And the wheel goes round ...

In place of the neon green splotchiness is a neon green spiral traveling up and around the sock. I'm going to knit the foot plain and pattern the calf in Corded Rib.





I finally figured out the problem with the Swallowtail Shawl. The shifting double decrease was throwing me off! Brain farts, brain cramps and brain drain, I couldn't keep the freaking chart straight. I got rid of the markers for the repeats and it has been smooth sailing today.

Fresh on the needles is Tilia. I'm not liking the Hempathy so much at the moment. Every now and then I miss knitting one of the plies. It's not so bad now that I'm on the stockinette portion. I'm loving the border design.



The color is more of a dusty rose and the body has many more repeats of the rib and lace portion. This sweater shouldn't take long to knit (unless I get bored with miles of ss). The fact that it has long sleeves will postpone its debut for a while.

***If you have time read the post "My Prayer" on Neglecting My Kids.

Rip-it, Rip-it

Friday I had a slowdown on the Swallowtail Shawl. The first row of the Lily of the Border Chart 1 gave me fits. The nupps and repeats were off several stitches each time. Four times I ripped back the row and tried to get it right only to realize that the problem was 2 rows down. All is well once again and I've taken a brief hiatus.

The second sleeve of Rachel was completed on Monday. Woo hoo!! I'm putting off blocking until the week mom goes to Reno. With all the dust and stuff going on at the moment it's best to wait until they take a break for that week.

Today I ripped the Corded Rib socks back to the toe. Hard as I tried, I couldn't stand the neon green traveling stripe that developed. The more it moved the less I liked it. When I started the gusset shaping things got even uglier.



Since I haven't been able to knit much for the past few days, exacerbation of the shoulder and neck issues again, I turned this .....


Lace Cardigan from VK Spring or Summer 2004

into this.


Even though it was a first prize winner at our State Fair in 2004, I'd outgrown it and was never really pleased with the fit. I'm not sure how many skeins of Silky Wool was used. It'll go in the stash for now while I figure out what to do with it. My next sweater project is Tilia by Elsebeth Lavold in Hempathy.

In the meantime, the drywall, mudding and ceiling are finished. They'll put in the doors and moulding next week. I think I've decided on a shade of gold for the craft room. I don't want a color that is too bright or too dark. We won't be using it anytime soon, it's going to be part of our living quarters while we have work done in the original part of the house, so I still have a few months to plan the set-up for the space.

Breakthrough

Mom was standing in the front door grinning from ear to ear when I pulled into the driveway from work. The old and new are connected, the brick masons have begun their work and dry wall was delivered. All in the same day!!!



A view from the inside.

Swallowtails

10 down, 4 repeats remaining on the Bud Lace section of the Swallowtail Shawl. I'm still adjusting to knitting with lace weight yarn. It's becoming much easier to make corrections versus frogging. (Somewhere along the line I've got to learn to use a lifeline.)

This week I slowed down on the knitting regimen to give my hands a rest, especially the left one. Between being on the computer all day at work and knitting all evening at home plus using the computer, I realized that my wrists and hands were sending signals, mainly in the form of pain and tingling, that I wasn't listening to and that I need to stop working constantly on small gauge projects given that I had to sleep in support braces last year after they kept falling asleep during the night. When I knit I tend to zone out and knit continously for hours which is a very, very bad habit and an extremely hard one to break.

It's been over six months since I stopped smoking! Last week I joined a wellness center as part of the effort to increase my overall physical and mental well-being. My neck, left shoulder and arm may have reached it's maximum improvement so I need to make sure that I take care of the rest me to reduce the strain and the pain. I've been walking some in the building at work but not as much I should. There's always too much to do and before I realize it the day is over.

On Saturday I took a water aerobics class and today my calves are killing me. Tomorrow I'll be back at it again and for the moment will alternate walking with water aerobics. Working out feels great and I'm looking forward to increasing my stamina and joint mobility.

We Are Family

When my youngest niece visited us during the week of the 4th of July, I learned that her favorite song is "We Are Family". She sang a beautiful variation taught to her by her mother loudly and often. Last week we learned that she is not the youngest of the grands. Today we met Isaiah.



The moment he got of my youngest brother's car he walked up to me, reached out to hold my hand and into our hearts.

My Supermodel Mom

You betta work! [cova gurl]
Work it gurl! [give a twirl]
Do your thing . . . On the runway.
(Lyrics from Supermodel)

Supermodels work under some pretty adverse conditions. Mom took time in the oppressive heat yesterday to pose for photos thus, in my book, reaching Supermodel status. It was dusk by the time we got around to snapping the pictures so the colors are a little washed out by the flash.(By 11:00 PM the temp had finally dropped to 85 degrees.)


She carried it with her when she went next door to the neighbors and reports that it kept her shoulders nice and warm.


Specs:
Pattern: Jill's Koigu Lace Shawl
Yarn: 5 skeins Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM)
Needles: 4 mm Ebony Holz & Stein circular
Size: 64" wide, 31" deep at midpoint
Started: July 18, 2006 Finished: July 31, 2006

Modifications: None to the shawl, numerous corrections to the instructions as written. While gauge may be subjective in lace knitting, there is no indication that the pattern is for a very small shawl. I blocked the fart out of it!!!

The Swallowtail Shawl is on the needles. cast-on last night and started the lace repeats today. The Corded Ribs are almost to the point where I have to decide if I'm going to use a gusset. Picking the toe was such an easy task that I'm tempted to use my usual toe-up heel. I wrote a list of heels to try the majority of which are suitable for top-down not toe-up patterns. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

This evening I attended the neighborhood "Night Out". I live in a neighborhood where most of the people have children that either me or one my siblings grew up knowing or attended school with. Most of them are now retired or semi-retired and have grands and/or great-grands. There were a few that I hadn't seen in years. It was great evening. Heat, skeeters and all.

Koigu Lace Shawl

Slubs, thin spots, single plys and loops all attempted to thwart my finishing the shawl. Strange that I didn't notice any of these problems when I was winding the skein. I have another ball from the same dye lot in my Charlotte's Web Kit and must remember to check it before I begin.


Now that the shawl is blocking and no longer a blob I like it. The vision is clear and the colors are great, even the brown.


It should be dry by the time I get up in the morning. I'll unpin and stash it away for mom's return and photo op. There's quite a bit of leftovers from 4 of the colors. I was tempted to order an additional skein of each. Instead I think that I'll wait until I finish the other kit and see if I have enough for a mini scarf.