Three Crazy Days

When my friend told me that our local Pride event was coming up, I knew what I had to do. She told me on Thursday and the event was on Sunday.

As soon as I got home, I cast on for the Northern Lights shawl with my Mini Mochi in Rainbow.




I dedicated myself to the project.
No other projects received a single stitch nor a second glance. Not that the neglected projects in my life are surprised by this treatment. Goodness knows they have gotten good at being left alone. I expect that any day now those projects will start knitting themselves.

It was my first full chart/lace chart knitting.
On the second day of knitting this project, I had to call my LYS for help. They were wonderful and, although we never came up with an answer, I found out it was my own mistake that was solved by simply knitting that segment three times.



I decided to keep it at one skein because as I was reaching the end of my first skein, the long color repeats were turning out not to be long enough. I feared bad pooling ruining the project.
As it was, I was seeing colors come in at one side and were nearly gone by the time I knit back to that section. The yarn goes across colors as smoothly and gracefully as I have ever hoped to see in yarn. This means that while I was seeing the yarn go from yellow to orange, put in perspective with the rest of the project, it still looks like the colors are stretching all the way across.
I knew it wouldn't last, so I did not carry on to a second skein.

So I made it a Shawl-ette.
Of course, this also means I was able to complete the project with time to spare.
It was a wonderful coincidence that probably saved me from bulling through even though I knew it was better to keep it small.
I have never owned a shawlette before.

Honestly, I could have probably squeezed out one more row, but I didn’t want to risk it. There have been too many times that I have run out of yarn in mid-cast off or had to make the last few stitches tighter to stretch the yarn just that much more.
This time I did not do that. I saved myself and I am proud of my restraint.
I knit row 85 and then did a very loose cast off.

I think it is nice.

Who me?

Yes, I feel bad. I have so let the blog slide into silence again, but I have good reasons this time. Really!

I finished the Windmill bag. It is quite lovely and modern and I can only think of two changes I would make to the pattern. The first is the handles, I would have made them shorter. The second is the gauge of my yarn, it could have been more consistent between panels.

Immediately following the cast off for the Windmill bag, I decided to cast on for a box.

Yes, I am knitting a box.
It is a Rose and Espresso colored box for feminine items to be stored in. I did it in four parts. There were two sides and a front piece. The bottom, back and lid were done as a single piece. The lid boasts some stranding work of a rose.
I finished the box, but I am going to tweak it by adding some crochet edging to the lid. Perhaps the box could have been a bit shorter, but it seems to be doing fairly well.

Before I could finish the box, my Roomie who now knits, decided to start the Debbie Bliss Teddy Bear. I suggested a knit-a-long. Then I explained what a KAL was and grabbed some yarn. The next week of knitting was the bear (and since I knit faster than he does, when I caught up I would do a bit of work on the box).

What about my other projects? Like the blankie that has gotten a couple of pattern rows in the last month? Or the custom lace scarf? Perhaps I could do a bit on the socks that I want to knit for myself? Maybe I could get some progress in on the Surprise gift?
Ha!

Serious knitters know that if you don't have a deadline, you don't have to work on UFO's!

Now that I have done those, I am going to work on my first lace shawl.
Yep. I am already on the second chart of three!

If I don't look at the UFO's I won't feel bad for them. Right?