One Crazy Fiber Lady

Good, Bad and the Geeky

I appreciate everyone's comment on my post yesterday.  I have to admit, I had a similar reaction when I walked in there.  After the initial shock of seeing cornstarch and powdery white kids, I fought the laughter myself.  Okay, like a good blogger, I did back out and close the door so I could get the camera.  You bet I'm going to print those pictures out and frame them.  They'll definitely be good blackmail pictures down the road.  I knew it could have been far worse than the never-ending vacuuming and you all provided the "worse".  There are still spots of "mesh" that I need to get back to as the twins keep wandering into those spots.   I bit the bullet and pulled the sides of the cribs off last night.  I installed Kathryn's toddler rail and used a regular bed-rail that collapses to half the length of the crib for Alex's bed.  While I knitted and listened to the baby monitor for them to go to sleep, a picture flashed by on my computer's screen saver mode.  It was this:

That was the day they came home from the hospital after a week in the NICU.  They shared that crib, side-by-side as above, for the first six months.  Now look at them:

I still can't get over the fact that they are going to be two years old soon.  TWO?!  They did very well in the bed last night.  Kat fell out once at around 10.  I walked in to find her standing next to the bed, crying.  She was more surprised than anything else and went back to bed pretty nicely.  Gasp, the next stage will be twin beds.  I'm in no rush, but will keep and eye on bed sales in the area.  This will do for a little while at least.

Now.. onto the knitting.  I have been doing some.  I need to clear some projects off the plate before the Shetland Lace Workshop starts over on the EZasPi list.  I ordered several skeins of the Jamieson & Smith 1ply Cobweb in Natural for the projects from a fellow lister Beth.  I can't wait to check out this cobweb and compare it to some of the very fine yarn I have hanging about the house thanks to the knitting machine days. 

I had a setback with Birchington this weekend.  Friday on the train home I started playing with the math for the next motif that I wanted to add to the border.  I was very close so I finished with the last repeat, did a few rows of solid stockinette and set about with the next.  Three rows into it I didn't like how it looked.  At all.  But when I changed patterns, I had 111 st each side, 444 per round and I needed to undo 3 rounds.  I don't have to know the final number there to know that I couldn't tink that much.  It was at this point that I regretted the decision to not use lifelines.  I've read how they've saved others but never got around to implementing them in my own knitting.  Now I wish I had.  I pulled the needle out, frogged the yarn and somehow managed to get all my stitches back on the needle.  An hour later.  Oy. 

Having the bad taste of Birchington and the frogpond, I decided to switch tracks.  I moved to the Girlfriend Swing Sweater for Kat in that lovely pink color of Jaeger Shetland Aran.  Having done a lot with fine gauge yarn recently, I'm tickled pink at how fast this is going.  I was an inch shy of the bind off at the bottom during my train ride this morning.  Going out on a limb, this should be definitely done in time for Rhinebeck.  But then again, I do have to add buttons and we all know how long that takes me to do.  At least there is no piecing to do.  That takes me almost as long as the buttons to accomplish.

Now for the geeky bits.  Get a gander at this:

That's my computer desk in the living room.  Nice flat panel monitor, very sleek and colorful Sony computer.  Ignore the clutter please, I might be a good knitter but I'm a lousy housekeeper.  Hmm that reminds me that my mom's friend wanted to know if she should check to see if her housekeeper had any available time.  Must make a note to call her.  Anyway... in between the computer and the pile of bags (yes knitting and roving if you must ask) you see a nice printer/copier/scanner combo that I'm very pleased with.  But the geeky bit (geekier than the second computer hiding in the lower right hand corner of the photo under all the bags) is the item sitting on top of the printer combo.  Want a closer look?  Now you might be asking what's so darn geeky about some seriously old technology as a turntable.  (If you've never had a turntable, please don't tell me, I don't need to feel older than I already am.)  The geeky bit is that this new, yes brand new, turntable is plugged into the line-in on my computer's sound card.  As these pictures were being snapped, my computer was busy converting the LP into a MP3 file. Yo how cool is that?  I still have old vinyl that I never converted to CD and as such, really can't listen to these days.   Yo yo.  Oh and yes, I'm still drinking TaB with no ill effects on the keppellah.  Yay me.

Nothing to report on the dating front.  I have a lunch date scheduled with (S) for Friday and probably dinner with (B) Friday night.  Rains but it pours right?  I haven't had a date since late June 1999 and now I have two on the same day to break the drought.  Figures.  (B) still shows signs of being a phone pest and as such is falling quickly from favor.   I take heart in all the comments you've left of how successful pairings have been made off the 'net.  Thank you!

Now to answer a bunch of emails...and get some work done ;)

Craft on!

Once bitten

A storm named Katrina has my thoughts directed south.  My father's brother and his wife live in New Orleans.  My very pregnant cousin (their younger daughter) and her husband live there as well.  I got word this morning that the women headed off to Atlanta to stay with my other cousin.  I believe the menfolk are watching the homesteads.  A quiet prayer for them and for all those other in the path of this storm is needed and appreciated.

While I have no pictures, I did finally add the new socks to the WIP list.  While waiting for Elaine to arrive on Tuesday, I cast on using the Opal Rainforest in Fish.  I'm making the leg a bit shorter than normal, but short's a relative thing.  For a change the ribbing is a 2x2 and I'm using the short row heel instead of the flap thing I normally do.  The more I knit a short row heel, the more I like it.  I hit the toe shaping this morning during my commute it so the first sock is almost done.  Hopefully the first time I post a picture of them, they won't be FO's!

I didn't do a massive amount of knitting this weekend, but I did transfer Birchington to the new, longer Addis.  While knitting onto the new needle, I took advantage of having the extra space and took a picture of the progress.  I love shots like these with the lace clear in the front and that indistinct sac in the back.  I'm planning on doing some 8 inches of the quatrefoil pattern and then moving onto the next.  I like how it is coming out so far.  I'm aiming for this thing to be a 50" square, give or take. I saw in my referrer statistics that someone googled "Birchington Shawl Pattern".  Is there an interest in my putting a pattern together?  Other than a couple of rows on this I did no other knitting and definitely no spinning.  Eris?  Nope.  Girlfriends Swing Coat.  Nope.  Nada.  Three rounds on Birchington all weekend?  Yup.  No, the kids did actually sleep, but I was distracted.  By what you ask? 

By this...

I've been bitten by the beading bug.  Hard.  While grabbing a couple of other magazines on Friday during my errands, I hit upon the August/September issue of Beadwork Magazine.  Sitting on the couch Friday night I flipped through my new magazines, and hit this one last.  I was captivated by the whole issue.  When I finally hit page 56 and "Stony Spirals" I lost my mind and will.  I spent the rest of the evening trying to find a local bead store as I had to make it.  Now.  Couldn't wait for stinkin mail order.  Hell, I couldn't wait to get back into the city and head to one uptown from the office...(though tempting now ...:)  After lunch on Saturday, the twins and I headed to Beads by Blanche in Bergenfield, pretty dangerously close to home.  While not as big as some of the places I visited with Elaine last week, it had a pretty decent selection, even if there was limited stroller parking.  I wasn't overwhelmed as I had the pattern in the magazine with the requirements listed.  A starting place and roadmap to keep the wandering eyes on course.  A quick chat with the owner confirmed I gathered all the requirements.  Yay me.  She recommended a couple of add-ons, a pair of scissors, a fuzzy matt thing that would keep the beads from scattering to the four winds and a nifty tweezer/scoup double ended dohickey.  The picture shows the results of three hours at the kitchen table after the twins went to bed.  I worked on the second half during nap and bedtime last night.  Wearing it now :) Maybe a picture of it tonight, along with the sock. The pattern is a sprial rope and I did a pretty darn good job for my first threading project, if I do say so myself.

I spent the remainder of last night digging through the magazine (and another Bead mag I bought a while ago) looking for projects I could do with the supplies I had on hand.  I found something and will probably work on that.  It should keep me until my order from AuntiesBeads.com arrives - which I hope will be before the long weekend!  Just what I needed.  It at least is another hobby that involves thread of some kind so it does fit nicely with the rest.  Any guesses as to how long it will be before I start knitting with the beads?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Craft on!

Back to Birchington

Time for a project progress update.  Birchington, having progressed through yet another set of needles, is back on the slippery Addi Turbos.  This time the newbies were the Bryspun Bry-Flex's.  I must say, they'd be nice needles, except the silk/cashmere yarn that is Birchington is sticking when I try to slide them back on the needle.  The fact they are white with a very light grey yarn didn't help matters.  I give.  I think there's only one more somewhat readily available needle out there that I haven't tried yet:  Inox. Hmmm.  Need to order some of those now.  I'm getting very close to having to worry about the border patterns now.  I'm now 75% of the way through the center square.  I still don't know what I want the sides to look like.  I'm half tempted to use the same lace pattern.  I'll have to spend some more time with my lace books and some grid paper.  I am open to suggestions for lace motifs that would compliment the current.

Just a short post tonight.  I need to do a few things around the house before I jump in the shower.  Not to mention I need me some knitting time! I'm going to pull out Eris for the first time since Sunday.  Tomorrow is another short day at the office though I don't have the whole afternoon to play.  I have a follow up appointment with the Orthopedist at 4.  I just hope he doesn't run too late as I need to pick up the monkeys by 5:30.  The ankle overall is much better.  I'm still wearing the McDavid brace, but I'm walking without a limp.. most of the time.  If I sit for a long while, it is a bit tender when I first get up.  The last two nights I've actually been walking to the PATH train at my pre-injury pace.  Yee-haw.

Craft on.

Grindstone

Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes!  I'm slowly slogging through all my email and will reply to all though it will take some time. 

I had a fabulous birthday and spent the afternoon sitting on the patio with Birchington.  I reached the point where I've started to reduce now.  I took the width to approximately half the 299 stitches of Birch.  I do have a 4 stitch border (3 st st + 1 yo) on both sides of the pattern to ease in the next step.  I've been slipping the first stitch of every row, creating a selvage that will be easy to pick up for the borders. 

Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate.  We did indeed go to the Trackside Grille in Fair Lawn where my baby sister and her fiance met us, coming in from her temporary digs in Allentown.  The closing where she sold the house near me was on Tuesday so it is for real.  She's happy, I'm happy.  Plus she's moving to Lancaster county where the fabric hobbies abound and will probably be a good stop point for a MDSW trip.  I had some delicious Cappelini Basilico and a glass of wine.  I shared some very delicious French Onion Soup with Kathryn.  She loves her soups.  My parents ran into a friend at the restaurant, sharing the reason we were there, who then told the owner to be good to me.  He bought me a drink with his compliments.  Took me a minute to figure out what I really wanted with my dessert.  I asked for Frangelico.  Yum.  I had to beat my kids off it.  Don't tell anyone but I did dip Alex's pacifier in it to give him a taste.  He rather enjoyed it.   The one dark spot was that Kat melted down around dessert time.  Mom took her out to the car where she watched Barney on the DVD player.  All in all, it was a great day.

Saturday was a gorgeous day.  The stifling humidity and outrageous heat were gone leaving a day that was oh so beautiful.  I again parked my butt in the rocker on the patio with Birchington.  My other sister came up with her youngest son and her mother in law to spend the day and lend a hand.  Her hubby and oldest were on a boy scout camping trip.  We had a lovely day outside swimming, gabbing, eating and enjoying each others company.  The twins had a blast following their almost 5 year old cousin around.  As Birchington is not a good social knitting project, even though I do grok the pattern (thanks Cate for reminding me of that term!), I did need to catch up on the baby project.  While I want the precious prizes for being first on Birchington, there's a harder deadline for the baby.  I don't like missing deadlines.  I managed to knit 2 day's worth of quota on it before running out of yarn.  Mom picked up more from my apartment yesterday when she went to feed the animals.  Since it is a super secret project I can't post any pictures of it so you're picture-less for Saturday.  Oh well.

Sunday dawned bright and clear again.  The weather was downright enjoyable and I once again took my perch.  This time with my knitting.  First Birchington and then after Mom returned with some yarn from my place, a camera sock for her brand new Elph identical to mine.  As you can see, I used Sockotta from the stash and have plenty left over.  One problem, I don't particularly like the yarn.  Anyone want a slightly used skein of sockotta?  There should be more than enough for a pair of woman's socks as long as you don't go nuts with the cuff. ( Drop me a comment or email at crazyfiberladyATgmailDOTcom if you're interested, maybe we can wheel and deal ;) 

While the poor pool heater gave up the ghost yesterday, there was swimming.  The 12 year old girl from next door came over to swim with her friend later in the afternoon.  While Kathryn was taking a nap, Alexander played lifeguard.  He stood there watching the girls in the pool for a very long time.  Amazing for a little bloke who doesn't stay very still for much.  Perpetual motion is more his bag.  Generally there's a big grin on his adorable little face.  Goofy boy. 

After dinner, bath and bed, I sat down with some new sock yarn last night to start a good commuting project.  Okay, I have loads of projects on the needles and well, yes, I did need another one.  I have a couple of commuting options open to me and with the ankle unhappy, I wanted the one that forced the least amount of walking.  The Bus.  Even though I've been taking the bus more frequently these days, the motion of it still makes me a bit queasy, especially if I'm knitting something that requires a lot of attention.  That knocked Birchington out of the running.  The Super Secret project?  It was getting a bit big to schlep around as a commuter project and I was trying to minimize the amount of schlepping (at least until healed).  Everything else was at home and not at my temporary residence.  That necessitated a new projects, specifically SOCKS!.  I saw a link last week to Simply Socks Yarn Company and the availability of the Rainforest Opal yarns.  Now with all the sock knitting I've done over the years I've never used Opal, though I've wanted to try it.  I ordered a couple of colors:

I have to admit I had a lot of trouble narrowing down to just these and was sorely tempted by quite a few of the colorways. I placed the order on the 20th and the box was at my house on the 23rd.  Good service in my book!  I started with the Flamingo and while I don't have my favorite sock needles with me, I'm making do with a set of US2 (I'd rather have my 1's).  The yarn is fabulous.  I think I finally have a favorite sock yarn.  Yes it is a self striper and yes I've gone on the record for not being a fan of that type of yarn.  Hey, they sell solids too.  I'm not sure why I went with these, though the Lady Bug does hold a warm place for me as Kathryn's nickname for her first 5 months was "Bug" and was accessorized with ladybugs.  The socks were a good project for this morning.  A bus broke down in the bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel stopping everything dead.  We sat there for some 30 minutes.  Was I upset.  Au contraire, mon frere.  This knitter was ecstatic to have bonus knitting time!  By the time we arrived at the Port Atrocity (okay Port Authority Bus Terminal) I had started the heel flap.  Zippy socks.

A quick update on the ankle, it still hurts.  Yup.  Tender, swollen, funkily bruised and definitely there.  Also definitely better than it was a few days ago.   My boss is out on vacation this week though I have a project that I need to have completed before his return.  Now if only the feller I'm relying on for some feedback would actually give me the feedback I could work on it.  I don't like being dependent on others.  Ugh!

Craft on!

Day off

Once again thanks to everyone for their well wishes and happy vibes for my ankle.  I'm doing amazingly well with the new brace.  I'm able to get around with a minimal amount of pain.  With the addition of a cast protector, I was able to get into the pool last night too!  The best of all, I was able to get to my child, who had fallen and was injured to pick her up and comfort her.  The past week of being unable to pick up a monkey while balancing on crutches was just too frustrating for this klutz.

I spent the morning fighting with my laptop to get it to connect to the network.  My old card just would see the LAN and while mom had a new one, my laptop is a base model from the office with no floppy or cd drive.  Nice huh?  How to get a driver on there.  Nice trick.  Well after 2 hours of fighting, I managed to get a connection with the old card long enough to download a driver.  I'm on using the new card now.  I was unsuccessful over the last 2 hours in trying to establish a connection with the office.  Computers sometimes suck.  I give.  At least today was supposed to be over at 1 and I'll probably be going to the office on Monday.  Should be a fun commute.

As Deb so nicely pointed  out, today is indeed my birthday.  While some people have trouble with the 0 birthdays, I have a harder time with the 9's.  This is one of those.  My last birthday in the 30's ;)  I'm going to take the day off and spend it with my folks, the twins, and this:

my double dog dare shawl, aka Birchington, on her ebony needles.  I took her outside for a quick photo in the dappled sunlight on the folks patio. After an afternoon of sun and fun, we'll be going out for dinner to one of my favorite restaurants.  It has great food, a wonderful casual atmosphere and best yet, it is family friendly.  If you're ever in Fair Lawn, NJ, you need to visit the Trackside Grille.  We've had the twins there at all stages from tiny infant to present.

Have a great weekend.

Craft on.

Multitasking

Thanks to everyone for their comments regarding my horrible headache.  Unfortunately it has been a multi-day affair.  It was so bad yesterday that after taking the twins to daycare, I came home, took some painkillers and curled up on the couch.  While still a dull throb, it is much better today.  While there was a point in my life where I had a headache every day, and let me tell you that was absolutely no fun, I can mostly function with them.  While I was pregnant, they disappeared.  Thank goodness as being pregnant I was limited in what I could take.  It seems that my respite from a regular headache seems to be ending though.  I've seen many a doctor about the problem and have just come to accept them.  They aren't debilitating enough that I want to take a regular medication for them as the last neurologist prescribed.  No thanks.

On the good side, lazing around with no short people about did give me some knitting time.  While you've seen me flit from one project to another, I've had multiple starts and stops on the secret gift project for Marina that have occurred behind the scenes.   I've finally struck on the right project and have actually been making some decent headway on it.  Since time isn't standing still on this and well there is pretty much a deadline, I've set a quota for daily production that will have the knitting finished within 14 days.  Finally assembly and end hiding will add another day or so.  I'm using the same yarn that was purchased for the previous iterations so there's been no affect on stash.  Laying on the couch, I was able to do two days worth of quota knitting.  My hands were a bit tingly by the time I was finished so I moved on to another project..

I finally knit the collar for Trellis.  I did make one pattern modification to this.  Instead of knitting the collar and then sewing to the neck edge after grafting the second side, I attached as I went.  I picked up one stitch every other row until the 11 in the pattern and then subsequent rows, I would slip that last stitch, pick up one and then pass the slipped stitch over.  I continued to the middle back, put those stitches back on the holder and did the second side to the same spot.  Then I kitchnered the two together.  Done.  No sewing.  Yay.  It lays nice and flat and is a far neater seam-line than my sewing would have made for.  Now I just have to sew the sleeves and side seams.  I've picked out buttons from the collection and will be able to call this little guy done soon.  It will then be winging its way off to New Orleans for my impending nephew.

Having gotten tired of working with cottons, I pulled out Birchington and finished another pattern repeat.  I'm getting very close to the point where I'll turn around and start reducing for the second half of the square.  Birch has some 299 stitches at its widest, I figure that around the 150 mark would be a good spot.  I don't want what Elaine calls Shawzilla at the end of it.  I ain't that big.  At last count, I had 119 stitches, so 3 more repeats and I'll be there.  I got the shipping notification that my order from WEBS left yesterday so I expect to have that soon.  I wouldn't think that UPS ground takes all that long from Mass to NJ.  I wouldn't be surprised to see it tomorrow.   In the meantime, I switched from the Addi Turbos to some Clover bamboos that I had about the house.  The knitting is easier and I'm not picking up stitches that have accidentally slid off, but I'm having more issues in pushing the stitches onto the needle.  Hopefully the ebony ones will be the answer.  Still looking for the perfect needles.  Aren't we all though.

Craft on.

Sum-Sum-Summertime

Have I mentioned before how much I love summer?  It stands repeating.  I love summer!  I love going barefoot.  I love not wearing a jacket.  I love the water.  This weekend was spectacular (apologies to those in the hurricane zone) after that tropical depression passed here Friday night dumping loads of rain and colder temperatures, Saturday dawned bright and warm with promises of a beautiful day.  The twins and I headed for my parents' boat docked in upstate New York on the Hudson River.  The River is just a gorgeous place and someday I'll get some pictures that do it justice.  In the meantime, this picture is one I found on the 'net taken from the back deck of the restaurant at the marina looking out at Haverstraw Bay, a point where the river expands to 3 miles across.  My nephews were still with my parents and my sister and BIL met us all at the boat.  We spent the day sitting in the sun, nibbling and taking turns with the new JetSki that my parents purchased during the off season.  My sister, BIL and I wound up taking the Power Squadron's Basic Boating Safety Course so that we could legally drive the JetSki.  Fortunately my parents are both accredited teachers so they could admin the course and then proctor the test.  We all passed with flying colors so now I have a boating license.  Woo.

The twins did wonderfully on the boat, slept very well on Saturday night and showed Grandma and Grandpa how nicely the can climb steps and just about everything else they encounter.  The last trip to the boat, my techie geek in training son managed to reprogram the radio so that the left side speakers no longer worked.  This time the folks turned off the power to the bridge radio :)  Other than a quick 30 minute for Kat, 15 minute for Alex nap on Saturday during the drive up, they didn't nap at all.  This did make for some tired and cranky babies.  Alex started to nod off at dinner on Saturday night.  He's never done it before and it was the funniest thing.  He didn't stop eating, though I was pretty sure I'd have a kid asleep with his face in his spaghetti.  Dad gave him some lemonade and he perked right up.  They did sleep well that night! As did I.

Did I knit?  You betcha.  Nice thing about being on the boat, with my folks and my sister and her family was that there were plenty of hands to help with the twins.  What did I knit?  Oh the DDD Shawl (or Birchington as I've been thinking about it recently) for starters.  I started it twice in as many days.  Friday night, after getting home from work, I looked at what I had done with the white mohair/nylon blend and was happy.  I had picked up the edge stitches and futzed around with a couple of lace patterns.  I did some surfing online, searching through the collection of lace books and came up with a bunch of different motifs.  I started one but wasn't overly happy about it.  But part of the discontent was the fabric itself.  While the kid mohair was heavenly cushy, it just didn't seem "right" for a shetland style shawl, which is really what this was turning into.  I figured that since this was a really a rework of Stonington, that I should use a more traditional yarn, and really, I should use the yarn I was using for Stonington.  I frogged Stonington and reclaimed the Handpainted.com laceweight in the Bergamota and recast on my design after the twins went to bed.  By Saturday evening, I was a quarter of the way through what I've set for the center square.  There's a but.  NO surprise, eh?  The but is that the yarn bled terribly.  Everytime I worked with it, it looked like I had been eating those darn red pistachio nuts, except it wasn't just my finger tips, it was wherever I had touched the yarn.  I got tired of pink fingernails, wrists, back of hand (yarn runs a corkscrew around index finger, around hand, then wrist.. yes odd) and just having to deal with this mess.  I'll wash the yarn at some point and see if I can get it to quit shedding dye on me.

You counting?  That's two Birchingtons started and discarded.  Yup.  Nothing new here.  Okay so last night I pulled out a few more yarns as contenders to replace the Kid Mohair and the Handpainted Yarn laceweight.  Good thing I have a serious stash.  I found a bunch of skeins of Nandia Cashmere/Silk Laceweight.  I have two skeins in each of White, Royal Blue and a Lt. Grey (which doesn't appear on the site right now) that I bought last year.  I hope like hell I have enough of one color and haven't just made a huge mistake.  Anyway, I selected the light grey and started that.  As of this morning, I'm a 1/4 of the way through the base square, still giving thought as to the lace for the sides.  The fern pattern would fit beautifully in the trapezoidal side sections as they would both increase at the same rate but I think that would be a bit much of that pattern for even me.  I could do strips of it, set of with something much simpler, maybe Cats Paw or Strawberries.  Or do I go with a theme of lace patterns as this is Fern, I use the Pine Cone, Pine Tree, and other outdoor related motif. 

Choices choices.  I do like how the yarn is knitting up and it isn't a solid color.  It is a pearl grey with some darker colors interspersed.  It is making for a nice effect.  This picture was taken this morning on the train and you can see the color variations pretty well.  I'm very pleased with how it is progressing and I do think the third times the charm in this case... well as long as I don't run out of yarn.  I think if I make it lacy enough, the more holes the less yarn necessary right, I should be able to squeek it out with the two skeins.  I guess I could do the center in this and then the sides in the white. Now that wouldn't be bad, would it?  I'll reassess this when I get through with the center and see if I've dipped into the second skein.  Never easy is it?  I do have to admit that I'm very much enjoying this challenge and designing it myself.

I might be posting a bit less this week and I have a decent sized project and a deadline to contend with.  I'll leave you with my goofball son and his antics this morning in the car as we headed for grandma's daycare center.

Craft on.

 

Crazy is in the eye of the beholder

Just a quick post.  I'm tired today.  I stayed up far too late last night living up to my blog  name and email address moniker.  I guess I chose it wisely.

(picture is actually bigger than this for a change - I'm just so proud)

I finished this last night well past my bedtime.  I was up late enough to actually watch Robot Chicken on the Cartoon Network rather than catching it on ReplayTV for the first time.  I'm tired.  I doubt I'm going to have a really good night sleep until this little obsession is done.  Fellowship of the Lace anyone?

I'm pretty sure that this is big enough to form the center of the shawl.  I'm now on the prowl for good stitch patterns for the borders.  Rather than the traditional Shetland method of picking up and working each side one at a time, I'm going to do it as one.  Longer rows, but far less chance of getting bored and moving onto another project.  I compared this to the center two rounds of one of my Kerry Blue Shawls this morning while waiting for the train (yeah the shawl is folded up and stored in the door pocket of my car). 

Believe it or not, this will be the first piece I've designed myself.  Before blogging, I was so stuck on following patterns that I would never have dreamt of doing this, nor even replacing the hood on Alexander's sweater.  So blogging has been good for broadening my horizons.  This challenge of Elaine's has me pushing that boundary even further and for that I thank her, even while calling her evil for tossing a shiny pebble (My Preciousss) in front of me.  So thank you Elaine.

Craft on.