dreaming of lace ...

i think i should let ms. pinky have exclusive bragging rights, in showing off her finished peacock feathers shawl, but i beat her to it! and besides, she came to see me today, and asked me to take a picture ... we took a picture with her camera too. oh! let me just say it is lovely. i was even allowed to wrap it around me and parade around! you'll just have to check over at her blog for all the details. i'm like the "aunt". i get to hug and kiss, and give it back. how did she know i began my day with lace and shawl fantasies?

this morning, i spent some time going through my pattern collection. i paged through books, my patterns, and even surfed the net for a bit. i was feeling quite discouraged, because there seems to be a trend of knitting lace wt. yarns on larger needles. call me picky, but i want the lace to be the combination of decreases with yo's, not the knitted fabric on larger needles! seeing pinky's shawl renewed my faith in saying , "screw that!" so, i'm going to knit mine with needles appropriate for the wt. of yarn, vs. what the pattern recommends. also, i've not been a big fan of triangular shawls, but, when it's big enough, it covers the arms well enough. the short triangle shawls i've seen pretty much leave your arms cold and point a big arrow at your butt.

the yarn pictured above is madil's super due merino. pinky and i each purchased a super-duper hank of this yarn at vermont sheep & wool last october, for only $10/hank. it's 100% virgin wool and has a whopping 1531 yds in 100 g. mine is a pretty shade of charcoal. the label also says lavable in lavatrice and irrestringibile. does that mean it's superwash?! or that it's irresistable and i can wash it in my lavatrice?!