And just to prove it, I’ve recently purchased another shawl pattern: the Brandywine Shawl, by Rosemary Hill. You can check it out on Ravelry, here, or on Romi’s blog  — read her post about the pattern here. She is donating $5.00 of the purchase price for each pattern sold to Doctors Without Borders and has set herself quite a goal for the number of patterns she hopes to sell and the amount of money she wants to donate.

So if you think it’s pretty and like me need another shawl in your life, buy the pattern!

Meanwhile, I’m still working on the Chevron Stole.

I am halfway done. I know this because I have just about finished the first skein of yarn, and I bought two skeins. The finished shawl will block out to at least 72″ long, I’m thinking.

Winners!

The great and mighty Random Number Generator has chosen winners to receive copies of my new book! So many of you left a comment (Yowies! 1400+ comments!) that I decided to give away three copies. The winners are Sarah, Jayne, and Kelly-Ann. I’ve emailed the three of you, so if you think one of those individuals might be you, check your email! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!

Here are some details about the way I pick the winners . . .

I check the total number of comments on the blog post, and then have the generator pick 3 numbers within that number range. In WordPress (my blogging software) it is pretty easy for me to go in and find the comments with the winning numbers because I can display the comments for a particular post 20 on the screen at a time.

Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because  this is the reason why I ask that entries be left in the comments and not emailed to me or sent using the “contact me” form. If one sends me an entry via email or the “contact me” form (which is also emailed to me and in fact sometimes ends up in my spam filter, for whatever reason), the entry is not assigned a number.

Okie dokie, gotta run! I’ve got a busy Sunday planned. Lucy does as well:

She has to “make biscuits” on her sheepskin!

A kitty’s work is never done.

“Blizzard warning for City of Alexandria until 7 p.m. Stay home.”

That sums up our weather better than I can.

The view out my window:

The flag outside the front of my condo must be pretty tired by now:

It looks chilly, no?

So far today my power has stayed on. fingers crossed . . .

You know how I am always yapping about weighing my skein of yarn so that I can divide it into two balls for knitting socks? Well, I have a new digital scale.

It’s this one: the EatSmart Precision Pro.

You can switch the unit of measure between grams, kilograms, pounds. and ounces. And you can weigh up to 5Kg/11 Lbs on it. It runs on 2 AAA batteries.

It has a nice large display:

And it comes in 5 colors. Mine is a pretty red.

While I have been using it for weighing my yarn, it is also darn handy for weighing food. One of the cool features of this scale is a “Calorie Factor Booklet” that comes with the scale. You weigh your food in grams, then look up that food in the booklet and multiply the weight in grams by the “Calorie Factor” listed in the booklet — that’s the number of calories in your portion. Kind of a cool little feature.

Anyhow, if you are looking for a compact little scale for weighing your yarn and/or food, this one works great. Check out the reviews on Amazon (see link above) — you’ll see that a lot of people agree with me!

Speaking of red . . .

Lucy has been surprisingly unaffected by the high winds and dramatic weather right outside the window:

It is so much fun to knit. Well, I’m still on the first skein of yarn, so we’ll see how I feel about that when I’m on the 4th 400-yard skein.

Here is where this work-in-progress lives:

It’s a custom bag from my buddy Michelle at Three Bags Full. Don’t you love the fabric?

I asked Michelle to do a small-ish tote bag for me specifically for my lace projects. I asked for this specific size (12 x 12″) and shorter handles. Most tote bags come with slightly longer handles, so that the bag can be carried on one shoulder. Well, I’ve stopped carrying any bags on my shoulder. (This came about a year ago when my right hand went numb, courtesy of some cervical disk problems. The neurologist ordered me to cease and desist using shoulder bags. Oh, and my primary doc, who I went to first, told me to stop knitting until they figured out what the problem was.)

Anyway, I wanted a bag with shorter handles so that it wouldn’t drag on the ground when I carried it in my hand. And this is perfect!

More new stuff . . .

Stitchmarkers from my BFF Muriel. Aren’t they adorable?

As some of you know, Muriel is Tempted Yarns Stacy’s sister. And more of Muriel’s stitchmarkers are up for sale at the Tempted Yarns etsy shop. Just sayin’ . . .

So, tonight I am going to forgo knitting on the Shetland Stole to whip up a quick necessity. I’ll tell you how that went tomorrow.

Lucy Sez

“Surely a new toy for me is a necessity?”