I’ve been meaning to show you something I got as a gift for myself a while back, but I had also gotten one as a gift for a friend, so wanted to wait until after her birthday to share with you all so as not to spoil her surprise:

This is a sterling silver tapestry needle, hand-forged by Celtic Swan Forge. Over the years I have collected several sets of their wonderful sterling silver double-pointed needles, and just a few months ago discovered that they also handcraft tapestry needles as well, in either silver or gold.

As I remembered from past dealings, customer service from Celtic Swan was excellent. Upon ordering, I got an email from Molly letting me know an estimate of how long it would take to make my needle, and when the needle was ready to ship, I received another email with tracking info.

I love supporting small businesses that handcraft beautiful tools. If you are in the market for a special fiber-related tool for yourself or for a special friend, do check out Celtic Swan Forge. They have a lot of lovely tools and jewelry. No affiliation here, I am just a very happy repeat customer!

I love my silver tapestry needle, so much that I hunted for and found an antique silver needle case to house it.

This is German, 19th century. I love it!

In other news, I finished my “The Joker and the Thief” shawl.

I kept trying to lay it out for a photo-shoot, but this kept happening:

So you will have to be satisfied with a modeled pic.

I knit mine from a kit put together by Sunshine Yarns. The background is Ultraluxe Light in the “Charcoal” colorway and the gradient is the “Bag of Limes” set in Classic Sock.

I ran out of the Ultraluxe Light with 12 rows remaining that needed the background color, so fudged the end of my shawl by doing fewer rows in BC and binding off in Color 6 of the gradient set rather than using it to work the last set of Indian Cross-stitch.

I note from looking at other projects on Ravelry that some others who have purchased the kit have run out, so be aware of this potential issue. I generally do not run out of yarn when working from kits, rather, I usually have leftovers. I used the recommended needle size and got gauge, so I don’t think it is “operator error.” 😉

I’m not overly concerned however — I think the shawl is lovely as-is and my mods to not take away anything from the design.

Loki sez:

“Isn’t that shawl for me?”

The winner of a copy of Baby Brights by Kathleen McCafferty is Christel, who has been emailed. Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.

I’m making good progress on my Joker shawl:

I ought to have it done in a day or two. Boxy is still waiting in the wings. My co-KALer is making some nice progress on hers, so I’ll pick mine up again when she reaches the same point I am at in mine. And I have plenty of other projects to knit along the way!

Loki sez:

“Happy Mother’s Day! I am available for hugs!”

I have another cute book here for review:

This is Baby Brights by Kathleen McCafferty, and it is a collection of crocheted accessory patterns for little ones.

While I don’t crochet, I thought this was a particularly cute book so wanted a review copy.

There is a good “getting started” section at the front of the book that includes nice, clearly-illustrated instructions for the crochet stitches you need to know to make the projects. The projects are divided into seven sections, and I’ve picked my favorite from each section to show you.

From “Rattlers and Teethers” check out these fish rattles:

One or two of those would make great baby gifts that you could whip out quickly, and you could use bits of leftover yarn to make them.

In the “Bath Time” section I loved the Owl Hooded Towels:

In “Hats” this cheerful Pom Pom Hat caught my eye:

From the “Booties” section, I love the High Country Booties:

Another great gift project that uses small scraps.

My favorite from “Toys” is this adorable lion:

And from “Nursery” a great mobile:

I think that even I, with my limited crochet skills, could manage that.

And last of all, from “Blankets” I love the Wavy Stripes Blanket

This book is a great resource if you have little ones, or know a lot of people with babies or son-to-be babies. I think you could make up some very sweet gifts just using leftover bits of yarn.

The publisher, Lark Crafts, has offered up a copy as a giveaway. Who’d like it?

To be entered in the giveaway for  Baby Brights by Kathleen McCafferty, please leave a comment on this blog post by 11:00am Eastern Time on Sunday, May 10, 2015. I’ll draw a winner at random at that time.

Meanwhile, I am knitting along on my shawl:

And Loki is working on his napping.

I’ve set my Boxy to one side temporarily because I want to give Jennifer a chance to catch up to me a bit in our mini-KAL. Since I won’t be wanting to wear it until well into next winter, I’m in no hurry to finish it. This is definitely a process knit.

So I started something new.

This is The Joker and the Thief — a new shawl design by Melanie Berg. I am knitting mine from a Sunshine Yarns kit in one of the many color choices put together for this shawl. It was no contest for me: I picked option #13, which has a main color of Charcoal, and the “Bag of Limes” gradient set.

The shawl is a very fun knit. There is nothing terribly difficult about it — even the “Indian Cross-stitch” which looks complex is actually quite easy to execute.

It is a very entertaining knit, even though it is quite easy, because you keep switching between the two different stitch pattern sections and work in a progression of gradients. I do love a gradient!

In other news, the last clue of the Outlander MKAL shawl was delivered yesterday so I finished my shawl. No spoiler pix here, but you can see my finished shawl on my Ravelry project page.

And as always, Loki supervises everything I do.