Right Way To Start The Day

You know it's going to be a good week when you get to work on a Monday morning and the first thing that greets you is a big ole bag of yarn from Knit Picks. Yummy.

I have to admit, the yarn that I bought for my Wool Peddler's shawl is a far brighter red than I had expected. From the pictures on the website and the name, Maple, I expected a deeper shade of red. But it's beautiful none the less. And I was originally worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn to do an extra repeat, but now I'm positive that it'll be fine. I bought 8 skeins and there's 123 yards a skein, so I have over 900 yards.

I also bought 4 skeins of Gossamer in the Caribbean colorway. For my second faroese peaks shawl. My first is still on the needles, of course, but I think it's all the pink in the yarn that's stopping me from working on it.

Along with that there's 2 skeins of Sock Garden in Zinnia and 2 hanks of Sock Memories. That's going to be shipped out tomorrow for SP7. (Yes, I finally heard from her!)

******* Later in the day ********

So I'm pondering my Wool Peddler Shawl as I sit on my bed. The pattern calls for the bulk of the shawl to be worked in garter stitch. I hate garter stitch. And I don't think that it works for a shawl that ends in a very pretty, delicate lace. So I'm going to frog the few rows that I've done and I'm going to edit the pattern and work it in stockinette stitch instead. That'll give a really nice, smooth fabric that'll transition nicely into the lace.

**** 10 minutes, some frogging and more knitting later ****

Oh yeah, we're definitely going to go with the stockinette stitch with this shawl. Nice smooth fabric. Glad I decided sooner rather than later.

So here are the projects that are active for February:

1. Wool Peddler's Shawl
2. Jelly Bean Socks
3. DaBaBlu Socks
4. Rosebud wrap **Knitting Olympics project!**
5. Mom's Clapotis (I don't expect to finish this this month. I'm knitting it in... gasp.... acrylic so my hands get a bit sore after a while. Not sure if I (or Mom) will like the pattern enough to spend $50+ on the needed yarn. If she absolutely loves the look of it then I will. But until then... bring on the acrylic!)

The second weekend in February my mother and I are going on a women's retreat to this great house set on a lake. Really it's a chance to get away from everything, meditate and just be relaxed. So for me it'll be a great time to, you guessed it, knit. I'll be bringing both pairs of socks and the shawl. Spend all that quiet meditation time working on my knitting. I'm quite excited about it.