So today I was up and about a full two hours before this normally happens. (Why is it so shameful to be lazy appreciate one’s bed?) I am trying to get my body used to the idea of being fully functioning by 8am in anticipation of my nasty little test coming up in t-minus 1.14 weeks (still counting in weeks because counting in days is too scary). So far so good. Whatever the time, the routine is oh so very important in the morning: Get up. Wander into the kitchen. Make coffee. Wash my favorite coffee cup (classic diner style). Tap foot impatiently until there is enough coffee in the carafe to keep me from stumbling back into bed on the way to the home office. Then to the computer I go to wake up with my favorite blogs. Here is where the wrench gets thrown into the works. There are no blogs to read. Because my favorite blogs are written by normal people who do normal evening, sleeping, morning things between the hours of 9pm and 9am. Gah! This “fully functioning by 8am” thing is just not working for me.
Anywhoo, what I was meaning to talk about this fine morning is my latest love affair with my new big project, the Swallowtail Shawl (Evelyn A. Clark, Interweave Knits Fall 2006). Yet again, I’m late to the bandwagon (can you say Mason-Dixon, Pomotamus, knitting in general?), but whatever. I had been searching the skies for some shawl-type way to employ that pretty pink/gray lace yarn from Sweden, but my options were seeming limited as I only could swing 400m of the stuff. And then there was the Swallowtail calling for… what’s this? 400m of fingerling?? And I ask you: who am I to question fate?
I had a notion after the Monkeys and the Pomotami that lace knitting might be for me, and after 13 or so repeats of the Swallowtail lace pattern this notion has been confirmed. Lace is great! I am not a great memorizer (my prelim travails are a case in point, but we wont go there). But the lace patterns for the shawl and the socks just start to make sense after a while. Of course there should be a YO here, of course I should k2tog there. And before I know it I’ve zipped through 6-inches. And the finished product is so beautiful, so intricate, so impressive to friends and family (oh modesty).
So lace. I’m totally hooked. And soon I will be in possession of the purple-orange-green lace trifecta from Adrian’s shop update yesterday. I’m so happy!
Now, to check blogs again and… errr… work.
