Progress report

The Faroese shawl is completed. Blocked, even. It does just what I wanted it to do, and so it will be kept. It's the perfect size shawl for summer, doesn't get hot and toasty even in an outdoor service when the ambient temperature is 90 degrees, and short enough that it doesn't get in the way while serving up a potluck for 60. What more could a gal ask for?

David Copperfield has been read, and now I'm wondering why it took me so long to read it. I really liked it. Due to other experiences discussing books starting with the letter 'D' with a friend whose name begins with 'D', however, I'm not going to suggest this for our next book discussion. It was a good book, though, and I plan to read it again ... and even try some more Dickens.

That pretty well covers the fourth letter of the alphabet. On to the fifth letter! Entrelac. For some time, I've had almost 3 skeins of Morning Glory Sock Garden from KnitPicks in my stash. I've toyed with the idea of making entrelac socks out of it, since I don't particularly care for the frenetic stripes that result from stockinette socks with Morning Glory. The only sock pattern I could find on the web, however, didn't appeal to me. So I did what any knitter without a project would do ... I swatched! I usually cast on 60 stitches for a sock, but since this was a Maybe Sock and was going to be inEntrelac, I decided to use 48 stitches and maybe, just maybe, it would fit my daughter. Regardless, I'd see how the colors worked out, and have a good swatch to check gauge on for future endeavours.

The ribbing is the perfect size for my daughter. The entrelac portion is too large for me. And so ... I have an Official Swatch. It looks like it could grow up into a sweater sleeve, or perhaps rompers for a baby. With a solid colored yarn to continue in, I think it would be a super sock calf. Someone, somewhere, has a pattern for socks that are all Entrelac ... gotta find it and check it out from the library, probably.

Entrelac is a good way to use mathematics. "If I need 60 stitches for a sock cuff, but only want 8 inches calf circumference, and each entrelac block of 6 stitches is an inch, although my normal sock gauge is 8 stitches per inch, how do I transition from ribbing to entrelac?" (Answer ... start in Entrelac and hope it fits over the heel?)

Here, you see a picture of what happens when a future architect is on summer vacation. He rearranges his room. This picture was taken from the doorway (or as close as I could get to it.) It's a bit scary.

I think my next knitting project is going to be the sampler mittens from Latvian Mittens. They're not exactly the best project to start while sitting at the doctor's office tomorrow, though, so I'm going to scamper to find a baby blanket pattern in Shine Blush (there's some laying around) and get going on that. Unless something else from the stash calls my name first!

This week ... Merchant of Venice!