It'd be hard to be happier with this project than I am. It's not just the fact that I knit three-quarters of it while I was in Hawaii (:D), it's also the awesome blocking squares from KnitPicks. These are 1'x1' squares that fit together like puzzle pieces to create whatever size blocking surface you need. They come in six-packs, so I bought two sets, thinking that'd probably cover me for my shawl knitting. I might actually need a couple more, but they're very easy to store.

They look, feel, and even smell (!) like brand-new flip-flops. Go figure. The foam is non-absorbent, which I think is going to reduce my drying times somewhat — having wet knitting on top of a wet blanket just means you have to dry out both things, not just the knitting, which was never quick. I'm definitely looking forward to blocking more projects on these!

I'd pick up more KnitPicks accessories, but I already have a ball winder, and I really have all the stitch markers I'll ever need. >_< The sock blockers… maybe. I've gotten along fine without them so far, but they're the only things I see on their accessories page that I'd use (and don't already have). But if you don't have a ball winder already, it might be worth picking one up from there — that's a really good price!

Yes! Erica's Shawl is done. :D :D :D It's just waiting for my new blocking squares so I can block it, weave in the ends, and send it off. \o/

I worked on just one project: Erica's Shawl, which got to this point:

I hope it's about 33% done, but it's impossible to tell right now. I'm just going to keep going until I run out of yarn. :)

How ready am I to be back to normal life? Only so ready. We're unpacked (except, I guess, for our carry-ons), almost all the laundry has been done, but oh God, I don't adjust to time changes well! I went to bed around 11 last night and woke up around 7:45, and while that ought to be plenty of sleep, internally I have no idea what time it is. It could be 5:30. It could be 8:30. It could in fact be 3:30pm, and I would not argue the point.

I was relieved when I saw a quote from the Yarn Harlot (and now I can't remember where I saw it; perhaps on her page-a-day calendar!) saying something to the effect of "No matter how big a sock you're knitting, people will always ask if it's a baby sock." I was once knitting a sock for Grant in navy blue, and when I told the waiter who'd asked that I was knitting a sock, he replied, "Oh, a baby's sock," as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I boggled at him. This was eight inches of ribbing and a turned heel the size of an adult man's foot. A not-too-small adult man's foot. What baby has feet like that? But apparently people are just crazy, and assume that all knitting is for babies or something. It wasn't just me!

Lace mystifies people, but most people take it in stride once I tell them I'm making a lace shawl. Now that Erica's Shawl is big enough, I can hold it up and people see what I'm talking about. They do ooh and ahh quite a bit — and deservedly so; the yarn is lovely and the pattern is clear even before blocking — but most people just get it and don't keep at me about it.

(It's about twice that long now, and I seem to have finally begun to make a dent in the yarn.)

Today's waiter was… a little more aggressive. He said it looked like I was almost done — dude, I have a foot and a half of shawl! I said no — it was barely started, and it'll be six feet long (I hope) before it's done. I held up the ball of yarn I was working with.

Waiter: How many of those will it take to be six feet long?
Me: Just the one.
Waiter: *jawdrop*
Me: *smugly* That's why it makes such great vacation knitting — it packs up really small.
Waiter: *grabs bag of yarn, gauges weight* *to my UTTER SHOCK AND HORROR, attempts to GRAB NEEDLES OUT OF MY HANDS to feel weight of shawl*
Me: AUGHN NO NO NO NO STOP!!!
Waiter: *still pulling, oblivious to fact that I am in the MIDDLE OF THE ROW* Oh, I just–
Me: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! STOP! *tries to keep stitches on needles, grabs back*
Waiter: *finally lets go* Oh, I was just trying to see…
Me: *desperately checking needles and praying I haven't lost hours of work — guess who doesn't work with lifelines?* I need to take care of this now.
Waiter: Oh! Sorry! Sorry! *departs*
Grant: Ack, sorry about that.
Me: Whew. Didn't lose any stitches. Sheesh!

What on earth do you guys do when that happens to you? Does that sort of thing happen? I tell you what: I have shown off lace shawls to many people, and nobody has ever attempted to yank knitting out of my hands before! (The waiter was very lucky Grant tends to pay for meals, I'll say that.)

It's strange to be an introvert who does such attention-getting things. Knitting garners a lot of attention. Reading on my Kindle garners a bit of attention. People see me doing unusual things and get really excited and interested in them. I don't mind explaining it, and I don't mind answering a few polite questions about my knitting. But holy cats! Just because I'm showing you my lace does not mean you can grab my needles out of my hands! Crazy! o_O

Tomorrow I'm going on a trip to the summit of Mauna Kea, where there will be stargazing. The trip's a long one, so I plan to bring my knitting. I'm not sure how much attention I'll get, but I do know I'm not going to let anyone close enough to grab my needles. It had never occurred to me I needed to keep a close grip on them before — no one's ever done that before — but now I know.

So what it is you guys do when people ask you about your knitting? What would you do if someone tried to grab your needles out of your hands? How do you answer people who are just saying crazy stuff, like asking if your gigantosock is for a baby or insisting that you're crocheting when you're knitting on five dpns?

I had it done in plenty of time to ship, but ended up procrastinating and then bringing it with me to the wedding. I hope she liked it!

It was ridiculously fun, and as the pictures prove, this is a good house in which to be a sheep:

Do I know what I'm going to do with this shawl? No. Orange is not really my color, so… no, I have no idea. And yet it's finished and it's lovely.

I am really quite proud of it. :) However, the urge to knit lace hasn't gone anywhere. I'm currently working on the Flower Basket Shawl and Mystery Stole 4 (which I'm doing in grey with purple beads, and will be taking pictures of as I work through the clues). Hurry up if you want to join the Mystery Stole 4 group — signups are going on through the 12th and then you're out of luck until the pattern comes out (and it won't be free then).

Anyway, in order to keep track of how fast I need to knit to make my target goal, I've made another spreadsheet.

(For those of you curious about formulas and such, it's a Google Doc!)

Since it spirals out from the center, I actually counted the number of stitches, not the number of rows, so as to be able to divide them out equally. There are over 92,000 stitches in the shawl! Will I make it? If so, it's going to be close.

Well, it turns out Sneaky Sheep has been going on missions. So far he's managed to infiltrate the study, while I was raiding Tempest Keep:

…the bathroom, as I was brushing my teeth…

…my bedroom window, as I was going to sleep…

…and now the kitchen cabinets!

(For fun and prizes, find the bonus sheep in each of those pictures. There are eight, plus an "extra".)

I do have other things going! I've been working on shopping bags, and two friends have graciously agreed to help me test a pattern. (It's crochet, requires about 300 yards of not-too-stretchy yarn, and roughly an H hook — mileage varies.) I'm also working on a shawl project, but it's a gift for someone; as such, I won't be posting pictures of it until it's complete and in the hands of the recipient. :)

Here's what the MHR Shawl looked like before I blocked it. A lot of people think lace looks like crap before it's blocked; I think it looked pretty good, honestly. This is a very geometric pattern, and it's based on garter stitch, so it lies quite flat. Except for the border.

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Yarn used: Bare Merino Laceweight from KnitPicks. Needles: 4mm.

Here it is pinned out and wet-blocked. It was dry just in time for the trip!

And here it is in action. :)

It was perfect — the day was wet and cold, but we had to go outside anyway — had we not, we would have missed the ceremonial firing of the cannon!!! However, my shawl kept me dry and warm and comfortable. Yay!

Thursday: the finished Obama socks! I may dig up some pictures of me working on the Obama socks, too, as people took pictures of me knitting all weekend long. (Trivia: It does wonderful things for your ego when Oleg Volk says that pictures of you are cute.)

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Yarn used: Bare Merino Laceweight from KnitPicks. Needles: 4mm.

At 4.25 repeats, I'm still ahead of the goal for today — 20 rows ahead, according to Excel.

Yes. I am that kind of nerd. If I need to finish something on a deadline, I put it on Excel.

As you can see from the screenshot, I have exceeded my goal every day, although some days have certainly been better from others. The green rows are weekends, when I'm less likely to get things done as I'm spending time with SheepLad. :)

I am rather boggled by the lack of time left before I need to have this project completed, but since I'm on track, I'm not worried. :)

Anyway, here's the progress on the Many Happy Returns shawl:

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Yarn used: Bare Merino Laceweight from KnitPicks. Needles: 4mm.

YCHWM-Sheep has been bleating a lot of encouragement as I work through this project. For one thing, she's been keeping me on schedule! I'm currently 16 rows ahead of today's target, and will be knitting more tonight. (I admit that my Excel chart is also partially responsible for the ability to stay on track, but the sheep is even more important!)

As well as being invaluable in keeping track of my chart and keeping me on schedule, YCHWM-Sheep has been instrumental in helping me figure out when to stop knitting. It turns out that this particular lace pattern is just a touch too complicated to do while I'm tired, so at night, my sheep bleats at me when I tip over to "too tired to follow the chart".

And when I keep knitting anyway, she patiently helps me unravel the stitches I've screwed up so I can re-knit them. On the bright side, I've gotten much better at unraveling from the center of a project rather than having to rip all the way back… on the less bright side, I've had to do that way too many times so far. Gah.

There is, however, a difference between being "too tired to knit lace" and "too tired to knit". I thought to myself: what have I got on the needles that's easy, easy, easy?

Well! I have the Obama socks!

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Yarn used: Navy Essential from KnitPicks. Needle size: 2.5mm.

These are called the Obama socks not because they have the Obama logo on them, but because I started them at the Democrat caucus in Washington, back in March. As is usual for me, the first sock was slow-going (two and a half months, sheesh — but this is not a record by any means), but the second sock is likely to be much quicker. I always think "must finish second sock! Then I'll have a pair!" Plus socks are nice and portable, which means I can take them out to dinner (they like tacos).

And because I couldn't resist a few more pictures of this wonderful, adorable sheep, here:

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This is Cute Little Dorset Horn Sheep, who is not the only Dorset Horn sheep in my collection, but is the only one who looks like this. :) He is so cute it boggles the mind. He normally lives near the television, in a flock-of-two with Librarian Sheep. Like many of the sheep that have been featured on this blog, he's from New Zealand! He traveled all the way home with me and has said that he really enjoys the States. He expected to miss seeing so many sheep around, but apparently he feels right at home in my house, where you can pretty much find sheep (and we are not talking a small amount of sheep) in every room.

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Yarn used: Bare Merino Laceweight from KnitPicks. Needles: 4mm.

I'm just about through two full repeats (out of 5.5), and I'm nearly a full day ahead of schedule — the only problem being that I haven't actually made my quota (35 rows) except for two out of the five days I've been working on it. I may be ahead now, but will I stay that way? CUE SCARY MUSIC!

The pattern's getting easier to follow as I go; I'm spending less time counting and more time just matching up holes. The reverse rows are all lightning-fast, since they're all knit. And the geometry is looking gorgeous. This is just making me want to knit tons and tons of lace, which, of course, I have plenty of ahead of me. ^_^ Good thing, eh?

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Yarn used: Bare Merino Laceweight from KnitPicks. Needles: 4mm.

"You're-Coming-Home-With-Me" Sheep is a meticulous sheep, as you can see. She's carefully inspecting my shawl for any mistakes. So far she's caught all of them, and I haven't had to do any unfortunate ripping back. :)

How did she get such a long name? It was Easter, and I was at a Hallmark store. There was a display of stuffed animals, seasonally appropriate, stacked on top of a shelf at my-eyes-height. I took one look at YCHWM Sheep, grabbed her by the face, said "Yep! You're coming home with me," and proceeded to snuggle her until I was ready to check out. She is cute, adorable, snuggly, and gets far too little attention, because she lives (with another sheep, usually) in a sheep basket (yes, a basket that is also a sheep (of which we have three (Easter is like that))) on the subwoofer. Poor darling.

So she'll be getting more attention over the next few weeks as I work on this.

Now, I know I can finish a lace shawl in a short amount of time. I did the Sheep Shawl in 14 days, and even if it's not bigger (and I kind of think it was), it sure felt bigger. Plus I had several days of faffing about and not working on it much.

For this one, I have 18 days to work (I'm now on day 3), and I'm ahead of schedule. I'm planning to wear this when I go to a friend's wedding — assuming it's cool enough, of course. It'll be late May in Montana, so it's hard to say. (Hence why I want the shawl — if it's cold, I don't want to have to drag out my coat.)

I found this on Ravelry when one of my friends linked to it. (Thank you!) It's lovely — so geometric! But the picture in the book wasn't very flattering, so I would never have noticed it if I hadn't seen the sample pic on Ravelry. As you can see, the geometric pattern is already clear in it, but it's going to look SO DAMN GOOD once it's blocked. All other projects have been pushed aside, and who cares if I'm currently blowing my finished-to-started ratio? (It's down to 1.3, goal for the year is 1.5.) There's tons of year left!!

Though this is a longtime member of the flock, I'm afraid he's a sheep with no name! I am simply calling him "Small Sheep" in the gallery. There are, of course, more pictures of this project in the October 2007 gallery.

This project has been in the works for a while. I've wanted to do this shawl ever since I saw it in Cheryl Oberle's "Folk Shawls", and I know I cast it on eons ago, but when exactly? I'm not sure. At any rate, it only picked up speed once I'd taken a break from the Mystery Stole, which languished and languished and languished, but I finally blocked the sucker on the 24th.

For a while there, I really thought the (Not) Black Shawl was going to be on my needles forever. It starts from the center and spirals out, so you're knitting progressively more and more stitches until your head threatens to explode. Luckily, mine never did. Whew!

I used a number of needles on this project. I started out on DPNs, then moved to 3.75mm Addi Turbos, then changed to 3.75mm Addi Turbo Lace needles, then finally ended up on KnitPicks Options 3.75mm needles, and stayed there, switching out the cable and eventually ending up on a 47". Of these, I have to say that the Options were my favorites. I'm liking them even better than the Addis right now, and that's saying something.

I'd originally wanted to use the Rose Garden colorway because I'd tried it out before on a Pi Shawl and found the spirals of variegated color really endearing. Unfortunately, I really don't like the way it came out on a square shawl. The spiral effect makes for an optical illusion that makes my nice square look kind of crooked. I'm sure most people won't even notice, but it makes me a little batty. This, too, will not be the shawl I keep, and if I make it again, I'll be making it in a solid color.

What else is on needles? Well, a pair of socks that's languishing, and a potential blanket project in which I'll be knitting squares. Apart from that, though, my thirst for lace has not yet given up:

Yarn used: KnitPicks "Shadow" in Jewels Heather. Needles: 3.75mm Options Harmony.

It's the Flower Basket Shawl from this post, modeled this time by Zodiac Sheep. Zodiac Sheep is a little Ty sheep that's meant to represent Aries the Ram, and the year of the ram and such. However, being by Ty, it is not threatening, but rather fluffy, made of pastel colors, with a little bit of glitter. He's a diva ram, that's for sure. I love him. :D

As you can see, it's grown a bit since the last time. I think I had three chart repeats done that time; now I have eight and am working on the 9th. I just wish I could commit the pattern to memory; it doesn't seem to be sticking so far. It's short — ten rows, five of which are plain purl; 10-st repeat — but that doesn't seem to be helping me just yet. In any event, I'm enjoying this pattern a lot more than I expected to! The only catch is that I don't know how long my yarn will hold out. I have just two balls of this stuff, and while I've barely made a dent in the first, a full-size shawl will take an awful lot more than 8 repeats, and since this is one of those patterns that gets bigger every row, I won't be able to count my repeats at the end of the first ball and say "Okay, X number of repeats minus one for the edging." I'll probably just start adding a lifeline every repeat when I hit the second ball — with the Options needles (and that little hole for the key), that should be easy enough. Tip of the needles to Ginger, who passed that idea along to me. :)

The sheep posing in this picture is Barrel Sheep, who was a Christmas present from my parents one year. She's actually one of the more popular sheep among houseguests; she's just the right size to be an armrest or a pillow on the couch, and has been used as such by many, many visitors. She is named Barrel Sheep partly because of her shape (quite barrel-like) but partly because she does excellent barrel rolls, usually at the hands of SheepLad.

I am delighted to have this blocking job finished! It took us a couple of weeks to get the house cleaned up enough to even contemplate grabbing a section of the living room floor for blocking, and then it took me another week to get up the oomph to go and do it. This is a basic wet blocking job (soak the shawl in water for a half-hour, then lay out and pin down), but it's also by far the most elaborate blocking job I've ever done.

My first couple lace projects, I didn't have any kind of blocking items other than straight pins. However, I eventually got some lovely blocking wires, and this is the first time I've really gone all-out and used as many as I darn well needed. So I used large-gauge blocking wires on the sides of the V-section, the V of the V-section, and the top of the wing section. Medium-gauge wires were used for the inner lines of the V-section and the sides. Another large-gauge wire was used for the dividing line. Fine-gauge wires were used to block the curve. I think it looks pretty great!

The basic (not) black shawl continues apace, nearly finished by now. I daresay I'll have it done by the end of the week. After that, it'll be back to the flower basket shawl, and then I'll think of some other lace project to knit, probably. I've been really into lace lately; I just need to make a lace project for myself. I haven't done that yet (and I'm not keeping this one).

I also have a nearly-finished project in the works. It just needs a few notions and it'll be done. This one has a deadline of Saturday, 'cause I want to show it off to the nice people who got me the pattern for my birthday. :)

Basic Black Shawl (yes, I know it's not black) in KnitPicks' Gossamer (Rose Garden), on Addi Turbo lace needles, size 5. Pattern from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls.

is actually going to be much, much larger than you ever contemplated, and may indeed take the rest of your natural life to finish… that's the day you should start a new shawl.

Flower Basket Lace Shawl in KnitPicks' Shadow (Jewels Heather), on KnitPicks Options, size 5. Pattern from Fiber Trends.

At the top, you can see BaaBaa the sheep. BaaBaa is a Ty sheep, one of their larger, fluffier ones — not one the size of a single hank of yarn, let's put it that way. I have a few of these sheep from Ty in different colors and wool styles. BaaBaa is a college-era sheep, but late college — maybe 1999 or so.

At the bottom, you can see Tulip Sheep. Tulip Sheep is in fact the first sheep ever added to my collection. My mom got her for me one year at Easter. At the time, I was quite confused (I was accustomed to getting rabbits), but Mom thought she was adorable, and so she went into the Easter basket! In later years, of course, I could see just how wise Mom had been, because look at that face. She is totally adorable!

And now a quick word about the KnitPicks Options needles. I love them. OMG. So far they're working out just beautifully — comfortable to the touch, the wire has little memory and no drag, I can't feel the join at all. I never thought a set of interchangeable needles would become my primary needles, but these have earned it. They're outstanding. So far I'm liking them even better than the Addi Turbo lace needles, but I'm not overly fond of really really really sharp tips, which the Addi Lace needles have.

Yarn used: KnitPicks Bare Merino Lace Weight. Beads: My tube reads: "Toho 8T222 / 8/0 Triangle Copper". They are tiny triangular beads in a lovely dark brown metallic color.

(The sheep on my shawl is Small Woolrich Sheep, which came from the Wool & Ewe Shop at the Indiana State Fair one year. It's a very cute sheep!)

However, this is what my house presently looks like:

and thus there is nowhere to block it. But the house painting is done (it's needed painting badly, since we moved in six years ago), and we can start getting things back to normal. When that shawl is blocked, I'll take another picture with another sheep. :)

Same yarn as the last time.

when a tragedy occurred.

Okay, maybe you can't see the tragedy.

How 'bout now? I dropped stitches. One minute I was sitting on the couch, watching Prison Break, and the next minute a handful of stitches had fallen off the needles, leaving me with a gap and no idea where it came from. ARGH. I was so close to being done, too!

In the interests of not making myself crazy, I'll probably be ripping back a few stitches at a time, instead of all at once. It may be six or seven rows before I get past the part that fell off the needles, and I'm not looking forward to that. This project might've just bumped itself to the bottom of my list.

In cuter news, that sheep is the smaller version of Lily (from the last post). Bought at the same store, part of the flock for about the same length of time, but she's about half the size of the larger Lily. Just as cute, but still not a troublemaker!

Well, I really do want to finish it (it's lovely), so I got started again this week. I'm now finished up through Clue 4, and am ready to start on the short rows. I love short rows. :)

Yarn used: KnitPicks Bare Merino Lace Weight. Beads: My tube reads: "Toho 8T222 / 8/0 Triangle Copper". They are tiny triangular beads in a lovely dark brown metallic color.

The sheep modeling the shawl is Lily, one of the few dark brown sheep in my collection. (Most plush sheep are either white, beige, or cream… that general range. Even "black" sheep tend to be black, despite the fact that black sheep in the wild seem to be a dark brown themselves.) I got her many years ago, back at a store in Bloomington, IN that probably doesn't exist any longer (at the College Mall). Her name is not very dignified ("Li'l Trubbles") nor very apropos to the sheep, in my opinion. I mean, really. Does that look like a troublemaker to you?