FO: Ishbel

 

What is it about February that makes me want to knit shawls? This seems to be a trend for me every year and I don't really know why that is. This project was more of a case of a yarn I really wanted to use and I had ear marked this pattern for it. 2 weeks later, I had a finished shawl, lol, which feels incredibly fast for me.

This is the notorious Ishbel pattern by Ysolda Teague. I've had the pattern for years in the Whimsical Little Knits book but I had never bit the bullet. I've made 2 other Ysolda patterns, but never a shawl, so something about that just felt right when I was hunting a use for this yarn. The yarn was given to me when I friend gave me 2 huge buckets of good yarn, but sadly this one had no button band so I have no idea what it is. A burn test showed that this is sock yarn - it feels like a merino nylon blend to me - but it just had the most beautiful tonal pink color. 

I wanted a nice lacy pattern that would shine in this mostly solid colored yarn and I think this project was just the ticket. I did run into trouble simply because I was mindlessly knitting the top stockinette section and didn't pay enough attention to the yarn overs at the edges. I missed 3 yarn overs, which made my stitch count off by the time I needed to set up for the lace. I had to redo the first 6 lace set up rows seriously like 4 times. This had to sit in time out for a few days I was so frustrated, but I finally realized what I needed to do for it to line up and then it was smooth sailing ... until I reached the last row. I was knitting merrily along and I thought I would have enough yarn, but I ran out about 6 inches from the end and still needed to bind off. I was able to tink back about a foot and use a smaller needle for that last row, which enabled me to just barely squeak out that full row, then I dug in my stash for a complimentary yarn I thought would work for this. I settled on Knit Picks Stroll in Jack Rabbit Heather, which I think actually makes me like the shawl even more. It's a nice frame for the edge and is still neutral enough to go with whatever I want to wear this with. 

So that's my Ishbel Shawl! I had a lot of fun making this, despite the small set backs, and I still really love this yarn. It's too warm to wear this now, but I look forward to having it next time it cools off :)

WIP Wednesday: Happy Valentine's Day and My New Project

This week has been full of knitting. I managed to finish an adorable Valentine's gift for my girls. I'll post about all the particulars soon. I also finished my Hockey Sock today, so I will post about those here soon.

The other day I had knit my socks so much that i had a tender divot in my ring finger and had to stop knitting, lol. Thankfully, I don't hold circular needles in the same way as DPNs, so I decided to use this as an opportunity to cast on the Ishbel shawl. This yarn is even more beautiful knitted up than it was in the skein, and this project is pretty mindless since the body is just a stockinette triangular shawl. This will be a great one to be my grab and go easy project after the socks are done, which is great because I was honestly a bit worried as to what I could be in the middle of after the socks were finished. I'm excited to watch this one grow.

That's really all i have to report on this week, which feels like I'm missing something after having so many things to post for a while. I do have a big surprise coming on Friday, so stay tuned for that. I hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day.

FO: Playin' My Song Shawl

Every so often I find myself drawn into the allure of a Mystery Knit Along. Sometimes it's a favorite designer, sometimes it's an object I wanted to knit anyway, and sometimes it's neither of those things and I just learned about it at just the right moment and split second decide to join in. This was the case of feeling like knitting a shawl and then watching Sweet Georgia on YouTube back in July and learning there would be a shawl mystery knit along (mkal) in August. They had a discount on the pattern if you preordered it, and that was that. Decision made.

I decided to combine this mkal with trying out some new yarn (which means I did not go by the gauge in the pattern). I grabbed 3 skeins of this Lotus Yarns Swan Lake from Temu over the summer on a whim. Actually the creamy colored yarn was one of their "price drop just for you" offers and I got it for like $1.79, so how could I pass that up? Then I liked it so well I decided to get a few other colors. Swan Lake is a lace weight yarn that is 50% cashmere, 40% wool, and 10% angora which all equals SO SOFT. For real. The pattern calls for fingering weight in a size 6 needle, so I just went down to a size 5 needle and called it good. It's certainly a bit more airy than the others I see, but I like that for being in a warmer climate.

The shawl construction was pretty cool and one I've never done before. The cream colored triangular section was the first clue, which felt very normal and shawl-like compared to others I've made. Then you leave stitches live around the edges of the triangle but only work one side at a time for each of the next clues, and while the two sides are the same size and use the same textured stitches, the order of each type of stitch is moved around to look asymmetrical. If you look above you can see that the cream colored stripes are in different spots on each side. It's something I don't think you'd particularly notice when someone wears it unless you really look. 

I do really like the different textures and I dig the color combo I chose for this. I bought all of these yarns knowing they would combine well, but not knowing the design beforehand did have me stressing a bit. All good though :) While I do like the textures of the stitches, some of them were pretty similar and right next to each other, which was an interesting choice.

In the end, my shawl measures 80" x 15" is slightly longer but slightly shorter than the pattern says, as expected by using a smaller yarn and needle, but it's still surprisingly close. The miracles of blocking, folks. I could easily block it the exact size the pattern states, but I liked how this looked so it's fine as is. The elongated shape does mean this wears differently than any of the other shawls I've made, which were a triangular or half circle shaped. Typically, I wear my shawls bandana style where I drape the middle in front of my neck, wrap the ends around to the front, and tie them together under the front flap. This is not an option for this shawl - I tried. I can wrap it around from the front, but securing it is a totally different hassle. It definitely works better to just wear it as a traditional shawl (like in my top photo), but we will see how I figure out styling it when it gets cooler outside and I can wear it.

So that's my Playin' My Song shawl :) I was a little behind the clues - 3 weeks just isn't realistic for my to finish a project this size, but I did manage t finish in 5 weeks which it nothing to sneeze at.  I enjoyed knitting this and the yarn is really lovely. I definitely recommend grabbing some if you feel so inclined. Now I have a cashmere/bunny soft wrap to snuggle up in when the weather cools down.

Summary:

Yarn: Swan Lake by Lotus Yarns in colors 2 (cream), 11 (purple), and 16 (teal) on Temu = $10.79

Pattern: Playin' My Song MKAL by Tabetha Hedrick for Sweet Georgia Yarns - $6.50

Time: 5 weeks

Total Cost: $ 17.29

FO: Haruni Shawl

I had quite the saga going on with my main knitting project at the beginning of this year and I hit a point that I just had to set it aside and do something different. Next thing I knew I saw this shawl pattern and had bought a random yarn because I liked it and spur of the moment decided to make this up as a palette cleanser.

This is the Haruni shawl pattern by Emily Ross, a free pattern on Ravelry. I came across it by browsing the Ravelry board of TheLongHairedFlapper on YouTube, lol. Random. I like to watch her channel for vintage knitting and whatnot and found that she had made this, then I saw this pattern was free and it just sealed the deal.

I had not made a shawl since 2020 and I remembered not caring for them. They tend to start off very fun but then as it grows and the rows take longer and longer, it starts to feel like a drudge. So I expected that to happen with this shawl as well, and I was shocked at how quick this worked up and how much I enjoyed the lace pattern. Can you see the lace pattern? Not really, lol.  

The yarn is Yarn Bee Authentic Hand-Dyed from Hobby Lobby that I picked up on a whim. I was feeling down, they had a sale, and I was draw to this color combo. When I found the Haruni pattern I just decided to knit it up even though I knew this yarn would not show off the lace design very well. I really didn't care - I just wanted to use both these things. Does that make sense to anyone else? Sometimes you just want to make something without thinking of every possible issue.

When I finished the main lace section and reached the border, I still had 55 grams left. Pretty much every shawl I've ever made left me with so much yardage that I was worried this was going to happen again. I contemplated doing a few more repeats of the main lace design, but in the end I decided I didn't want to do the math associated with that. I wound up using all but 8 grams of this yarn for this project, so it was really good that I didn't alter anything because I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to finish it otherwise.

The border lace and scallop edge were fun and I love how the edge looks. Again - YOU can't really see it well, but I can see it when I wear it. If I wear this with a black shirt, it would stand out well. Considering I made this in April, I have yet to actually wear it anywhere because Florida is extremely hot in case you didn't know.

So that's my shawl :) I very much enjoyed making this up and it definitely served as a great palette cleanser for my disasterous sweater issues and I was able to pick that project up after this one and get it finished. I look forward to it being cool enough to wear this in the winter.

Summary:

Yarn: 1 skein of Yarn Be Authentic Hand-Dyed in Stonework colorway - $11.97

Pattern: Haruni - Free

Time: 3 weeks

FO: Lady Russell Goes Cashmere

I'm sure you've noticed a trend in my last few posts - I've been doing a lot of knitting on very old projects. I've hinted around it all for months, but things have been extremely stressful for me as I'm getting a divorce. It is what it is, and I'm actually very good with it at this point, but at the beginning I found myself alone with my thoughts and time yet also pretty depressed and having no motivation to  plan any new projects. My old wips came in very handy during this time, and I managed to knock out several of the larger ones I had sitting around, which gives a nice boost not only as a finished item but also as one that had been guilting me for a long time in the corner of my mind. Anyway, after finishing my Dahlia Cardigan and Someone Else's Blanket, I reached for my next largest work in progress - this shawl.

This is the Lady Russell Shawl by Joy Gerhardt that was the cover project from Jane Austen Knits, Fall 2012. I used to collect all of the Jane Austen knits books back when I first started knitting, but this is the first project I actually made from any of them. I started this back in May of 2016 (!) according to Ravelry. I remember at the time I was looking for a new project to throw myself into, plus I had been to the temple and got a little chilly (possibly the first time that's ever happened to me there) and I thought it would be nice to knit myself a shawl in a white yarn to have with me there. Somehow I picked up this pattern magazine and made my decision immediately and cast on, not really thinking about the fact that I hate knitting shawls, lol. In my defense I might not have fully known that at the time since I had made so few, but I know this now - I'm not a shawl knitter. They feel like they will never end because each row takes longer and longer to knit as they just keep getting bigger. Maybe I should knit one that starts at the largest end and narrows down? Anyway, I made up my mind and started the project only to have to pull out the beginning section about 8 times before I finally did it correctly. I was determined, but after all the frustration just with getting going, I think I only did the first lace section on the chart before setting this aside for something more fun to make. I would pick this up on occasion between projects over the years, but I never got very far before setting it aside again. I know now that this is no fault of the pattern itself - it was just my dislike of knitting shawls. Anyway, I was determined in my stressed out haze to finish this project back in August, and I am so happy that I did :)

So this pattern features an all over lace pattern that is simple but lovely. You start off at the center top, making a traditional crescent shaped shawl, then you make short rows along the side edges that grow into elongated wrap pieces of the lace pattern, then you finish it all off with a ruffled edge. You can see the "wings" as I call them in the above photo. It was certainly an interesting construction as I had only ever made triangle shaped shawls before. I also like that this pattern was named for Lady Russell. She is from the book Persuasion and she's an older lady with lots of opinions on what is best for the friends in her life. Somehow this pattern fits her perfectly and I could see her wearing something like this, particularly in cashmere yarn as she would never settle for anything less.

The wing pieces make it possible for you to wear the shawl like this - knotted at center and wrapped around your shoulders, which I feel is very traditional and practical. I think the shape of this shawl definitely gives it the historic feel of Jane Austen Knits.

And it also looks lovely from the back while worn. I really love the lace pattern on this and how the fanned out V shapes continue occasionally on the eyelet lines that separate each section of the shawl. I guess this would be a good time to also talk about the yarn I made this with. So back in 2014, I got on a big "recycled yarn" kick. I would search for sweaters in my thrift store adventures that were traditionally seamed (as opposed to being serged at the shoulders) and could therefore be unraveled. I posted about my unraveling here and this yarn was from one of the sweaters I repurposed into yarn. This sweater was a Ralph Lauren 100% cashmere cable knit in a very fine lace weight gauge. The yarn was 2 ply, but in my unraveling process each strand came apart and I didn't know any better so I just separated the plies, lol. So this is just a single ply of cashmere yarn, which as you can imagine was extremely prone to breaking - as in so much breakage that I was worried I would rip the knitted areas before I finished making this, lol. Thankfully I have avoided such a disaster thus far, but between me accidentally pulling on the yarn too hard as well as all the times it broke while unwinding the sweater, I had SO MANY ENDS to weave in. It was worth it though for how light and airy yet warm this shawl is. It's quite surprising how cozy this feels on when you consider the yarn is more like a thick thread and the design is full of holes. I used 100 grams of this yarn for the shawl, so I have a bunch left, but we will see when I decide to pick it up again, lol. My guess is it will be a while. I wonder if I could try to ply them together again? Oooo, maybe later.

Another interesting thing about this yarn is that it turned out to be lace weight. Back when I first started this project, I thought it was fingering weight, which is what the pattern suggests using, so I didn't think anything about it. Now that I am more experienced, I know for a fact this is much smaller than fingering weight. Nearing the end of the project, I was worried the shawl would come out laughably small due to my smaller yarn. Thankfully that did not happen, lol. But the finished shawl is definitely a little smaller than the pattern example. I'm totally fine with this since I live in Florida and won't really be needing an enormous shawl to wrap up in, but it's something to consider if you try to knit this in a smaller yarn. I even used the suggested needle size, and thankfully again I did not end up with an unattractively loose gauge or anything like that. The yarn has a bit of a halo to it, so that seemed to make up for any spaces.

Here is a close up to show you what I mean. I did stretch this bad boy to the max while blocking (due to my fear of it being small), so the stitches are quite spread out, but I think it actually adds to the stitch definition. I think it's neat that you can see where each stitch is connected in the fan design. Another point I must mention is that ruffle. Holy cow, that ruffle. The final step to this shawl is to pick up along the entire edge and increase to give it that ruffle. I wound up with about 650 stitches on my needles. 650! And I had to knit 2 inches of that. Needless to say, it took AN AGE to finish. In reality it was only a few nights while watching movies, but man it felt like I would still be knitting this shawl next year. It did turn out really pretty though, and I love how the ruffle finishes it off. I just doubt I'll be signing up for any knitted ruffles for a while, lol.

As I do live in Florida, and as I don't want to only wear this in the temple, I knew I would need to play around with other ways to wear this shawl. I just don't have a very "shawl-friendly" wardrobe, I guess. So here I tied it around the back and tucked the edges up underneath, then pulled the shawl down around my shoulders. I think this is a very practical way to wear this for me. I can see it with a solid colored long sleeved shirt, the shawl being the focal point.

Sorry for the weird coloring on this photo, but this is the other way I will probably wear it frequently. This is with the wing pieces wrapped around and brought back to the front and tied underneath the drape. I like the informal feel this gives to the shawl and it definitely keeps my neck warm :) So all in all, this piece is much more versatile than I originally expected it to be.

So there you have it - the shawl that took forever! I'm very happy with how this turned out. It was a long time coming, and I now enjoy not only that I finished it at long last, but also that it will easily incorporate into my wardrobe during the cooler months and that it's such a dreamy and soft yarn. Since this was completed, I have started a new project (and I'm nearing the end now), so it seems my haze of wips has lifted. Here's to new futures with lovely knitwear :)

Summary:
Yarn: 100 grams 2 ply cashmere repurposed from thrifted sweater - $1.00
Pattern: Lady Russell Shawl by Joy Gerhardt from Jane Austen Knits, Fall 2012
Time: 3 years, lol

FO: Antarktis Shawl

Guys, I am on a roll with finishing old projects. I started this project on January 30, 2016, lol. That's a stupid long time for such a simple shawl. In my defense I started this at the same time as several other projects (all of which ended up on my list of WIPs at the end of the year, lol) so it was hard to devote enough time to just this one. Anyway, on to the pictures!

This is the Antarktis shawl by Janina Kallio. I saw it randomly on Ravelry and added it to my favorites quite a while ago and then just kind of forgot about it until one day when I wanted to use a certain skein of yarn :) I bought this skein of Araucania Lonco on ebay a while ago, and last January I was on a stash busting kick, so I started looking through Ravelry for fingering weight 1 skein projects that would work with a variegated cotton, and here we are. I bought this yarn because 1) it was a great deal at just $5.99 including shipping and 2) I loved the color combination. I knew it was cotton when I bought it, so I knew it would have to be a shawl or something.

Also while it's a pretty design and I liked the finished project pics and was excited to have the shawl to wear, I found the project a bit boring to knit. I guess I just like the constant change and easy to see progress of making sweaters. I'm always good with shawls in the beginning since they quickly start to take shape, but when the rows start getting longer I find it harder to keep interested. Thus this project was constantly set aside for other things.

I started at first with a size 6 needle as the pattern suggested, but when I got a ways into the first garter stitch section I pulled it out to test the resulting fabric. Since this is a cotton (and therefor has no halo whatsoever) I found the size 6 needle made the fabric a bit too spaced out. I liked the painterly quality other finished projects had on Ravelry and knew there would be too much separation of stitches with the size 6 needle. So I sized down to a 4 and I like the resulting fabric much better :)

You can see it better here - the pattern is extremely simple, made entirely of the occasional yarn over, k2tog, and kfb. That's as hard as it gets. You just keep going until it reaches a certain number of stitches and then switch to the next stitch pattern. I particularly like the lattice section in this yarn. The colors are vibrant enough to stand out even with so much open work. This makes it very pretty to wear.

One draw back to my choosing this yarn is that the shawl is not particularly drapey - it likes to be put in a position and pinned to stay there. Also blocking this was quite a challenge - I've never wished I had blocking wires more in my life. Because this has so much lace it looks pretty crumpled up and sad just after you knit it. Even the pattern says not to worry if your finished shawl looks the size of a dinner napkin, lol. Once this had a good soak (mostly in an effort to remove excess dye which was coming off on my hands as I knitted), I pinned it out on one side and pulled as hard as the piece could handle. I seriously stretched this thing within an inch of its life. It took a lot of going back and situating to get it mostly smooth at the edges, but I'm very pleased with the result considering this was all done with pins.

As you can see it came out a very nice size. A kind of weird thing happened though that I still don't understand - I only used just over half a skein of yarn for this entire shawl. Every other project on Ravelry lists that they used almost 400 yards, but I only used 260 yards. I kept going back to check, but all my numbers added up and I did not skip anything. My shawl even turned out a similar size to what I've seen online. The only changes I made were to knit this in cotton and to go down 2 needle sizes, and while I understand the needle size will change your yardage I can't possibly imagine it would change things that much. So the project that was designed to use up a pretty skein has left me with almost half of it to use in the future, lol. Ah well. It is pretty though. It has a very water color feel to it I think.

Realistically the shawl will be worn more like this (actually I've worn it already but shifted more to the side and with a shawl pin at my shoulder), meaning it will be a bit more scrunched up and treated like a scarf. I'm glad to finally have this finished and be able to wear it. I'm also glad that it's cotton so it will be light enough to actually wear year round here :)

Summary:
Yarn: Araucania Lonco Multi in colorway 4008 - $5.99 (bought on ebay)
Pattern: Antarktis by Janina Kallio
Time: Not quite 1 year, lol

WIP Wednesday: Crafting Christmas

Sorry for the radio silence this past week, folks. I've had all kinds of things going on in "the real world", so I haven't had much time for blogging. I have certainly been making things though! My Christmas Crafting is coming right along :) I suppose first I'll report on my non-Christmas item:

My Emelie cardigan - poor neglected thing that it is, lol. I have had a few chances to work on it when I was with the recipient of other item I'm making, so the back piece is ever growing, even if it is pretty slowly.

Since I'm confident that neither my husband nor brother in law read my blog, I am really excited to show you their gifts :) I'm making them matching Shibe Doge beanies, lol. They both love the Shibe Doge (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you should google it - so funny), so I thought it would be fun to make them matching hats. Then they can be buddies even across the ocean (my brother in law is in Japan). I've finished both hats, but I still have to do the words.

This is my first experience with duplicate stitch. It's not difficult, but it certainly does take some time! I've managed to do two of my phrases on one hat (So Chill, Much Brr!), and I still have two more to do on the other side and then the whole other hat. I went with black and dark gray because my husband basically wants everything in black all the time, plus this way it will match everything they may wear it with :) I can't wait to give it to them!

This is a project that has worked up surprisingly fast. I'm always at a loss with what to give my husband's grandma. She lives in an assisted living facility so she can't have too many knick nacky items around (she shares a room), plus due to her health issues she can't get any foods or desserts, and she doesn't really have any crafty hobbies ... you can see why I have a hard time figuring out what to give her! Since I'm trying to make as many of my gifts as I can this year, my husband said she might like a shawl. That I can do, lol. I asked him what her favorite colors were and he said pink or teal. Immediately I was struck with genius - I've had this partial skein of variegated acrylic yarn in my stash since high school! I made a Swedish weave project as a gift for my grandmother with it, but that only used maybe 10% of the skein. Never being a big variegated fan, I had no idea what to do with the rest. Can we say fate? I mean seriously, I've had this yarn at least 14 years and it has gone to two different grandmas, lol. Once I picked the yarn, I searched my pattern stash and decided on the Garden View Shawlette, which is a free pattern on Ravelry. It's a smaller shawl, so I knew I'd have enough yarn and it wouldn't take weeks to make.

I know it doesn't look like much in the full on photo, but once it's blocked you'll be able to see the design nicely. It has large garter stitch leaves around the bottom edge with a stockinette body and eyelet rows at the bottom and top. I actually really like how it's turned out and I know his grandma will enjoy having it :) Gotta love something that will keep her warm in the air conditioned buildings but that it also easy to wash, right?

So that's what I've had going this week :) Any Christmas gift projects in the works for you?

FO Friday: Ravellenics Edition

Well it's that day of the week again and I have not just one but TWO finished items :) And this week both of my items qualify for the Ravellenic Games on Ravelry - I've never participated before, so I'm very excited to have a few items finished for it. First up is my much blogged about Blue Angel Shawl:

I finished this up on February 15th at 10:30 pm and it is my entry for the WIP Dancing event. This was made with the Blue Angel Shawl Pattern by Stefanie Japel that I bought as a kit through Craftsy. I've mentioned my many woes with this shawl already in other wip posts, but I really do like the finished product. I had a lot of yarn left when I finished where the pattern indicated, so I added 2 additional repeats of the lace border and I am super happy with this decision. I think I like it better with the wider lace border :)

My finished shawl measures 43.5" wide and 21" tall. My only complaint now that it's all finished is the bind off. The pattern says to just bind off like normal and then add a picot edge (which it tells how to do). I took this to mean just a regular bind of (k2, pass 1st st over 2nd st). I even went up 3 needle sizes (when the pattern only said to go up 2 sizes) and I made sure to bind off loosely, but it still is WAY too tight. I couldn't even stretch the edge out wide enough to be straight when blocking. I honestly had to pull the edge so hard while blocking that it felt like the yarn might break, and it still isn't perfect at the corners. Also because it's so tight the little picots curve forward even while you wear it. So, I have to strategically wrap this to look nice. Oh well, lesson learned for my next shawl I guess - ALWAYS use a "super stretchy bind off".

I really do love the lace though :) It was a bear, but I am happy with it now. Also this was made using Cascade Heritage Sock yarn and I am definitely a fan - I can't wait to use this yarn again!

And my second Ravellenics item is for the Toy Tobogganing event: Meet Husky Dave the Dragon!

Dave here earned his name as a collaboration between my husband and me. We were thinking of D names to go with Dragon and settled on Dave. Then I mentioned how he ended up with a bigger-than-called-for bottom since I somehow increased way too much (I still don't understand how I did that). So my husband suggested Husky Dave and the name stuck, lol. I made Dave using the Dragon pattern from FreshStitches. I actually won this pattern in the November 2012 Photo Contest with my Shirley the Alpaca and I had never used it until now. A crime! I decided using this long stashed pattern would be a good goal for the Ravellenics and I'm so glad I did.

The coolest part of this pattern is that it's designed like a "choose your own adventure" book. The pattern includes all kinds of different features you can choose for your dragon - you just make up the ones you want and it tells you how to put them all together. Pretty cool huh? Essentially I could keep using this pattern 20 times and never end up with the same result. This time I chose to give him small horns, wings, beady eyes and an arrow tail. You can also give him scales, cheek flaps, buggy eyes or a wider tail.

I love the cute little nostrils, lol. I also love this fun color combo. The blue is Everyday Soft Worsted in Azure (a new fav), the pink is Red Heart With Love in Hot Pink, and the green is Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green. All of these yarns were in my stash - I love that about amigurumi. You can just choose colors from yarn you already have and they still always come out cute :)

So there are my Ravellenics projects :) I would like to think I could finish another item by Sunday when the Olympic ends (which is the deadline for Ravellenics projects), but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I did finally pull my Purple Boob Holder out and figure out my mistakes last night. Now I'm knitting the body and it's coming out well, though I doubt I can finish it in a few days. We'll see.

That's all around here this week. Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see the beautiful things others have finished this week :)

WIP Wednesday

Well, I've been completely consumed with my Blue Angel Shawl this past week.

Here it is in all its scrunched up glory :) Technically I would have finished it on Monday night except that after the last lace border repeat I noticed I still had a lot of yarn left. In fact I weighed the yarn before and after a repeat and it only took 7 grams - and I had 21 grams left! lol So I decided to increase the length of the lace border. I've finished another repeat so far and honestly I'm toying with the idea of adding yet another.

This is the border with 3 repeats of the lace. I'm thinking it would be nice with an additional - what do you think? I may not get to finish it by Friday though since I'm knee deep in Valentine's food preparations. I'm the kind of person who buys people's love through their stomachs, lol, so I have quite the fancy dinner and dessert planned for my husband. On top of my crazy cooking choices, I also have 2 full flats of fresh strawberries I have to deal with! I was so excited to see them so cheap and delicious (just $0.99 per pintat Aldi!) that I think I went a little overboard and now I'm overwhelmed. I made 2 batches of freezer jam last night, but have the berries mashed for 2 more batches. Believe it or not I ran out of sugar, lol. So I have to grab like 15 lbs more or some such ridiculous number so that I can make more strawberry items.

I've also been listening to the audiobook of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn while I knit, make jam, etc. I'm halfway through the book and honestly I'm wondering how this book was ever a best seller. I feel like I'm reading a transcript from an episode of Dateline. Plus the husband just becomes a bigger piece of crap as the novel progresses. I'm hoping that since I'm only halfway through there's some kind of mind-blowing/redeeming twist, so we will see. I'm reading it as the February book for The Thousander Club - though with all the language I wouldn't be surprised if I'm one of the only ones who actually reads the whole thing, lol. Definitely not their speed for the most part. So we shall see how it turns out :)

That's all I've been up to this past week. To see what others are making, head over to Tami's Amis' Blog :)