Knitting Hangover

I woke up with a knitting hangover this morning: I could feel my eyeballs inside their sockets; the gravity of the moon was tugging and squeezing them out of shape. My prefrontal cortex couldn't have been more on fire than if I'd dowsed it with lighter fluid. And both fluorescent and incandescent light has been a spoon scraping under my scalp (oh look! alliteration). I shouldn't even be tempting the pain by typing these letters on a starkly contrasting background, but I'm driven to share.

Of course now that I've remembered to wear my close-up work spectacles, my eyes aren't straining quite as much as they apparently did yesterday when I knitted hour after hour without the proper eye protection. What I was finishing into the wee hours of last night is a scarf for the Red Scarf Project.



Pattern: Asherton
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft, Autumn Red color

I'm not working against a deadline or anything (the Red Scarf folks are accepting scarfs into December). I just wanted to finish the dang thing. I'd been working on it for a month already.

And now it's done! And now I'm going to wear my Ray Bans inside the house for awhile. Until the needles I ordered for my new project show up. Soon, I hope.

I can stop at any time.

My first shawl

My first lace shawl.



Spring Things by Susan Lawrence. This shawl began its life in cashmere yarn, lace weight. I now know lace weight yarn is, if not of the devil, then a spawn of his minions. I do not like it, Sam I am. My stubby fingers don't get along with it. So the yarn I used instead is Knit Picks Palette, a fingering weight wool yarn (one step higher and thicker than lace yarn). The colorway is Rainforest Heather.

I wet blocked it (stretched it into its proper shape after washing it) using my lace blocking wires, T-pins, and interlocking foam tiles. I left it to dry in my sewing grotto in which the floor paint is flaking up like mad and is a horror to behold. So don't look at it directly or you may turn to stone. Just saying.



This shawl will be donated to a pancreatic cancer research fundraiser, a silent auction and bbq dinner to be held in November. I will be posting more information about this event in the near future because I'm in charge of setting up its blog. There will be lots of handmade items there to bid on and lots of ribs to enjoy. And music. There will be a band, but I can't recall their name just now. Tune in later.

For now, enjoy the remaining pics.


Beading!


Those little bumps in the knitting are called "nupps." Rhymes with "pups." Their difficulty persuaded me to try the beading, and it was muuuuuch easier.