So I took a picture of my Ishbel shawl the other evening to get an idea of the progress. When I was looking at the pictures I took on the computer afterward I suddenly realized why everyone says that lace progress shots just look like big blobs. Apparently I  had never made any lace large enough to be scrunched up on the needle. Witness:

Ishbel by Ysolda Teague

At this point you can’t even see the lace I have completed. I have done ABABA next up is CDE. I promise no more photos until it looks like something.

Today was a rather productive day. I managed to tackle some of the filing that’s been hanging around my office for awhile. Funny how those papers never seem to file themselves, no matter how much I wish they would. It felt good to clear up a bit of the floor though. I am bit by bit working on my latest goal – A place for everything and everything in it’s place. It would be wondermous if I could accomplish this by the holidays! I also spent some time today booking myself for some upcoming work travel. Arlington, Texas here I come!

After work we headed over to my BFF’s apartment. She recently took a spill off a four wheeler while on vacation and landed herself in the hospital for almost a week. She finally made it back home and we were able to go visit her. Basically we sat around talking, ate dinner and then sat around talking some more. It was quite the good evening. I managed to knock back a couple of rows on my latest WIP. I am working on the Eyelet Vest from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2008 in my new Yarn Love yarn. Pictures to come once I am not falling asleep as I type. Plus I need more battery power to mess with pictures. Off to bed I go!

So I looked at my cowl on Wednesday and we decided three more repeats would make it plenty long. I started working on those repeats and then decided after 2 to try it on tonight. It’s amazing how a project goes from seemingly never ending to suddenly the perfect length and almost done! I am being a stinker and staying up tonight until I get it BO. one more row then the BO. I will have something very pretty and knitterly to show off at Wool Gathering tomorrow. Oddly enough I doubt it will be anywhere near cool enough to wear it! Cashmere is uber warm even with lots of holes in it!

Flared Lace Smoke Ring Cowl

Denial. It’s not just a river anymore. So I spent my early morning hours cleaning up all the patterns scattered about my office. I got them all neatly put into my three ring binder each pattern in it’s own little sleeve. Unless it was only printed on one side, then some of those patterns shared a sleeve. I then wound yarn for my next couple of knitting projects and located all needed reference materials. I also made half of a decision regarding the Belgian socks. I fear they are too wide to fit the desired recipient’s foot and I can’t be too enamored with the pattern as it has languished for a good six months. Granted part of the reason for languishing was because I had made it through half of one foot when it was brought to my attention that they may not fit and I couldn’t come up with a good method for doing a sneaky fitting test. So I ripped out the shorter of the two socks and am going to try the yarn in a different pattern and then pick which I like better. Hooray!

In other denial news, I cast on for another pair of Cable Twist socks today. I love these socks because they fly off my needles. Although some day I swear I will knit them with enough yarn. I knit the first repeat and weighed the yarn – 5 grams. I have a 99 gram skein of yarn and two socks so that’s 49.5 grams a piece. Which in theory would tell me that I can have 9 repeats. The only problem being that I just don’t like the cuff with only 3 repeats so I am trying to squeeze in four as though the foot portion will magically shrink. Sigh. Typing this is making me realize I am really truly going to have to rip back. And to think I turned the heel tonight! Unless of course, I knit the toe in a contrasting yarn. What’s a gal to do? I peered in my stash and none of my blues are remotely close. I do have some grey yarn that I am not hating. I just don’t want the socks to look half-assed. They’re a gift for a very lovely person. Oh and they have to be knit by Sunday night.

Other mitigating factors: I have knit this pattern 3 other times. Twice in worsted using 211.2 yds and 215.6 yds and once in DK using 158 yds. I just feel like with this being on worsted again I should have enough yarn. Especially since I had enough yarn leftover in the DK to do another repeat. This pattern also has a lot of give in it. The cabling adds a lot of stretch.

Oh! I just remembered the foot won’t use as much yarn cause the bottom is in stockinette and has no cabling. Is that enough to save me?