I can knit lace after all!

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence of I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Black Parade, one skein (29 grams left over)

Needles: Knit Picks Options circular needles, size 7

Mods: Knit 13 pattern repeats instead of 10 for a total of 243 sts before beginning border

I never thought I would be able to do it, but I've actually successfully completed a grown-up lace project. The designer is absolutely correct - this is the perfect beginning lace project. I made a couple of errors in the very beginning, and then at the very end (the errors were due to my own laziness in not paying attention, not due to the pattern, which is wonderfully written), but other than those minor stumbles, it was smooth sailing and an enjoyable knit! I'll definitely knit this one again.

In other fiber news, I paid a visit to Pittsburgh's newest yarn shop, Natural Stitches, on Friday. It's a marvelous store - huge and well organized. They have the largest selection of Malabrigo that I've ever seen in a shop, and they carry Dream in Color yarns, and what's not to love about that? I did a little shopping, of course, and brought home these goodies:


Two skeins of Dream in Color Classy (worsted) in "happy forest"


One skein of Malabrigo Lace Baby Merino in "bobby blue"


One skein of Trekking Hand Art in "tundra"

The Trekking has already been wound and cast on for a new pair of socks for Mark.

Wicked is also coming along, after I ripped and restarted the collar. The cables were looking a little wonky, so I re-knit the collar, this time loosely, and now the cables look better, but I am afraid that the collar will be too loose. I'm going to finish the raglan increases and try it on before I decide whether to rip and start again.

Spritzin' and teasin'.

Mark and I traveled to Long Island for a good friend's wedding this past weekend, and I kept thinking of a movie or television line that had lodged itself in the recesses of my brain — spritzin' and teasin'. I can't for the life of me figure out where that is from, though, and it's killing me. A Google search didn't turn up anything, and if you can tell me what on earth that is from, you win my undying gratitude.

Anyway, on to the knitting, not that there's much to get on with. I started a new traveling sock as we waited for our flight from Pittsburgh to JFK:



As you can see, I didn't get too far. Damn your free television, jetBlue. I drove from JFK to Long Island, and once we got there, we were on the go the entire time since Mark was the best man at the wedding. We had a lot of time to kill on Sunday before our return flight, but I may have maybe had a slight the worst hangover of my life. Damn those three good post-reception martinis. In any case, it was a great time, even if Mark wouldn't let me make a slight detour to East Hampton to stalk the Barefoot Contessa.

The Forest Canopy Shawl is close to complete. I just need to work two more rows of the edging, then bind off. It's been a little neglected, but I hope to finish it tonight and block it in the next couple of days. Thanksgiving is at my house, and we have a couple of committments with friends who are coming in to town for the weekend, so cross your fingers for me to finish it!

Edited to add: My undying gratitude goes to Lori, who reminded me that, in fact, the phrase "spritzin' and teasin'" was repeated to me by her, having been said by her former roommate, who is hilarious and should obviously write for television or movies.

Neglecting the blog.

Thanks to some hardcore (for us, anyway) DIY re-landscaping that has sucked away our lives for the past few weekends, I have very little knitting to show. But there is this:



I know what you may be thinking, but I wasn't skinning Muppets while I was away from the blog. This is a chemo cap for a friend of a friend of a friend, knit using this pattern in Plymouth Furlauro. I have now filled my quota for knitting with novelty yarns for, oh, the rest of my life. I love the concept of a "hair" chemo cap, but this stuff is seriously a nightmare to work with.

I've worked a row here and there on the FCS as time allows, and am on my 13th repeat of the pattern, which I think will be my last. I'll spare you yet another photo of the big black blob since it looks exactly like the last photo.

I also picked up Wicked tonight and worked a couple of rows. The cables are looking a little wonky to me at this point. Hopefully they will look a little better once there is a little extra length to this section.



Hope to see you Pittsburgh knitters tomorrow at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble for Hurricane Knitters at 7 p.m. My big black blob and I will save a seat for you.

On a parting note, I wanted to share an email that I received a couple of weeks ago from a local knitter named Chelsea, who is knitting for a great cause:

hey, my name is chelsea, and i'm working with a few other local knitters and crocheters to gather scarves for womansplace domestic violence shelter in mckeesport (http://womansplace.org). i know this is a busy time of year, especially craft wise, so not everyone has time to make a scarf to donate (although if you can make time in the next few weeks, we can always use more scarves of course!), but i am hoping that you'd possibly make a blog post, or even just link to our blog for the project, to continue spreading the word a bit. the holidays are coming up quickly, and we're hoping to still get a few more donations from anyone interested, in addition to the knitting we're still doing. this is just a last-minute kind of email to help involve anyone else in the community who might be interested.

if you do want to exchange blog links, or get involved, just email me to let me know that you've linked to us. the knit locally blog is here: http://knitlocally.blogspot.com. i'll be more than happy to link back to you if you want. info is on the blog in case you do want to make a donation of a handmade scarf or supplies, but even just spreading the word is a huge help.

thanks,
chelsea