Time seems to be in a bit of a time warp around here. Thank you all for your kind words about my blog. Since I wrote my “not sure” post I feel a bit less stressed about the blog. Before I felt like I had to post something so people would read and thought there was almost no one reading. Then all of your comments and emails started to pour in and it made me realize I’m not just writing things and posting them in the great beyond that no one reads and no one cares about. It’s sort of the blog version of Sally Field’s “you like me, you really like me.” There have been times in the last few weeks where I’ve thought, I should post this on the blog but honestly do you really want to see each block of the Moderne Baby blanket finished? I think not.

In the last few weeks, Bryan has graduated and earned his MLS. Last Monday, it hit him he’d finally earned this degree that for so long had been so far away.

I’m enjoying my last summer of freedom for a few years. I’ve been knitting exclusively on the Moderne Baby blanket since I finished the Cat’s Paw shawl a few weeks ago. The shawl is beautiful and I wore it to Bryan’s graduation. Unfortunately, I think I’ll be ripping out the bound-off edge and knitting at least another inch or two onto it since it feels a bit short when I wear it. An easily fixed problem, thank goodness. I will post a better photo of the shawl soon. Back to the blanket, it’s amazing how much knitting you get done on one project when it’s your only project. I don’t remember the last time I had only one project in progress, I’m not counting the single sock that needs to be finished. I’m hoping to finish the blanket before the June heat rolls in. My goal for the blanket is to finish knitting it by June 1, that doesn’t include sewing in the ends.

The Moderne Baby blanket is coming along fabulously, it’s turning out beautifully and the Lorna’s Laces solid colors all have slight variations in color that are just magnificent.

The Cat’s Paw shawl is nearly complete, it just needs a border around the bottom.

My original intentions for May for my Knitting Almanac were to work on American Aran afghan squares, instead I’ve decided to focus on the various baby projects that need attention. I might even throw in another shawl too.

I’ve done a bit of spinning in the last few weeks and I just noticed that the yarn I’m spinning is very much in the same color family as the baby blanket.

The last week or so, I’ve been really struggling with whether or not I want to continue to write a blog. I don’t know if it was the five year mark or seeing that I’ve written over 620 posts or if it’s just spring fever? Part of it is feeling like I’m putting myself out there and getting very little response. Are people getting tired of reading blogs? Recently I read in American Libraries, a magazine put out by the American Library Association, that there are about 250,000 abandoned blogs. My original reason for blogging was to share what I was working on with other knitters, then it became a personal journal and recently it’s again become more of a place to share my projects. It’s a time of transition around here and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking anyway as I’m preparing to go to graduate school and have accepted an assistantship at a library on campus. It’s a very exciting time and also a bit scary as Bryan and I embark on another chapter in our lives.

Last Wednesday, I finished knitting the body of the Lace Nightie. With a severe case of startitis, I almost immediately set forth into figuring out which shawl to make for my April knitting almanac project. I liked the Flower Basket Shawl but was having a bit of a case of “everyone else has made that shawl,” the Diamond Fantasy shawl and Little Arrowhead shawl weren’t screaming to be worked on. Bryan told me on Wednesday before he left for class that I should design my own. As I poured through my Barbara Walker Treasury books, the cat’s paw pattern kept catching my eye. Finally, I realized exactly what I was going to do. After three hours of charting it all out in Excel, I printed out my chart. At knit night, I cast on and knit a “swatch” which then turned in to the shawl.

Currently, I’m about 172 rows into the pattern with another 60 or so rows to go to get to my goal length. At that point, I’ll measure and see if it’s as long as I’d like it and will start the edging. It feels like such a great sense of accomplishment to chart out the lace pattern and make it all work as a shawl with the help of Interweave Knits and other shawl patterns.

This weekend, we headed out to Bryan’s sister’s house to visit the niece and nephew. On the way, I knew that I couldn’t just knit on the shawl the entire time and wanted something a bit more mindless. I started the Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting in Lorna’s Laces Worsted Weight Shepherd Sock yarn. The middle square is beautiful and the other “solid” colors are wonderful with their subtle hand-dyed varigations. The baby was born in February, so I’m a bit behind schedule but I’ve been waiting on the yarn since January.

I just have to brag, my Barbara Shawl is fabulous! I love it and it’s beautiful.
Here are a few photos of it on (click image for larger photo).
The back view.

From the side.

It feels wonderful on. For those of you who missed seeing Bear model the shawl, there is a photo for you. :)
I wore it tonight for the first time to the local spinning guild meeting and got tons of compliments on it. I felt like a million bucks. There are definitely more lace shawls in my future. My next planned shawl is Summer in Kansas. Being a former Kansas girl, I couldn’t resist it. And I don’t even need to buy the yarn, I already have Henry’s Attic Fingering Weight Wool yarn in natural white. It’s gorgeous and I bought it to make any shawl and now I have one picked out.

It’s killing me to have to wait until I get a job to start anything new. I’ve joined Lolly’s Socktober and really want to start my next pair of socks, but I can’t. I’m sure within the next week or so, I’ll just cave and start something new. You’d think from the way I’m talking that I don’t have any projects to work on. I have three projects right now (Hobo, Crazy Green sweater and the secret cranberry lace) that need to be worked on but the urge to start something new is overwhelming. I’ve reworked a bit of the Hobo sweater, so I have been knitting. I think this will be a good week for me, I’ve been very anxious the last two days, so something has to come through. Even if it’s a temp job, it’s something!

After three years, one month and 29 days, I am FINISHED with the Barbara shawl. Six months ago, I never thought this day would come.

I finished the lace edging this morning. It needs to be blocked, which I will do this weekend. A few shawl facts: pattern from Stahman’s Shawls & Scarves by Myrna A.I. Stahman; yarn is Jaeger Cashmere (discontinued); started 8 August, 2002.

I’m so excited that I’m ready to start my next shawl project, I can’t though. I’ve made a promise to myself that I have to get a job before I can start a new project and I’m trying to stick to it. I have some job prospects that I should know about by the end of next week. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

After ripping out the Hobo sweater, I have that to work on and I need to finish sewing the bottom seam of Bryan’s ultra warm hat. With the completion of the shawl, I’m now down to three projects to knit, not including Bryan’s hat. I don’t remember the last time I had just three projects. Whatever will I do with myself? There are Christmas gifts to work on and spinning to do.

Speaking of spinning, I finished spinning the Lemondrop yarn and am working on plying it. I’m doing a 3-ply cable yarn. So I’m plying two yarns first and then plying those together with another single ply of yarn. I read about it in Spin-Off so we’ll see how it works. When I was winding the yarn to figure out 450 yards for each ball of yarn to ply from, I had a bit of a mishap. I took the singles hank off and put it on the swift to wind it into a ball and the last 10 or 12 yards on the swift started to get tangled. I figured no problem, I’ll wind it by hand from here. Big mistake, I ended up spending an hour and a half untangling it. It’s not plying very nicely, so we’ll see what happens. What a hassle, but it will be cool yarn when I’m finished, I have to keep reminding myself of that. Perseverance.

Oh and before I forget. If you like Stars, Broken Social Scene or Metric - you absolutely must check out the new Metric album Live It Out!! Bryan and I have been listening to it non-stop since we bought it on Tuesday. Even if you’ve never heard Metric, they are worth checking out.

Today has been much better than yesterday. Despite the major disappointment of the realization that the Hobo sweater wasn’t going to make it, yesterday ended much better than it started.

Yesterday, after dealing with the potential loss of Hobo, I worked on the Barbara shawl. After some measuring and assessment of yarn, I realized I was finished with knitting the shawl. Finished may not be the right word, more like finished with the main section. Last night, I started knitting on the lace edge. It took me a bit to figure out exactly how to knit from the chart and attach it to the shawl, then I finally figured it out. The lace edge is knit and the last stitch of the edge and the shawl are knit together. It’s actually quite cool how it comes together. Bryan brought home Dodgeball from the library for us to watch last night. We both needed a good comedy to watch and this one was very cheesy and funny. I worked on the lace edging while watching Dodgeball and actually made some progress. Then this morning after breakfast, I worked one lace repeat. Chloe was helping me keep track of what row I was on the chart. A helpful kitty is always nice.

Also today while I was watching Days of Our Lives, I decided to be brave that rip out the Hobo sweater. After doing a swatch last night on size 4 needles and getting a gauge of 28 stitches to 4 inches (10cm), which is the correct gauge, I knew what had to be done.
Yesterday, it was this beautiful sweater with a very bad gauge.
So I got out the ball winder during Days and just wound and wound without paying attention. I had to do it this way so the grieving wouldn’t be too overwhelming, and I knew I couldn’t do it by hand, I would never have finished. By 1:30pm, halfway through Days, it looked like this.
Thank you all for your support through this tramatic time with this sweater. Once I was able to have a good cry about it and worked a swatch with the correct gauge, I felt much better.

I need to recap Saturday for you. My new knitting friend, Ms. M, and I drove up to Chicago to see the Yarn Harlot at Arcadia Knitting. We had lunch at the always wonderful Chicago Diner and then headed over to Arcadia Knitting, which is in my old neighborhood. The neighborhood has changed a lot since I left two years ago. While we were browsing waiting for the Yarn Harlot to arrive, Kelly, a former student of mine tapped me on the shoulder. I introduced Kelly to Ms. M and Ms. M to Kelly. Then we sat and knitted and waited some more. When the Yarn Harlot finally arrived, the store was all a flutter and Franklin was taking photos for the store. The Yarn Harlot was absolutely hilarious sharing stories with us, including one about her daughter, a daughter’s playmate’s mother and one of the yarn closets. Doesn’t everyone have a yarn closet. She was even knitting one of her famous socks. Everything you’ve read about her is true and she’s even funnier in person. My cheeks hurt when we left the store. The Stitchin’ Seminarian gives a very good account of the Yarn Harlot’s visit. (I’m even in the background of her photo of Franklin.) After the Yarn Harlot spoke and we were lining up to get our books signed, I realized that Laurakeet had been sitting in front of us. I asked her if she had a blog and then was she possibly Laurakeet. (Phew, there’s a lot of name dropping in this post, sorry about that.)

I got the newest Yarn Harlot book signed and am not regretting not having a photo taking with her. Oh well, at least I was there and got to meet her.
I also had to enhance the stash a bit. I needed to buy some Rowan KidSilk Haze to make a gift anyway and was very happy to see that now there is Kidsilk Spray that is variegated - very cool. Unfortunately, you can’t see the variations in color in the photo. And for myself, I couldn’t resist this Kid Merino from Crystal Palace Yarns.

I’ve been working on the Barbara shawl off and on for over three years. Recently, I’ve decided to work on it more so that I can finish it by the end of the year. In February, I figured I had at least another year’s worth of work to do on the shawl, but if I can finish it before then that would be just fabulous. Also giving me renewed hope was the lovely shawl calculator that Rose-Kim Knits has on her blog. I realized that I’m not just 67% finished, I’m more than 90% finished. What a great motivating tool.

As I’ve been working on it through, a mistake in the front has become more blarring as time has progressed. What I thought would be a small mistake that would blend in turned into a big mistake that did not fit in at all. So Tuesday night, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I wasn’t going to knit any more until this mistake was fixed. I pulled out Stahman’s Shawls & Scarves that the shawl is from and found out how to fix a mistake that is 20 rows down without ripping out all 20 rows. In my late night craziness, I decided to be brave and rip out about 40 rows in one section. I then proceeded to reknit those rows. Unfortunately, there were some major snags and I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. I realized as I was laying in bed trying to sleep what I had done wrong. My mind was racing that night and I couldn’t sleep. When I finally did fall asleep at 3am, my mind was tired and my body was exhausted, but I woke up with a new confidence that, by golly, I’m going to fix this and it will be beautiful.

Unfortunately, my attempt to reknit those 40 rows was a complete failure. I tried it for more than four hours, but no matter what I did nothing worked. So I threaded a lifeline through the last correct row and ripped. I couldn’t watch, I just wound and wound three balls of yarn until I was at my lifeline. Today, I made quite a bit of progress and knitted 18 of the 40 rows that I ripped. It was hard to have to rip out 40 rows, but I’m glad I did because the mistake was more than I could handle. The new rows are beautiful and as perfect as can be and the ugly mistake is gone. And now I’m ready to finish the shawl by the end of the year. At the rate I’m going I could be finished by the end of November.

I checked out Last-Minute Knitted Gifts from the library and I’m in love with this book. I’ve added it to my must-have knitting book list. There are so many great patterns to make for gifts and even a few that I wouldn’t mind making for myself. I think the floor cushions idea is great, I’m not sure I would want to knit them, but with limited seating in our living room, they might be nice.