You may remember when I went to Minneapolis in May I got to see my friend Keri, who makes the lovely bags at 3AM Enchantments. Keri was starting to do some handpainted yarns and she generously gave me some to give away on my blog.

We got quite an enthusiastic response and Keri was delighted by how much you loved her yarn. So this week she sent me this:

Four skeins of her lovely yarn. They are all superwash merino fingering weight, 400 yards per skein.

Who’d like a skein?

To enter the raffle to win one of these 4 skeins, leave a comment to this blog post by noon eastern time this Sunday, July 18. Don’t know how to leave a comment? Check out my little tutorial, here.

The great and mighty Random Number Generator will choose four winners from among those comments on Sunday.

You might want to hop on over the Keri’s site if you like her pretty yarn. She is running a fun special on yarn purchased in July.

Thanks for all your lovely comments about my latest shawl. I’m working on the pattern and will have it available soon. I’ve been having a bit of a rough week, so please pardon the blog silence. Hopefully things will settle down soon and the blog will return to normal. Well, what passes for normal for me anyhow.

Luy sez:

That’s some pretty yarn! And it was dyed by my boyfriend’s mommy!”

When did I start my new shawlette? July 5th, according to my records. And here this little dickens is done already. I completed it yesterday.

It doesn’t look like much, does it?

I blocked it yesterday afternoon. Blocked, it is looking far more impressive.

This is my own design — I’m calling it the “Winter Morn” shawl. It is knit from the Loopy Ewe Solid Series fingering weight yarn in the “Silver Sage” colorway. I used two skeins, and had 29 grams left over from the second skein.

Pre-blocked, it measured 52″ across the top edge and 18″ down the center back. Blocked it is 72″ along the top and 28″ down the center back.

I knew the main pattern would block out prettily.

Lucy sez:

“And I helped!”

I had a great weekend in Richmond. Teddy stowed along in my knitting bag and had a great time as well.

On Friday night he got to wear the sock toe that L-B was knitting:

On Saturday he accompanied us to one of my favorite knitting places in the world — The Yarn Lounge. There was cake!

And I worked on my shawlette in-progress in-between signing books.

All too soon it was time to board a train and head back home. Thanks to L-B, Stewart and Melanie at The Yarn Lounge, and all the knitters who stopped by to help make it a great weekend.

It was tough to leave, but I am always happy to return home to this:

I don’t have much of anything to say today, so you get a random assortment of . . . stuff.

For the past month at work, I’ve been squeezed into one corner of my office, as there are contractors working on reinforcing the window frames at one end. Towards the end of last week things were looking like they were close to completion. When I got to the office this past Tuesday I saw this:

The contractors broke one of my windows.(Of course my beloved coworkers took full advantage of the situation to accuse me of attempting to throw myself out of the window/attempting to throw one of them out of the window.)

A building engineer came by to have a look and cheerfully told me that he’d get the “glass guys” in this week to have a look. Glass guys were here today, and in order to have room to replace the glass (it’s in a tricky corner) they need to partially dismantle my office.

This may occur tomorrow while I am on my way to Richmond for the weekend. Wouldn’t that be nice? Minimal disruption for me.

The more likely scenario is that it will occur next week and cause much disruption.

I will be very happy indeed when this whole project is over and done with and I can spread back out into my usual sloppy routine.

Here’s a happier picture:

Some MadelineTosh Tosh Sock purchased from The Loopy Ewe last week. Aren’t the colors pretty?

The colors are, left to right, Filigree, La Vie en Rose, Mulled Wine, and Creme de Menthe.

Another happy picture:

My progress on my current shawl.

And a pic for Teddy’s fans:

Teddy has been a bit disgruntled because I haven’t been knitting many socks recently, so his sock-toe modeling career is sorta going down the tubes. I’m hoping that featuring him here will cheer him up.

A happy thought — tomorrow I head down to Richmond and get to spend some quality time with my best knitting bud L-B, as well as hang out with wonderful knitters at The Yarn Lounge on Saturday afternoon. (I love The Yarn Lounge. There may be stash enhancement. Just sayin’.) It’s a quick trip — I’ll be back home late Saturday night (Amtrack willing), so Miss Lucy will only have to do without her Momma for one night.

Lucy sez:

“Momma may be getting quality time with Auntie L-B, but I get some quality time with my Daddy!”

Thanks for all your good wishes in the comments, as well as your kind words about the Woodland Walk Shoulder Shawl.

The Woodland Walk pattern is now available in my Ravelry store, and tomorrow hard copies of it will be on their way to The Loopy Ewe, so it will soon be available for sale there as well.

Despite the heatwave, I have started work on another wool shawlette.

This, too, is being knit from The Loopy Ewe Solid Series yarn — love that stuff! I am using the “Silver Sage” colorway for this baby.

The all-over lace pattern I am using doesn’t look like much all smooshed up, but it will block out very nicely, I’m thinking. The Woodland Walk blocked like a dream, so I am very much looking forward to seeing this baby blocked as well!

Lucy is chillin’!