Oh, hello there. How have you been? I haven't seen you in two months.

I haven't knit in about as long either. I've been busy with school. Right now I'm nearing the end of 10 days vacation, and then it's back to school again. I'm doing summer courses, and they're condensed, so things get a bit crazy around here. Of course, you're here for the knitting. I know I am.

I finally cast on for the Spring Garden Shawl (Knitter's Magazine, Spring 2007) and have been having fun with that. It's my first dalliance with beaded knitting, and I haven't done much with laceweight yet. This is also my first chart with "things going on" on both sides, which is interesting. Thank god the chart is mirrored on itself, or I'd have a pretty wonky looking shawl, from reading it right to left all the time.

Pattern: Spring Garden Shawl
Needles: Size 4 Knitpicks Options
Yarn: Zephyr Wool-Silk in Pewter
Beads: Silver-lined crystal in whatever brand the Bead Pod carries..


Also on the needles are Roza's Socks from IK Spring 2007.

Yarn: Knitpicks Palette in Hyacinth
Needles: Two KP Classic Circs in Size 1
Modifications: Knitting these on two circs instead to dpns. This is my first project on two circs. I don't know why I always think it's a good idea to do new techniques on projects where I have to edit the pattern to accommodate myself.

I actually emailed Grumperina about this pattern because the sizing info is too small for me. I remember reading that her grandmother (whom the pattern is named after) has the same size feet as I do, so I emailed and asked how she modified the pattern to suit her grandmother. She was very prompt in her reply (no more than two hours before I was casting on) and told me that going up a needle size would probably do it. She was very friendly. :)

I'm a bit further along on these now; they're knitting up really fast on 60 stitches since I'm used to stitch counts like 72 and 80. I almost had a tragedy this morning, when I went to knit a bit, and... tugging the needle into place, I felt a little more... "give" than there should have been. Looked down, and there was one hand with the knitting, one hand with the needle, and lots of air in between. Yup, pulled the needle right out of the knitting and dropped all of 30 stitches.

Dropping 30 stitches first thing in the morning was not my idea of a good time, but somehow, I managed to calmly thread the needle back through all the stitches, and only one had tried to make a run for it, at the very end of the row I was picking up. The KP needles are sharp enough that fixing a dropped stitch doesn't mean running for the crochet hook anymore, so all was well. I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to grab all those stitches when my eyes weren't even focusing yet.

Well, I don't know if I can promise any more faithful activity on this blog, but I am still alive, and I am knitting occasionally. Just wanted to check in and share. Happy knitting.