Oh, rats!

I was going to post about the great progress I've made lately (OK, I will below), but I just read the blog for my LYS and she's considering selling the shop! It's the best shop in town. Agh! I'm really sad. Bother.

(sigh)

OK, so I'm nearly done with sock #2 for my mom. And... I'm afraid it's not right. My first clue was that the stripes, which were off from the other sock by a smidge in the foot, line up perfectly for the calf. I put it on last night and it felt... snug. On my feet. Which are smaller (but wider) than Mom's. I can't take it any more. Maybe I can block them the same. Oy!

I still have 1 repeat to go on the Leaf Lace Shawl, then the border, then the blocking (still thinking of using my hide-a-bed for that).

I need to locate my camera so I can take photos of the nearly FOs above and the red scarf for the teacher. I want to get it blocked this week so I'm not hurrying (or anxiously waiting for it to dry) next week.

Finally, true to form, I started another project. I've been feeling quite upset about another yarn shop selling me the Waikiki yarn to use for the Leaf Lace Shawl, which would most likely have been an absolutely horrible choice--lots of work for very little lace showing. I poked around in Yarndex, which, bless them, has a keyword "slubby," and found that Waikiki is nearly identical to Cherry Tree Hill Yarn's Ariel. And Googled, and found that there is an Ariel project in Lavish Lace--which I own! So I started it. We'll see how it goes. It looks like kind of a boring shawl but maybe with the gorgeous Waikiki, all will be well. I kinda wish I had more options! All of the patterns I like on the Crystal Palace Yarns website use two yarns together. I don't want to lessen the beautiful colors in the Waikiki at all. And, despite all my other feelings, I still adore this yarn. It is odd to have wound it into a ball and then to have it slump. It has none of the clinginess nor springiness of wool. I'm thinking most cotton yarn would be the same. I rewound a ribbon yarn and had the same problem--if you don't keep a constant tension, it just slumps off the ball!

Tip: I've been using old onion net bags for balls of yarn. They keep the ball from slumping, the yarn from catching on other things, and seem to keep it cleaner, too. And as you near the end of a ball, it doesn't go flying as much. I love this trick and wonder where I got it from.