Warehouse Sale

Oh dear, I am becoming one of those people! A local yarn store announces a 50% off sale at their warehouse, and I show up at 9 am on Sunday, and spend $78 on high-priced yarn! I bought 4 small balls of cashmere, 3 in maize and one in forest green, originally $26.50 each, now only $13.25! And what am I going to do with 4 small (mismatched) balls of cashmere?



Well, to ease my conscience, I decided that I could turn each one into a small Christmas gift, a sweet little neck-warmer. I liked this pattern better after I heard it referred to as a lotus-leaf design. In any case, it turns out that one 25 gram (80 yard) ball of cashmere is just enough to knit this, luckily. And it only takes a couple of days of pleasant and easy knitting. So I feel a little better about my extravagance.


I also bought 4 balls of Cashsoft, one of which is exactly the same dye lot and everything as the one I used for the baby hat I designed (Greenleaf). I now have 4 miscellaneous colors of this as well. More baby hats? I don't know.

A few more pictures of the lace

This is the actual way the lace will end up, while the previous pictures were actually upside down. There are now six leaves across in each section. This is about 18" across the neck and 10" top to point. I might be a little obsessed....

Leaves of Lace

I had a lovely Mother's Day--received a very sweet card from Kristen, and Sam took me out for dinner and also washed the dishes on Sunday! I talked to my mother and my sister, as well as my daughter, so all family ties are firmly in place.

So on Saturday afternoon, I cast on for the realest of real lace: cashmere laceweight yarn from Sarah's Yarns, and Evelyn Clark's pattern for a triangular lace shawl knit from the neck down. All was going well, and by noon on Sunday, I had 3 repeats done and was feeling quite confident....until I took a close look.


After row 7, I had the number of stitches I was supposed to have after row 9. Which means that I had somehow added 4 excess stitches. Much hemming and hawing and counting and re-counting of sticthes ensued, culminating in ripping out 2 whole repeats.



So now I am filling the lace with lifelines and stitch markers every 10 stitches, which makes it less attractive to look at and slower to work on...but not as slow as actual ripping out of stitches!

This will keep me busy for quite a while, methinks!

Shawl Done

Ok, ok, the puns are getting worse! But the shawls are getting better!

This is my third go-round with this pattern, and I really like doing it. You can feel the progress, and it took me one week each time to finish a warm and cozy shawl.



I often sit by this window in the evening, and the breeze, while delightful, can be a little too much on the back of my shoulders. Now I will have a lovely little shalw to toss on and avoid a stiff neck.

Koi Noburi

May 5th is not only Cinco de Mayo, it is also, coincidently Children's Day (Kodomo no Hi) in Japan. Quite a few of our neighbors put out the fish banners that celebrate this day, called Koi Noburi, which means Swimming Carp. They represent the wish that children (boys, actually) will be as strong and determined as carp which swim upstream. They look so festive, blowing in the wind!



So I completed a second Simple Yet Effective Shawl in Lion Brand Romance mohair yarn, this one for my Mom for Mother's Day. And again I made the whole thing in just a week's time, which is like a world record for me!


I've had such a good time with these that I immediately cast on for one more, this one for myself. We'll see if my luck holds!