Adventures with sticks and string.
Odometer reading as of this morning:
Basil is getting to be such a big boy!
Speaking of getting big, my shawlette is growing.
I expect it to be completed by my next blog post.
Lucy on the Move!
Lucy is striding purposefully towards the camera:
Have a great weekend. See you Sunday. 
I’ve not too much to talk about here today, but here I am, nevertheless. I’m working along on my Sideways Shawl:
I’m a good two-thirds the way through it at this point.
Last night Sheri posted in her blog the details for the second Camp Loopy project, so I have ordered my yarn for that. As Sheri details in her blog post, if you purchase your yarn for your Camp project from The Loopy Ewe this week, you’ll get a 20% discount on your yarn purchase.
I’m not one to pass up a bargain, so I have purchased my yarn. I am once again using Three Irish Girls Cashmerino Worsted — that’s what I used for my first Camp project. It is spendy, but it is lovely lovely yarn, and a 20% discount is sweet!
When my yarn arrives I’ll post a pic and I’ll talk about what I’m going to knit then. It’s a bit of a departure for me and I’m looking forward to it. And it is all part of a Grand Scheme. 
Novel News
Did you hear that Ann Shayne (that would be Mason-Dixon Ann) has written a novel? Well she has: Bowling Avenue.
She announced publication last week so I immediately purchased the Kindle version. I was finishing up a book, so started reading it within a day of purchase.
I’ll be the first to admit that I bought it because it is written by someone I know, someone I have met in Real Life. And as I started reading it, that thought was uppermost in my mind. “I know the author. I know the author.”
By the time I was about a quarter of the way through this book I completely forgot about the fact that I know the author was was completely immersed in the story. I read every chance I got — I went so far as to read it on my commute instead of knitting. I finished it at lunchtime today. After I finished it I remembered: “Wow, someone I know wrote this!”
What an enjoyable read. The characters were interesting, three-dimensional, and realistic and the story compelling enough to make me happy to forego my commuter knitting to read on the train and during lunch. There was a wee bit of knitting content, and humor and sadness, and after reading it I was very happy that I did so.
I love to read and I’ll read just about anything . . . as long as it is well-written. And sadly, lately, I have accidentally purchased a lot of poorly-written stuff that was self-published as an e-book.
Bowling Avenue so very much does not fall into this category. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am in awe of Ann for having written it. Ann, I do hope this is the first of many novels!
Ann just posted on Mason-Dixon Knitting that there will be a book party in Nashville next Monday, June 18. That’s nine days before I am going to be in Nashville. Rats! Timing is not my strong point. Ann, I’ll be there in spirit!
Lucy sez:
“I’d rather nap than read.”
I finally photographed my recently-completed sideways shawl yesterday.
This shawl took two 250-yard skeins of Tempted Luxe Grrl and it measures approximately 58″ along the straight top edge and 14″ at the deepest center point. Here’s a closeup of it from the back:
And the front:
I’m working on the second version of this shawl:
I’ve increased the rate of increase of this version so it gorws deeper much faster. The color is much prettier thatn shows in the photo oaboe.
Second KAL Contest
Thanks to everyone who posted photos of their yarn choices in my Ravelry group. I was randomly giving away free patterns to some of the posters. We still have more than a week until the KAL actually starts, so there is still time to knit a swatch of the pattern, as described in the preliminary information in the pattern.
Head on over to Ravelry to this thread to enter the contest.
Rules:
What will the winner receive? This:
Here’s a close-up of the label:
Wendy & Lucy
What Lucy is really doing:
Happiness is a new skein of yarn. Especially when it is such a pretty skein!
I wound my lovely custom-dyed Tempted Luxe Grrl last night.
I actually have two skeins of it, but just wound the first one up to start.
I inserted it into my handy yarn carrier:
This is a Chic-a Yarn Keeper that I purchased from The Loopy Ewe. You can find them in a variety of pretty colors here. The yarn keep is 5″ in diameter. For smaller balls of yarn I use this:
This is a Chic-a Ort Keeper (found here) and it is 4″ in diameter.
These little yarn keepers are very handy, particularly when you carry your knitting projects with you to a bunch of different places.
Speaking of The Loopy Ewe, I love the stickers they are putting on the outside of their boxes!
I started my shawl. Ripped it out. Started it again. Ripped it out. Started it a third time:
Third time’s the charm!
This yarn was tricky. In the skein it looked a lot less variegated than it does knit up. The first start of the shawl incorporated a little lace pattern that just didn’t look great in this colorway. So I tried replacing the bit of lace with a plain 4-stitch cable. Much better, but I still wasn’t happy.
So I decided to go completely plain — just a tiny column of fagoting with a plain stockinette body and a garter stitch edging. This is just right.
So I’ll be knitting on my plain shawl this weekend. Lucy, on the other hand, is resting up:
She must have plans for a wild party or something.
I am coming down the home stretch on my latest sideways shawl.
As you can see, I’ve got just a bit more knitting to do one this, then . . . finito!
As soon as I finish, I plan on knitting it again . . . with a few modifications. Then I’ll offer both versions as one pattern.
The second shawl will also be knit from Tempted Yarns Luxe Grrl, in another colorway that Stacy custom-dyed for me:
Isn’t it pretty? I’m really looking forward to knitting it up.
Several of you have asked me about the pattern for the Bernadette shawl that I finished a little while back. I do plan on publishing the pattern — just got distracted by other things.
Right now I am distracted by Lucy pretending to be a muffin.
