Like the tortoise alluded to in the title, I am plodding along on my chevron stole.  It is more than half done, but I don’t think the whole thing will be complete until a week from now. It looks like it did yesterday, only a little longer.

So that’s it.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Apart from Miss Lucy, that is.

This morning Miss Lucy had her annual check-up and shots (ouchies!) — the vet said she is in great health.

And this afternoon I spent a few hours over at fibre space hanging out with a lot of fun knitters. There might have been some stash enhancement too.

My three shawlettes, Argus, Seaside, and Miss Woodhouse, had so much fun that they are going to stay in the shop for a while. So if you didn’t have a chance to stop by and see them today, they’ll be in the shop for a while. And you can purchase the patterns there as well.

Here is an Argus knit by Beth, in a heavier yarn on a larger needle.

It makes a nice larger shawl, I think!

How if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go relax.

Lucy sez:

“I was a good girl at the vet’s today!.”

So today Miss Lucy is officially 9 years old. Here is what she looked like at a bit over 2 years old on her first day in my home:

And here she is today:

As you can see, she was not fully matured when I first adopted her. Her points were chocolate brown, but her body was pure cream-colored. She developed her cafe au lait shading over the next year.

She has a new bowl to celebrate her special day:

Here’s the inside:

And she is getting lots of hugs and kisses today. Between her naps, of course.

And because it is also Valentine’s Day, the KOARC has been presented with a new pair of socks:

These are the “Manly Aran” socks from my upcoming book, Toe-Up Socks for Every Body. The book comes out on March 23.

And the red blob I showed on my blog last week? I ripped it out completely and started over.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Don’t forget — if you are in the area, I’ll be at fibre space in Alexandria, Virginia tomorrow from noon to 2pm. Fibre space will have copies of my one-skein shawlette patterns for sale (Argus, Seaside, and Miss Woodhouse), and I’ll be there with the original shawls for you to see, fondle, and try on. I hope I’ll see a bunch of you there!

And the five winners in the Crazy Aunt Purl book contest will be announced in tomorrow’s blog.

Now excuse me because I want to go play with my precious little birthday girl.

ETA: Doh! winners in the contest will be announced on Tuesday Feb 16, since y’all have til midnight Feb 15 to enter. Sorry!

And thanks in general for buying my Ravelry patterns. So far I’ll be donating well over $250 to Doctors Without Borders from my sales . . . and it’s only the 21st of the month. (I’ll be donating 50% of my profit from Ravelry pattern sales through January 31).

I’ve had a couple of questions about making changes to the Argus pattern.

You can enlarge it by doing more repeats of Chart A — as many as you like. With each extra repeat you do, you will be doing more repeats of the 8-stitch pattern repeat. Well, you’ll see — it’s obvious from the pattern.

Another alternative is to use a heavier yarn and larger needles — like a dk weight and perhaps size 8 or 9 needles. You could do this in conjunction with extra chart repeats if you like.

Conversely, you could make it smaller with fewer repeats of Chart A. Like, if you were making it for a small child.

And speaking of doing it in different weights of yarn — you could use laceweight yarn. I’d advise doing a small swatch of the pattern stitch to make sure you are happy with how open it is — you may want to size the needles down as well. And if you are knitting it at a smaller gauge, you’d want to add some repeats as described above.

And this of course would affect the amount of yarn you need.

The sock of the moment now has a heel. Here’s a fairly crappy photo:

And Miss Lucy is ready for the weekend.

So she is now on Facebook.

Lucy sez:

“Please friend me on Facebook?”

Ear Worm

Ever since I posted to my blog yesterday I’ve had du-wop music running through my head. I may need to form a 1960s-style girl group called the Shawlettes.

I refuse, however, to tease my hair into a 1960s beehive. One needs to know where to draw the line.

Speaking of Shawlettes

I’ve started working on the pattern for the shawlette I am currently creating. I’m putting in lotsa detail so it will be lace-newbie friendly.

Speaking of the shawlette I am currently created, I think I did three rows last night, so just look at yesterday’s photo and squint, okay?

On a Serious Note

Here are links to some relief agencies collecting donations to help with the earthquake disaster effort in Haiti:

• Red Cross
• Doctors Without Borders
• AmeriCares Disaster Relief
• International Medical Corps
• Catholic Relief Services

Here’s the view from this morning:

The sun was coming out. Yay!

Things are looking good down on the street. I went out and ran some errands. The streets were fine. The parking lots, not so much. Very icy.

I also finished this:

My Talisman Shawl. It sure doesn’t look like much in that photo, does it? The pre-blocked dimensions are 48″ by 24″.

Blocking achieved this miracle:

After blocking, it’s 64″ wide by 34″ down the center back. Knit from one skein of Wollmeise, with just 14 grams leftover.

Here’s a close-up of the lace pattern:

Here’s what I started today:

Care to hazard a guess as to what it is?

Miss Lucy slept through the blocking of the Talisman Shawl today. I’m sure she’s kicking herself that she missed out on helping me. But I turned the heat on this past weekend and she’s been happily sleeping through the most exciting events.

It’s Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off. Cool, eh?

I tried it out on my last pair if socks — the Diamond Lace socks. Here’s a close-up:

Here’s a close-up of the bind-off on my pink sock:

They look different because, of course, the periwinkle sock is fingering weight and the pink sock is sportweight.

Is it stretchy? Yes it is!

Is it stretchier than the Russian bind-off I usually use? Not noticeably, I think.

Do I like it better than the Russian bind-off? Well, no. My major beef is that it takes longer to execute. But if you need something really stretchy, and you like the little pattern it creates, this is the bind-off for you!

In the “You Need to Know” Department

Lucy would like to share with you that I have not turned on the heat yet.

It occurs to me that because I have embarked on a regime of Clean Eating, I ought not to call Lucy my “Little PopTart” anymore. Seriously, how unhealthy can you get?

From this point forward, when I an feeling particularly sappy and wish to call Miss Lucy by a pet name, I shall refer to her as my “Little Bowl of Organic Oatmeal Cooked with Dried Organic Blueberries and Dried Organic Fuji Apples and Sprinkled with Organic Flaxseed Meal.”

It’s just not the same, is it?

Here (because Sharon asked) is a picture of the new glasses I just got:

And here is Miss Lucy, on the move!

It’s all over except for the edging. I’ve got 14 rows of edging planned, so this will be done by the weekend and blocking may commence at that time.

That went fast — much faster than I expected. Gotta love a shawlette.

I don’t know exactly how big this baby will end up being after blocking. That’s the fun of doing it on the fly. It keeps things exciting.

Yesterday’s bright clear weather was apparently a fluke — we are back to dark grey skies. So you get photos done with a flash.

Today Miss Lucy is pleased.

She has just had a bit of turkey.

I did start my second Diamond Lace sock — see?

That’s what it looked like on Sunday, and that’s what it looks like today. But I ought to be able to return to it later today.

In other news, my car had an important milestone today.

And I visited the eye doctor this morning and my eyes are still dilated. Makes it difficult to blog, so I’ll sign off with a photo of Miss Lucy:

She is obviously thinking about turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow to everyone who celebrates!

And back to my regularly scheduled knitting projects. I don’t believe that I ever showed you that I completed my first Bamboo sock:

And a close-up:

I finished that last week before I left for Oklahoma. And I’ve made some decent progress on the second sock:

I’m also knitting on my Two-Thirds shawl, though you probably can’t really tell that I’ve made any progress, given its blob-like nature.

Last night I gave Miss Lucy a special gift:

This is a mousie knit by Keri. The pattern is from my “what to do with leftover sock yarn” class, and Keri whipped out two mice at blazing speed. She says her favorite part of the pattern was the direction “decrease for the butt.”

The mouse is a gift for Lucy from Keri’s boy kitty Slick, a demonstration of his undying love for her.

Isn’t that romantic?