Winter Slow Down (Row 73 of Salmon Queen)

Short post since my knitting is suffering the usual "Winter Slow Down" as I run around shopping and preparing for holiday baking. I have 26 points on the edge for the Princess, I'm on row 73 of the Salmon Queen doily a you can see above. I have a close shot of the "crossed stitches" that you see in lots of the Niebling patterns that he looks like he puts in for texture. I continue to slowly put more edging on the Sampler Stole. I decided to leave in the abrupt color changes in the edge since it I have no desire to have to weave in multiple ends and anyone who gets this yarn might as well see that this is something it does. I spend more time planning next years projects rather than starting new ones. I have plenty to work on in the mean time :-) Good Evening and Good Knitting!

Thanksgiving/Knitting (Why does that shawl smell like turkey?)

Yeah, I know it's not a picture of lace but it is what has been taking up time today. My sister and I have been enlisted to do Thanksgiving for our little neices since our sister-in-law is out of the country for her job this week, and this is one of two large pans of dressing.When you have to help out at Thanksgiving, it's not always about you and the lace knitting. People expect turkey, dressing, pies. You get the idea. Still, it is possible to slip in a little bit of knitting while ordering Xmas presents on-line and running out to get that last minute bag of sugar or flour. I'm slowly getting there with the Princess edge (20 points), the Sampler Stole edge crawls along and has those annoying color transitions I suspected would happen (I'm going to leave them however because it's for the folks at Yarn Place) and I have started the other end of the Legends Stole. Not working on Salmon Queen right now. That's for after Thanksgiving I think. For those who noticed that the Peacock Shawl has gone missing from my pictures, I took some good advice from Laritza and asked someone on Ravelry who liked the shawl if she wanted to have it to finish. It is now on it's way to Australia. I'm very happy about that and now can concentrate on my remaining projects without that albatross around my neck!

As I type this, apple pies are in the oven, pumpkin pies are next, and the year just rushes towards it's demise without pause. Time for me to slow down a bit and try to enjoy the holidays. My knitting always slows a little this time of year and it gives me a chance to think about next years projects. I wonder if you have noticed, as I have started to notice, that my taste in lace projects has been changing? It's going to be interesting next year. Happy Thanksgiving!

You Can't Knit Just One Niebling ("Lachskonigin" AKA "Salmon Queen" Doily)

Just a short post since this is, for me, a three day weekend. Did I mention that I can't knit just one lace project at a time? Some get finished sooner than others and some, like the Peacock Shawl, are destined to never be finished by me (maybe someone else will get this project). However, this never stopped me from casting on more lace. See above the start of "Lachskonigin" also known as "Salmon Queen" for some reason. It's another Niebling doily that I bought from doilyhead and you can see a picture on her Flicker Site here . I did the center on US 0000 and then switched to US 000 ( I have ordered circulars in US 0000 and even smaller but they have not arrived yet). I'm using my favorite thread Flora #50. Too bad they stopped making that size of Flora but I have been stashing it so I have enough there to keep me going for a long time.

Also, what do you all do about those large chart inserts in the Anna and Burda magazines? I started buying those old magazines on E-Bay and some of the inserts are "crispy" with age. Now, I'm not collecting magazines for their value as antiques. These are not "first editions" folks. I buy them because many of those darned Niebling patterns have yet to be re-published and I want to knit them! But I was concerned that I would just plain not be able to read the patterns in some of these old magazines or they would just crumble when I went to go Xerox them in the future, they are that old. So what did I do? I scanned them and then cut and pasted them together. I then used plastic laminating sheets on top of these scans to preserve the print. You get a huge sheet and I roll them up until I need them. You can see from the last picture that I also will cut out a pattern and label them when I want to use them. I can stick highlighter tape on these patterns and I can save them for later as well. I keep them in a large, flat, cheap art portfolio. I could just scan them and save them to a disc I guess but I always did like to be able to flip through pages and patterns with my hands. Old dog getting older here :-)

Good Evening and Good Knitting!

The Princess Shawl Re-issue (Madness. Sheer Madness)

My yarn selection for the Princess Shawl has arrived (sound of jumping up and down). ColourMart 3/45 Cashmere Silk in deep lavender. Knitting on 2.00 mm (US 0) needles, I'm working on the edging. I have to make 85 points. It's a whole lot easier to knit with this yarn than what I choose for the WRS and much more of a pleasure. I have also finished one end of the "Legends of the Shetland Seas" stole as you can see above. Now for the other end and then, you guessed it, more edging. I'm not even going to bother to post the Sampler Stole edge until I finish one side. All this knitting is really quite nice, but I am still longing for another Niebling project. Does that mean I'm an addict? Maybe just a small doily....I must go knit now!