I’m almost at my “deadline” for the alpine lace, and here’s what I have left:

7 8-row pattern repeats

+ 8 rows of garter stitch

+ 3 16-row pattern repeats

+ 8 rows of garter stitch

= 120 more rows

I have three days (including today) before the mystery stole pattern comes out…which puts me at 40 rows per day. That’s… 5 8-row repeats. I don’t know if I’ll be done by Friday, but I’m really impressed at how much I’ve done in the last week or so. It’s also gotten me motivated to get cracking on some other projects that have been in hibernation for a while too.

I’m transitioning back to mid shifts on the ambulance (long story) so I’m exhausted again. Then in a few weeks I move to days for two weeks to take dispatch class, then i move back to nights (hopefully for good) to train on 911 call taking. My body has no clue what time of day it is any more.

In other news…my Macbook is broken There is a crack in the palm rest right by the right front edge of the computer. I went online and found that this is a common problem with Macbooks that came out around the same time as I bought mine, and that Apple will (should) fix it for free. I have a 6:30 appointment at the Apple store in Tampa to have it looked at, and hopefully I can get it taken care of right there. I hope their service is worth what I paid for the warranty!

We have grass!

Actually, it looks like this:

I got 15 trays of grass plugs and put them in yesterday (and this morning), and they only covered half of the area I thought they would cover. They’re spaced out about a foot apart which was the recommendation they gave me, and each tray of 18 plugs was supposed to cover 32 square feet – but clearly it didn’t. Thats ok though, I’ll go next weekend and get another 15 trays to finish the back half of the yard. i’m not going to tackle the mulched area yet, because I would need to rent a tiller and tear it up and it is way way too hot for that. If the back half grows well, I’ll do the other half next spring.

I got my Jagger wool-silk in the mail today (that I ordered last Saturday – what service!), and knit up my official mystery stole swatch. I LOVE this yarn. It is silky and drapey and yummy. The beads I picked go very well with it too. Once all this crazy lace knitting is done (or at least when the mystery stole-along is done) I have an idea for a shawl pattern to work out, and I’ll definitely use this yarn for it. It comes either in a 1 lb cone (no weaving in ends in lace!) or various vendors sell it in 2 ox (650 yds) or 4 oz increments. The one I got is 4 oz (about 1300 yds) because the shawl calls for about 1200 yds.

I’ve done 4 1/2 repeats of the 8-row center pattern on the alpine lace, and hope to get 2 more done tonight. That will leave 13 8 row repeats, 8 rows of garter stitch, three 16-row repeats of the border, then 8 rows of garter stitch. I can totally do all that in nine days, right? Even though i only have two days off between now and then? I think I can, I think I can….

Two 140 yard skeins of yummy rainbow handspun:

With a quarter for size:

I heart it   The weight feels good for socks, I’ll just have to knit them toe-up since I only have 140 yards in each skein.

I can’t say enough about the Beadwrangler – I ordered my beads on Saturday night, and they arrived today!  She’s actually located in Tampa (which helps), but I’m amazed at how fast she shipped my order.  I will definitely order again.  I got beads for the Zephyr wool-silk I ordered for my Mystery Stole, beads to go with the rest of my white cashmere/silk laceweight, beads to go with the cone of red merino laceweight I got from mom (hey mom, do you remember where that was from?), and beads to go with my llama that I have yet to spin.  I spun up a sample a few weeks ago, and it’s fingering weight!  I don’t know yet if I’ll even like knitting with beads, but the beads were so cheap I got lots to make the shipping worth it.  If I like the beads I’ll use them again in the future, and if not it’s no big loss.

I knit a swatch for the Mystery Stole using my 80/20 cashmere silk laceweight yarn (the same as I’m using for the Alpine Lace shawl) even though I’m not using that yarn – I had to try out those beads!  The beading is pretty easy, just fiddly with such a teeny tiny eensy weensy crochet hook (seriously, I can barely see the hook).  I like the look of the beads; they are small enough that they’re not gaudy, but have enough sparkle to make it special.

A little messy getting used to the beading, but  I think I like it.  This was knitted on 3mm needles.

I’ve also been spinning my hand-dyed (by a woman from knitting group) merino and I LOVE it.  I really enjoy seeing the colors come out!  I have 1 1/2 bobbins done and I hope to finish the second and ply it tonight.  It is spinning up nice and fine, so I’m hoping to get sock weight yarn for socks.  I’m interested in trying navajo plying too, so I’ll probably take whatever is left after the first two bobbins and give it a whirl.

I have the next three days off, so I’m hoping to make a large dent in the Alpine Lace shawl (or maybe finish it…but that might be a little optimistic) before the 29th when the Mystery Stole-along starts.  I’ll keep you advised.

Thing 1:  I don’t actually have much stash.  This is because I pretty much decide what I want to knit, then pick out the yarn to go with it.  I pretty much don’t buy yarn unless I have a specific project in mind – except sock yarn.  Which really isn’t an exception, because I know it will be socks.  This is why almost my entire stash is sock yarn.  The rest is leftovers from old projects.  I can’t decide if this is good (I don’t needlessly spend money) or bad (I need to get me some stash!)

Thing 2: I have a lot of works in progress.  Well not a LOT, but more than I thought.  I found things I forgot about.  I ripped out three different socks-in-progress that I hated and abandoned, and re-balled the sock yarn to reuse in the future.  Hence, my stash (see Thing 1).

Thing 3: I knit a lot of lace.  I knew this already, but it is even more evident from my projects page.  This is because I like lace.  And cables – but I don’t have a lot of use for cables here in Florida.  Lace is interesting, plain knitting is boring.

Thing 4: I am a selfish knitter – all but one project on there are for me!  This will hopefully change soon.  Or maybe not.