My icarus shawl is finally blocked and ready to wear, so I thought I would share a few pics. I wish I had better ones to show, but it is a bit difficult without a model or a mannequin. I do not think either of my cats would work very well as models for this. The Czech glass beads are a bit difficult to see in the picture, and are just a subtle touch at each point. I followed the designer’s beading instructions, and the beads were quite simple to add.

Pattern: Icarus shawl by Miriam Felton from Interweave Knits Summer 2006 or you can buy it here.

Yarn: Merino laceweight, Miracle colorway, from Fearless Fibers, 2 skeins.

Needles: Size 3 Crystal Palace circular bamboo.

Measurements: 70″ wide and 30″ long after blocking. I forgot to take pre-blocking measurements.

Changes: I was running a bit short on yarn, so I eliminated one pattern repeat in the body before starting the lace edging. If I would have knitted that pattern as written, I would have needed a third skein.

Some people may think me strange, but I cannot keep my secret any longer: I love grammar. One of my favorite classes in college was a 400-level class called Advanced English Grammar. (College was a long time ago, so if you browse my blog looking for errors I am sure you will find them. I am far from perfect.) Since I do love grammar so, I am often irked or amused by the blatant misuses I encounter in everyday life. Recently I found these two sites and just had to share them (the first one made me laugh until tears streamed down my face):

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary”Quotation Marks

Apostrophe Abuse

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

I eagerly started knitting up the honeybee stole with the gorgeous yarn I received from yarnchef. This yarn is truly wonderful to knit with. I am just not sure this yarn and this pattern were meant for one another. It is not as clear in the picture as in person, but I am having some pooling problems. The yarn is nicely variegated on the ends of the pattern, but the pooling creates stripes in the center. The pattern has both petite and tall sizes, and I have enough yardage to knit the petite size. In order to try and remedy the pooling/striping problem, I cast on the greater number of stitches required for the larger shawl, but on smaller needles. This made the pooling problem even worse. Then ends of the shawl were solid blocks of the lighter color, and the center was solid dark brown.So here is my dilemma: Do I continue knitting and ignore the pooling, or do I frog the project, use a different yarn for the honeybee stole, and try using this yarn for the leaf lace shawl (and hope the triangle shaping eliminates the pooling)?  Sometimes being a perfectionist is so hard!

I want to thank those of you who voted on a shawl pattern. You unanimously chose the Honeybee Stole. I fell in love with the pattern the first time I saw it and it is the pattern that I had planned to knit up next. I requested a very difficult-to-duplicate yarn from Katy, the yarnchef. She was not able to reproduce her previous colorway (she did offer to try again) but I still liked the result, although I was not sure if it was a good fit for the Honeybee or not. All of you who voted seemed to think it was, so I am going to try it. The yarn arrived today – it is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for fall. It is a 50/50 merino wool/silk blend and feels luxuriously soft and silky. I cannot stop touching it. The other yarn pictured is merino wool in her Overcast colorway. I cannot say enough good things about her wonderful yarns. I have never been disappointed by anything I have ordered from her.

In other knitting news, I finished my beaded icarus over the weekend during a long car trip and it is now ready to be blocked. I hope to get that done in the next day or so, and then I will share pics.

Speaking of our weekend trip, my hubby and I went with his family to Branson, MO. Normally we enjoy these trips, but this time we were both relieved to get back home. Branson was super crowded due to the popular music & crafts festival at Silver Dollar City and an antique show. If you mix together too many people, too much traffic, a father-in-law who verbalizes his stress level when driving in said traffic, and eight family members who each have their own agenda for the weekend, you get too many people with too many places to go in too short of a time for a relaxing weekend. I did not take any pictures this time, but I did get a few things I was looking for at reasonable prices at the outlet malls. Autumn arrived in our absence (finally!) and now the leaves are starting to change color. I am glad to be home in the quiet of our own house with our very comfortable bed to sleep in. Our peaceful home is a nice reprieve after a very hectic trip.

I just ordered this yummy yarn from the fabulous yarnchef and I plan to make a shawl with it.  (Please follow the link for pics…in my excitement I am trying to choose the pattern before I have actually received the yarn, so I have no pics of my own to post yet.)  Now I cannot decide which shawl to make.  Here are the candidates:

Honeybee Stole

Hanami

Please cast your vote and help me decide!