in the pattern, so if you want to make Lady Jane, be sure you get the most current version of the pattern! I am going to be sure I have it for the second one! I promise to get a photo made of the final product on that one for you, maybe this evening.

My Dianna shawl is going great. I am on the 9th teir and it looks really, really cool. I am enjoying it greatly. It is complex enough to keep me on my toes, but easy enough I can mostly do it in public (unless there is WINE involved). I would like to do a KAL at the yarn shop on this, if they could get in some yarn with slow striping like a Noro sock yarn or JoJoland Melody. I guess you could make it in thicker yarn, but I am not sure how good it would look.

Buy Now, Pay Later!

I wanted to share an idea that my friend John-Francis shared on his blog recently, the "Yarn Caddy 3000." It slices! It dices! Well, actually, it does none of that. It mostly unwinds your yarn. And you can easily make one yourself from readily available materials.

But it is such a cool idea, and so manly! Any knitting item made with clamps will defray any thoughts that a man knitter is not macho. Quien es mas macho? John-Francis! (I find this amusing, because he is trained as a French teacher and I praise him in Spanish. Alors.)

This thing really works, too. It sits there, nice and stable, and feeds your yarn to you steadily and neatly. We kept imagining them made in a variety of colors, perhaps using that textured spray paint to give the clamps and dowels a sassy faux finish...anyhow, click that link and enjoy. His blog is rather new, but he is quite fun and funny, so read some of the other posts, as well!

OK, that plug over, I did knit some yesterday, in between my car breaking down and being hit by an unpleasant virus. I got two more tiers done on the Dianna shawl, and no more knots in the Noro. In fact, it's looking rather nice right now. I think this will be a quick shawl, and predict it would make a nice gift item. (In case you haven't been keeping up, it's an entrelac shawl with a lace motif in each square.) Once you have mastered what to do on each type of row and coped with the non-standard format of the chart, it starts to move along rapidly. The beads I added are a nice bonus, too.

Lady Jane is finished blocking, but because I got sick, I didn't take pictures. More to come.

A Rumply Lady Jane

A long US holiday weekend meant lots of knitting time. So, even though I had a couple of ripping out episodes, I managed to finish Lady Jane yesterday. As you can see, it is very purple! You can also see that I didn't bother to fix my hair for the photos--I am as rumpled as the unblocked vest!

What we see here is before blocking. The arm area will look much better once it is all straightened out, and the bottom lace edge (inconveniently cut off by my kind photographer) really needed a good straightening out to look its best. I think it won't be quite as form fitting once the blocking is done.

As you can see, it's quite tunic length. Used a lot of yarn. I'd say I have about one of my ten skeins of yarn left, and the instructions called for 9, so they were right. I just always buy extra. That was helpful at the end when I was knitting the two sides of the front at the same time.

There were not too many challenges with this project, though the instructions sometimes left things to be desired, and I wish it were finished off a little more neatly. In fact, I may do a crochet edging around the neckline and sleeve edge, because it simply divides at the underarm, leaving an unattractive space at the bottom where a stitch stretches out. There is also a stretched-out spot where the cable divides for the neck. We'll see. I may decide it's OK the way it is.

I am not sure why the pattern called for a seed stitch (or moss stitch) shoulder edge. But, I put one on there. I also was not thrilled that the instructions called for knitting the back to a certain length (hard to measure on a vest with an irregular edge), then had you knit the front by stopping when you had a certain number of decreases. Sure enough, the fronts ended up an inch or more longer than the back, so I had to re-attach yarn and lengthen the back. This was fine, because I thought the back armholes looked too short.

A final odd thing about the pattern was that, at the end, the instructions tell you how to do a three-needle bind off on one shoulder. They never tell you to also do the other shoulder, nor what to do with the back of the neck stitches, which were waiting on holders along with the stitches for each side of the shoulder. I guess you are just supposed to figure it out. What I did was three-needle bind off the right shoulder, continue and bind off the neck edge in pattern, then keep going bringing in the second shoulder and three-needle binding it off. I hope that's what the author intended! (And before you suggest it, yes, I am going to contact her, and will let you know what she says--she has been very helpful so far. I actually think I may be the first person to finish the project.)

EDITED July 9: The author has kindly let me know that instructions for finishing are now in the newest version of the pattern, so make sure you get that version if you decide to do this pattern!

Here you can see how lumpy the bottom edging is. This is what I am going to have to knit a swatch of in the cotton blend I got for the second one of these, to be sure it will block out. It's a lovely pattern when straightened out, though!

I washed the garment right after these photos were taken, and the yarn bled a little, but not too much. I then just straightened it as well as I could and put pins along the bottom and arm edges, to try to get the cap sleeve effect that the straight shoulder edge is supposed to give. This morning the top half was dry, so I turned it over and hope the bottom dries in time to take it to the yarn shop this afternoon and show it to a friend who is going out of town.

And Now, a Word about Noro

When I finished Lady Jane, I worked a bit on the Dianna shawl. I am still having a little bit of entrelac confusion, but I got another tier done. Not without effort, however, because there I was knitting away on a blue section when, BAM, there was a knot in my Noro Kureyon Sock yarn and it suddenly turned BLACK. This did not make for a nice transition. I tried knitting along, but the motif where the color suddenly changed looked bad, and it made way too much dark stuff all together at what will be the bottom of the shawl. Ick. So, I ripped that out and wound through the skein of yarn until I hit another blue section. That was about 200 yards. Sigh. I just want the beginning to flow nicely. Dang that Noro and their knots! I know it is hand spun, but sheesh.

I figure as the shawl progresses, and there is more spacing between squares, I will be able to end one motif before a knot and start the next motif with another color and it won't look so wrong. I did notice that there is a lot more very dark stuff in this colorway than I thought--a lot of black and blackish green. I will try to not have them overlap too much, but we will have to see. I think this will be a darker shawl than I had imagined. Good thing I have two more much brighter skeins I could try again with if I wanted to.

Final Glorious Aeolian Post

As the sun sets on another project, enjoy last night's sunset at the end of our block. I read something on a Ravelry group about how you sort of mourn the end of a project, and how blocking can be that final loving interaction with something you've shared your life with for weeks (or months).

So, here's how that blocking I did yesterday looks against a shirt. You can at least see how the beads look, or so I hope:

And here is the "money shot," the shawl in all its glory, free of pins and restrictions. It came out 98 inches wide, which is not all that much bigger than the size of the large shawl in the pattern. It is a large shawl, but not frighteningly humongous or anything. The bottom really looks pretty, doesn't it? And the top looks great when I am wearing it.


This is one idea of how I guess you'd wear it. The edging looks pretty draped that way. Mostly I am relieved it doesn't drag the ground or anything!

And now I am just being goofy, but it does look pretty, waving around that lovely edging. Aeolian is waving good-bye to you and I will focus on other projects!

I got up to the armholes on Lady Jane last evening at the yarn shop, but today I have work to do (yay) so progress will be slower. That's OK. Having money means I can buy more yarn.

Vested Interest and Blocking "Fun"

For the past couple of days I have faithfully been adding to the Lady Jane vest. She's moving right along!

This is my current progress. I got to the part where you join it and knit circularly, and make a really lovely cable pattern in the center front. It's lots of fun and a lot more interesting than just repeating the same pattern over and over. I am glad the project can be interesting, too, because the yarn for the second one showed up yesterday. It is quite...yellow. You'll see it in the next blog entry.


This is a close-up of the central motif. Isn't that a nice knot? It repeats again starting with my next row, then the pieces of the knot start moving over as the neckline happens. The armholes start as soon as they knot is done, too, so no more nice circular knitting after that!
Why, what is this lovely thing on top of a very flowery bedspread? It's the Desert Lilac Aeolian shawl blocking! Ah, what an adventure I had doing that! Washing it was easy, and rolling it in a towel was fine, but the pinning...well.

...let's take a break to look at the edging transition and agave patterns, why don't we? Ahh.

And here we have a nice shot of all the patterns. They do look a little odd with all those stripes and flowers under them, but the king-sized bed was the only place it could go!

So, pinning. I used blocking wires at the top, curving them as the shawl wanted to curve, and at the bottom, catching as many edges as I could. I seem to have misplaced a couple of wires, so I had to pin some of the edge points. Then, as I was painstakingly pinning 5 points on each edge motif, I ran out of pins. EEK! I'd actually bought a set of blocking pins from KnitPicks along with the (much too small and not used) blocking mats. Thank goodness for that! As it is, I used all my two boxes of t-pins, the blocking pins, some small t-pins I found at the bottom of a drawer, and then, because I could not locate the pins with nice colored balls on top of them that I just saw last week, I had to use things you are supposed to use in making earrings on the last few points.

Ahh, there she is in all her glory.

By the time I finished finding and placing all the pins, the shawl was completely dry. So I misted it with water. I just had to re-mist it, since I saw I hadn't balanced the points I put on the bottom of it well enough. I hope it dries in time to take to the yarn shop this afternoon!

I am pleased with how the body of the shawl looks now that it is blocked. All the lumps and weird places smoothed out nicely. Using the shinier beads instead of nupps looks fine to me (and my opinion counts the most on this!). The edging is simply hard to do. Everyone on the Ravelry group says they have trouble with that part, so I don't feel alone.

I haven't had any work this week, which is not great, but at least leaves me a bit of knitting time.

Aeolian Knitting Done, Trying New Things

Yes, I did finish the Aeolian shawl. A couple of irritating things happened on the bind off, such as a knot in the yarn, but it's all done. I got some pictures taken by John Francis of the finished blobby mess, and now that they are here, enjoy an unblocked photo:


Now, I will wait until blocking for the Big Reveal of it looking good! The blocking mats still aren't here, so it may be a few days.

In the meantime I have taken a little break and just for fun started a couple of projects. This is just a little scarf in a pattern called Modern Mermaid that I got from Hill Country Weavers. Suzanne the owner of the shop designed it. I knew what yarn I'd use on it the second I saw the pattern (designed for Berroco Seduce). I am making it from my precious skein of Tili Thomas Voile de Mer (silk and seacell). I am adding beads exactly the color of the yarn, and they are sort of tucked in next to yarnovers. I wanted them very subtle, like they just peak out. And that's what they do, so I marked them using my fabulous graphic design skills. You might be able to see them if you enlarge the photo. I was thinking of making this as a special gift. And I'm not sure how soon I will get to finishing it, since I will be back to the Lady Jane vest after my fun experimenting today.

The other new thing I couldn't resist trying is the lace entrelac shawl, Dianna, which I've been raving about for quite a while! I was all confused at first, but now that I have three rows done, I can see where the squares are supposed to go and I think it will zoom along now. I was also confused for a bit and thought maybe the shawl was just modular knitting, but now I am sure it's really entrelac. I can even knit backward on it, though I have to say purling backwards is not my best skill. It's rather heavy on the dark green at first, but the beads look nice. I showed you the yarn in my last post, some Noro Kureyon sock yarn. I think the beads add something to it, since it isn't as dainty in the sock-weight yarn. The thicker yarn is hard on my size 12 crochet hook--it keeps bending. I hope it makes it through the project!

Now that I got my urge to start new things out of the way (I spent three whole weeks totally dedicated to Aeolian!), I will go back to my lovely vest, in anticipation of the other yarn I ordered to make the second Lady Jane.

By the way, I am just putting in Ravelry links here willy nilly, assuming you all can see them. If not, I will always be putting in photos of my finished projects eventually, so you will see!

Wonderful Yarn Experience

I'm on a knitting high right now--like my knitting friend John Francis said, it's crack to us. Anyway, the photos below show why.

But first, a nice quote. I was talking to Rose, the mother of our old roommate Jeff, who is in town looking for senior living facilities. She commented on how I am still always busy knitting, and I said it had helped with the stress of recent years. She turned to me and said:

When times are bad, knitting is good!

I like that one! And it's true. Knitting has helped me through so many personal crises, times of worry about friends, and financial down times! It's a fine thing.

Now, on to new yarn!

What you see is no street crack, it's the pure stuff. MMM.

So, it was a slow work day (got busy later, but you knitting readers don't need to read about that). I'd already had a very pleasant time in the coffee shop where I was working, because two lovely young mothers were there knitting together, and they made me feel good--they were exactly the kind of parents my friends and I were--we had the nicest conversations about the habits of three-year-olds and how to work knitting into your life at that busy time (it was agreed that dish cloths are great).


To continue the fun, Deana needed to return some yarn, so she and I headed out to Hill Country Weavers yesterday in the late morning. I was looking for something to make Dianna out of that would go with the bluish green beads I recently bought. I did find something, but also found some really great new stuff. Suzanne, the owner, said I'd managed to find every single new favorite thing she'd brought in from the TNNA conference!

The yarn above is what got me most excited. This is shetland wool, naturally colored, and is from a flock in California. It's called Natural Shetland Rustic Lace, from Elemental Affects. It feels perfect, just like the yarn from Scotland. When the HCW owner saw that I'd picked it up, she asked if I'd seen the shawl...and there it was, the exact Shetland shawl I'd want to make from the yarn! Very rustic, light and beautiful. She said Judith Mackenzie, who produced the yarn, knitted it and had promised to send the pattern. She encouraged me to write her and see if I can get a copy. I think it might be an Heirloom Knitting pattern, anyway--it's very traditional looking. I just can't wait to figure out some wonderful use for this really great yarn. Pant, pant. It makes me weak to look at it!

Right across from this yarn (which also comes in some very nice colors) was three different weights of some yarn from Sweden. We spent quite some time fondling it, while the owner told me more about the yarn and designer who has made patterns from it. Can I remember its name? Or her name? No. I really should have gotten some of it. I will probably continue to think that until I can drag myself back down to south Austin and get some. We spent quite some time admiring its amazing qualities. The colorways are unique and have fun names, but especially the laceweight is just different. That's all. Nothing else like it. The laceweight is subtly semi-solid thanks to the base having more than one color of wool in it. This would make an amazing shawl. Guess I need to go back.


I did buy this stuff. I walked back to the sock section, and enjoyed the sight of dozens and dozens of skeins in so many different fibers (they have lots of "Panda" types, but I got plenty of that last time I was there). Suddenly I realized there was something gleaming. It was LOTS of Dream in Color Starry yarn. I was surprised--that stuff sells out practically instantly in the online sock yarn stores. I snatched up this wonderful very dark blue skein, in case a mob of buyers was coming or something. Sure enough, that supply had JUST come in. I'm hardly ever lucky enough to find anything with all the colors available--even at my LYS, the folks who go every day always beat me (ahem, right now I am there almost every day, thanks to the new job).

The Starry yarn has real silver in it. I have another skein from a different manufacturer with this same base, but I love the slight variations in color that Dream in Color dyes into their yarns. This is one special skein. I don't think I could bear to make socks from this. Maybe when I go back I'll get another skein so I'll have enough for a shawl. I'd love to use the dark blue beads I got for Dawn's Aeolian along with this. Drool.
OK, now we can settle down a bit. This is simply a nice colorway of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn. While I have some Silk Garden sock I'd thought I'd use to make Dianna (that's the entrelac lace shawl I found recently), I really wanted to use these green beads I got last time I went to Sea of Beads to add to that shawl, so this colorway is more appropriate. There is a week bit of pale pink hiding in there, so I think this will end up very pretty. So much to knit! I hope I get to half the stuff that's bubbling in my mind!

I'm sure one or two of you are wondering if I finished the Aeolian shawl. Well, I did get one row done yesterday, the last pattern row. There was a lot going on, so not much knitting time (I did get quite a few rows done on my poor neglected Hopscotch socks, though). I think I'll be done today, though I discovered I'd had a little pattern reading glitch on a few repeats, which I think I can easily fix but irritated me. I hate it when I SEE the instructions clearly, yet just throw in the yarn-overs from earlier rows ayway! Also, thanks to those episodes of un-knitting a few repeats and making knots with the former nupps, I will have to go into a fourth skein of yarn before I'm done! Thank goodness John Francis donated his former Aeolian yarn to me! Now let's just hope those blocking squares arrive soon!

OK, I am now off to get my morning chores and errands done so I can knit away the afternoon!

Inching Toward the End...and My Scary Hair

Today I am sharing a photo of me and my son, Tuba Boy. He is 18 now and getting ready to go to college. The reason I am sharing this is mostly to show you what color my hair is right now. It's been various shades of red for many years, and I decided to go back to my natural color, in preparation for eventually (shocking) letting it grow out with the gray in it (I don't have too much for someone my age). My natural color is pretty close to Tuba Boy's. Maybe a wee bit lighter. That is what I was aiming for. Can you see that it matches my black shirt? Eek. I think the hair dresser overshot the mark a bit. Everyone is telling me that it will fade a bit after a few washes, so I am being patient (not trying California Susan's "strip it fast with Prell" method because I don't want to put my hair in worse shape--it's nice snd soft right now--hi California Susan) and wearing a lot of black and heavy eye shadow, saying I am in my "goth" period. I sure don't look like my profile picture any more! And it's less than a year old!

It is taking me some time to get used to my pale skin and dark hair, and I know I will look better in different colors again. That is nothing but an invitation to knit more things in different colors, though!

There's no real good reason to post a photo of Aeolian, since it looks sort of like dyed coral in a sleazy seashell store for tourists right now.

Let's just say that I am pleased with my progress and have only 8 more rows to go! Of course, each of these rows is slowly growing toward 700 stitches, so they are taking a while. The current row is the hardest one for me, so far, since it has both big and small beads and they aren't in an easy to memorize pattern, like most of the other rows were. But, I will persevere. I was sorry to learn that another knitting buddy gave up on her Aeolian. Members of this KAL are dropping like flies--but I can see why.

Trine had a good thought in a recent comment as to why some lace is hard for some people. I thought about it some more and realized that I knit in a very 3-D way. I picture what I am making, and need to know what I just knit and what I am about to knit, to keep track of where I am. I see the patterns and sub-patterns in even complex charts, which means I get lost less often. People who knit by just repeating written instructions as to which stitch to knit in what order (which works just fine on many patterns) will have trouble with complex knitting because they aren't keeping track of whether their current stitch is lining up in the right spot compared to the previous row.

Another hindrance I have noticed is the inability to read charts or see what the charts are trying to tell you. More than one knitting friend has missed the "repeat" marker in Aeolian charts and did the extra stitches that are only for the end of the chart within their repeats. One poor lady on Ravelry repeated the center chart twice (but it came out rather attractive, so no big loss). Charts can be really hard. I always do the foundation row of any chart very slowly to ensure that it's accurate. I make sure that each repeat starts and ends at the same spot with respect to the previous row (and thus, it helps me find any errors in the previous section!). A lot of people I know use colors and write numbers in their charts. It helps them see what to do. If you have trouble, try color coding your SSKs, k2togs and YOs. The colors distract me, but we are all different!

Didn't mean to get so didactic here...

I ordered some blocking squares from KnitPicks, in hopes they will be large enough to at least mostly cover the finished shawl. I had to order from them, anyway, because the colorway my friend wants her Lady Jane vest to be in arrived, so I could order that. I also ordered new size 0 wooden needles to replace the one that broke (got two lentths in case I wanted to make something large and to see if maybe I'd like two socks at a time better with longer cables) and another couple circulars in sizes I use a lot. I got another pair of wooden size 4 tips, because I seem to use that size so often. I am looking forward to that order arriving!

Our Youngest Student Yet...and Aeolian Progress

There's been a lot of knitting going on this week, since it was a slow work week and both my husband and older son have been out of town. Not many distractions! And when you are working on a honking big project like an extra-large Aeolian, some long stretches of knitting time are very welcome--rows are getting to take an hour or so. The good news is that I am ready to start the edging! So, I only have about 20 rows to go--they are just LONG rows. Knock on wood, there haven't been any other major errors in the last few days, so I am trucking on and on.

We've been having some good times at Ye Olde Yarn Shoppe. They had a knitting camp last week with the most charming group of 7-8 year olds you could imagine. They all knit remarkably well for their ages, and listening to their conversations was a real treat. All Montessori students, you can see the benefits of their education in their comparatively mature interactions and self-direction.

But, these girls seem old in comparison to the little knitter pictured above! It's our yarn shop mascot, baby Abigail (or Babby Abby as I call her). She was getting a little bored, so Katie and I decided perhaps she needed yarn in her hands, like the rest of us.

The cute thing is that she really seemed to be enjoying herself! She is working on an authentic sleeping cap for her Daddy, who is a historical re-enactment buff. It's in a natural color and is Franklin Habit's 1840 Nightcap from the fall 2008 Knitty.



I couldn't resist putting in all the pictures (which would be better if they weren't phone pictures, but hey, spontaneity sometimes results in phone photos). Here she really looks like she is knitting, or she looks like she does NOT want to let go of her new friend the yarn. It's more likely the latter, but it cracked us all up (look at her Mommy's smile at the top of the photo).

We have so much fun watching Abby. She is 3 months old now, so we get to hear her coo, and we can make her smile in her bouncy seat. And she doesn't get into anything or pepper us with questions that are too advanced for us to answer (though that is sort of one of little Miss T's cuter aspects). We have the luck to have a number of precious little ones to enjoy right now. I wonder what it will be like when all of them are 18 months to 2? Whew. I'd better start resting up for that right now.

I'd better get moving on that last section of the shawl (which is very big now, just not photogenic). My purple Lady Jane vest is begging me to return to her! I will be able to order the yarn for the version for my friend in the next couple of days--yay.

And happy Summer Solstice to all!

Keeping My Fingers Crossed

I am still plugging along on the Aeolian shawl. No more huge mistakes (or even small ones) in the past couple of days. In the meantime, more than one of the KAL members has thrown in the towel on this project. It does require some counting, but I think that if I had done it in a quiet place I'd never have made my first mistake, and if I'd tried the nupps out on a swatch, I'd have realized they didn't look like what I wanted, and I wouldn't have had the horrible issue from the weekend.

I think perhaps the KAL should have been targeted toward more "advanced" lace knitters and that would have saved some tears. Of course, at least one person gave up just because laceweight yarn didn't work well for his hands. And I can understand that! I prefer fingering weight, myself, but this alpaca is not too bad for me.

Of course, the border is coming up. And that is one fancy looking border! I just have four more rows until the border starts. I am not sure if I'll be able to work on that at the yarn shop this afternoon, so I will take my other knitting, just in case. I look forward to seeing how the larger beads replacing the nupps in the border look. I am liking the ones in the agave section of the shawl, so I have high hopes.

I've been working on Lady Jane the vest whenever I have to go out and knit, like to Beccano's guitar lessons, so it is growing slowly but surely. I look forward to finishing that--nice big yarn, LOL!

I am going to ponder what makes some lace patterns harder than others for a while. Anyone have ideas?