Here you go, something that isn’t food or school related. I’m definitely still knitting.

I started this shawl back in October and finished knitting it a couple weeks ago and blocked it on Wednesday, when it was a beautiful 65° outside. To refresh your memory, this is Granny Cheney’s Shetland Shawl from the book Wrapped in Lace by Margaret Stove. I knit it out of KnitPicks Bare merino lace weight and used two full skeins and size US2/2.75mm needles. I had planned on going up a needle size, I thought it would look better with a looser gauge, but I’m glad I didn’t. The shawl is delicate enough as it is and I would have run out of yarn a lot sooner. I’m pretty happy with how it looks.

You can kind of see here and in the photo below where I ran out of yarn and had to grab some Jaggerspun Zephyr in white to finish up. It’s just in the areas between the center and the big border, where the double rows of holes are. It’s not a glaring difference, you can see it in person but it really doesn’t look too bad. I just hated to order and extra ball of yarn for that little bit of knitting.

This was a lot of knitting. A lot, a lot. First, you cast on about 20 stitches and knit this super long edging, it was about ten feet, I think. Then you pick up some stitches, knit one side of the border, knit the center, then you pick up the rest of the stitches around the edging and knit the other borders (or you can do each border one at a time and sew them together, you’d pick up less stitches at once but have more seaming) and then graft the tops of the borders around the edge of the center and sew up the seam from the beginning and end of the border and the beginning and end of the edging. If it sounds fussy, it was. It wasn’t nearly as confusing as it seems.

This was actually one of the most well-written patterns I think I’ve ever followed. It’s about ten pages, mostly charts, the written directions were short and assumed you knew what you were doing most of the time, but everything was very clear and easy to understand. The only mistakes I ran across ended up being my own fault, from losing my place in one of the charts (which are huge) and trying to just skim the directions (stupid!).

So, what’s next? Well, I do have something on the needles, Freewheelin’ by Lee Meredith, and it is almost done, I think. I think the next lacy thing I want to make is the Crown Prince Square Shawl by Nancy Bush, I’d still like to have a black cardigan of some kind, and the sock bug is nibbling, so I may need to make a pair of socks. Now I just need some money.

This picture is really awful but here’s what I’m knitting. This is Granny Cheyne’s Shetland Shawl from Wrapped in Lace by Margaret Stove (mine’s on Ravelry here). Way back (ha!) in 1999 when I started knitting I would sit and drool over the few pictures of Shetland shawls that I would see online and I loved them. They always seemed like something to shoot for, to be able to knit with that super thin yarn on those long, little needles and have this gorgeous lace come out seemed almost unattainable. I’ve felt up to the task for a few years but never found a pattern that called out to me (except the Princess Shawl and I will knit it someday) until Wrapped in Lace came out. This pattern just looked perfect. It’s a big square traditional Shetland shawl with true knitted lace, with patterning on both sides of the fabric) knit in real lace yarn with tiny (US2) needles. It has a variety of patterns and it’s just difficult enough to be interesting but not so much that I’m ripping my hair out in frustration (I have had to rip back a few long rows and I completely frogged the border twice about halfway through it). This is the only thing on my needles right now and I’ve only had time to do a row or two before bed but it is enough. The shawl is slowly growing and I’m just a few rows from finishing the borders and then I have a lot of sewing to do.

More next week. Have a great weekend. I’m going to read about nutrition and menu planning.

I’m usually a one project at a time person but right now I have four going. I have my work project (which is close to being done), my Notre Dame De Grace, this shawl and one other project that I’ll talk about below, and I’m weaving and I started another punch needle moon. So I wrote about the sweater last time and I don’t think I’ve talked about the shawl at all. This shawl is three triangles, it’s like three-quarters of a square, and the lace pattern is from the stitch dictionary in Knitted Lace of Estonia. I figure I’ll knit this pattern until it’s long enough (maybe 23 or 24 inches) and then do a border and bind off. I’ve tried writing up a pattern and making charts but it is a complete fail so I gave up for now, I may try again when I’m done. The yarn I’m using is KnitPicks Shadow in Oregon Coast Heather, it’s a nice beige color with flecks of red, yellow, blue, green, and purple, it’s very pretty in person.

And here’s the other thing. I decided to do the leethal Mystery Knit-A-Long and I started and finished the first clue today. I’m using Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice yarn that I bought to make a crocheted blanket (it came out way tiny and stiff as a board, so I re-crocheted it with a bigger hook and it was even tinier but the drape was better, it basically sucked) I’m using a red and pink and doing random stripes, just changing colors when I feel like it but I’m always keeping my red stripes thicker than the pink. And to keep this soft and drapey I’m using size 9US/5.25mm needles. I love doing mystery knits and I always miss them so I was glad to get in on this right away, I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

A little food update, we’re out of food so I’ve been digging things that I forgot I had out of the freezer to eat, needless to say it hasn’t always been healthy. I made a cheesecake for my cousin’s birthday last weekend and it came out so good, not too rich but nice and creamy and a little tart. Then yesterday I made us a vegan coffee cake (recipe is from Vegan Brunch) and it’s good but I needed more liquid in the topping. I also made some (frozen store-bought) cheese ravioli and home made pesto sauce that was delicious. I’m still eating mostly vegan and working out a little every day and I’m down 13 pounds as of this morning.  Not too shabby considering that I’m not really trying to lose weight at all.

I really need a new camera and I’m thinking about biting the bullet and just getting a point and shoot. I had planned on saving up for a DSLR but I don’t really need one and I just can’t justify the cost right now. Especially since I’m going to buy an iPad, just as soon as I have enough money.