I have a friend that is getting married in May, and while Texas isn't what you'd call "cool" during that time, she is getting married near the lake. Which means that it is going to be breezy. To combat this, I wanted to knit something for my shoulders; something I could throw over a little black dress and feel comfortable. The silky lace I picked up at SAFF jumped out at me, so I wound 'er up and contemplated a pattern. 900 yards is a lot of lace yarn, but you'd be surprised at how many shawl patterns either call for 400 yards (generally a triangle, and I wanted a stole), or 1200 yards. Finding something that I liked for the yardage was a challenge.

Luckily, I remembered that I have a copy of Knitted Lace of Estonia. I pulled it out of the knitting library and I knew that Madli's Shawl was the one. It requires more yarn than I have, but it also has a wealth of The Dreaded Nupp, which I will just replace with beads to add a little more shimmer. Matter of fact, I've already completed one end of the shawl:

The construction requires you to knit an end and then the center, and then to knit the other end and kitchner it in. To get the most out of the yarn, I am instead knitting one end, leaving it on the cord (Knitpicks Options are perfect for this!), and then knitting the other end and the center. I am loving the beads instead of the nupps. I don't exactly love putting them on the stitches, but the effect is gorgeous and I think will be appropriate for a late afternoon wedding. Now to just make this project stretch out a while longer so that I don't run out of things to knit!

The yarn, that is.

We have decided that it is high time that we bought a new house, which means that we need to sell our current house. The things that you have to do to get your house ready to sell include decluttering, cleaning, repairing, painting, and landscaping.  Apparently, yarn is classified as "clutter", and my stash is being moved to a cold, lonely storage unit, along with my sewing table. (The sewing machine will be taken out of this house over my dead body.) I am being allowed to keep a few small projects in a basket that will reside in the top of our master bedroom closet.

How sad is it for a knitter to be ripped away from her stash like that? I've already had daydreams of sweaters I know I won't knit in the next few months, outlandish shawls that I don't have the yarn for, and I have an insane need to stash more yarn before it all goes away for a (hopefully) short while. It's not like I was going to knit it ALL in the next few months – I can definitely be without it for a while. But still, it's a little sad to see it boxed up and ready to be sent to THE STORAGE UNIT this weekend. 

What I'm keeping: the beautiful skein of silvery-grey silk that I bought at SAFF and that was hand-dyed for me; the Baruffa Cashwool for my Forest Path Stole, and two lots of yarn for socks, which I haven't even decided upon yet. It's like choosing among your children, I swear. Okay, maybe not THAT dramatic, but still…it's hard to choose. 

What would you keep, if you had to make that decision?

Stick a fork in 'er, folks, cause this baby is done.

I finished knitting the collar on Christmas day, after all of the festivities were complete and we had a moment to sit down. I blocked the sweater out that night, but the weather immediately turned muggy and gross, so it took two entire days for it to dry out enough for it to get all the way dry. I like it, although I wish that I had ripped the sleeves back even more than I already did. It seems that they were made for a damn gorilla or something. I've got them turned up in the picture, and they are STILL a bit too long. Oh, well, live and learn. Twist is heading up to the office to be my emergency freezing my ass off sweater. They like the jam down the A/C (or skimp on the heat, depending on the season) so I require something to keep me from turning into a Leigha-sicle. 

Christmas was nice and uneventful; the kids were spoiled, as you would expect the only two grandkids on both sides of the family to be. My husband gifted me with some jewelry that I love very much, and a new point and shoot camera (the Canon PowerShot D880 IS). I absolutely love the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, and it is my main camera, but I wanted something to put in my purse for out and about shots. The DSLR is not exactly light and easy to throw in your cute little purse for trips. So we found that Best Buy was having a sale on it, and combine that with some duplicate presents we had to return there anyway, and I walked out of there complete with camera, SD card and an adorable little case:

All of which makes me a happy girl.I hope you enjoyed your holidays as much as I did; have a save and happy New Year, too, while you're at it. 

One back.

Left front.

Right front. (It's a little blurry, sorry!)

I cannot believe that I have knocked out so much of this sweater – two sleeves, button bands and a collar, and I'll have a real life, working sweater. Like, one I could actually WEAR. I'm still mainly working on my daughter's Christmas stocking, but this is getting lots of attention right now, too, when I just can't cross one more stitch on Santa's face. I would absolutely recommend this pattern, especially for a newb, because it gives it all to you step by step, detail by detail. Yay for well written patterns!

Dainty Bess. How pretty and simple you were in the beginning, and how frustrating you got to be in the end. Not because the pattern got difficult, but because that ball of SeaSilk WOULD NOT END. I was determined to use as much of it as possible, so I just kept on, and on, and ON, until I realized that I better knit that edge strip and bind off or I'd be ripping back. I think I had an entire yard of yarn left, but I'm okay with that. 

I love the way this turned out. I didn't give it an extensive blocking; I just steamed it open with my iron, and I think that's good enough. If I get motivated, I might pull out the ol' blocking wires and give it a proper blocking, but it looks damn good (if I may say so) just the way it is. And so, because I was done with that project, it just makes sense that I'd cast on for something else instead of finishing something I've already started!

Hence:

This is Twist, by Chic Knits, in Paton's Merino Wool that I bought on uber sale at Michael's. I mean, come ON. 2 skeins for $7? That's almost 500 yards of yarn for the same price as a single skein of Cascade 220! It was begging for me to bring it home and to be cast on. Who am I to deny the deep need of a cheap (yet 100% wool) yarn?  Hence, the start of a sweater. Which is really funny considering that I live in Texas and we don't really wear sweaters all that often.

I know. I make no sense.

Why yes, I AM still knitting these days, contrary to my current obsession with my sewing machine. I've been steadily working on the Dainty Bess scarf that I started on my trip to SAFF; this is an older picture, but the only thing I had on hand. It's twice as long as that now.

The laceweight that I bought at SAFF and had custom dyed for me arrived last week, and y'all. Y'ALL. Ms. Melanie does one kick ass job of making my yarn super pretty.

She asked what I wanted, I gave vague direction in the way of "silvery gray", and man, oh man, did she come through for me. The base yarn is from a very small company that wasn't even on Ravelry and it's 100% silk laceweight. I have no clue what I'm going to do with it as of yet, but trust me, it's going to be something spectacular. I can't just use that on any old stole, you know. It's too pretty.

However, the next few weeks are dedicated to this:

I have cross stitched stockings for my family, and my daughter's stocking needs to be done. We're a few scant weeks away from The Big Day, and I'd like to have this hanging there for her on Christmas morning. I've got a LONG way to go on it, though, so knitting and sewing are going to take a backseat to this until it's done. And then I think I may never cross stitch again – this one broke me. There are a bajillion little color changes and tiny details that, while pretty, make me twitch a little as I'm stitching on it. I'd rather knit a wool thong than do THIS again.