Like Miss Woodhouse, it’s a “more than a triangle shawl.” You work double the increases on the outer edges as you do on the inner edges to get this shape.

She had her photo-shoot for her glamour photos.

That’s, reading from left to right, Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock in the Prophets of Persia, Golden Pear, and Villainness colorways, Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the Clover colorway, and Miss Babs Yummy in the Spring Lettuce colorway.

Winners!

The Random Number Generator has chosen five winners in the Crazy Aunt Purl book contest: Laura S in MD, Liz T, Amy in Atlanta, Kathy D, and Jackie. The winners have been emailed, so if you think one of those individuals is you, check your email!

Current Knitting

I haven’t talked much about what I’m working on at the moment. I started another lace shawl, then decided I didn’t like how it was looking, and ripped it out and started over. Here is what it is looking like now:

This is Wollmeise 100% merino sock yarn in the Herzblut colorway. I finally got around to putting “herzblut” into the Google online translator and discovered it means “Lifeblood.” I figured it was blood of some sort . . .

I’m using a U.S. size 4 needle for this. After ripping out the all-over lace pattern I started, I went back and started with stockinette in a more-than-a-triangle shape, and am now doing a lacy edging on that. I think I’ll like this much better.

Lucy Sez

I got this toy for my birthday. I’m not exactly sure what to do with it, but it has catnip in it!

Things had better be all clear by next Monday, because I’m doing a mini-trunk show at fibre space in Alexandria, Virginia.

And here’s a good reason to stop by — they will be having a big Presidents Day sale! Here is the info, shamelessly lifted from their newsletter:

We are delighted to announce our first big President’s Day Sale!

And here is the bit about me.

Knitwear designer Wendy Johnson will also be at the shop on President’s Day from noon – 2 pm along with a mini trunk show of her three newest shawlette designs! Meet Wendy, purchase her patterns and ask questions about the projects. Her new three designs can be worked up in only one skein of sock yarn.

Fibrespace 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’ll be happy to answer questions about the designs, offer my opinion (whether or not I am asked) on your yarn selections for each design, and just generally hang out to knit and chat.

Oh, and I’m betting I’ll do some shopping too.

Speaking of fibre space, the other night I signed up for fibre space’s new new Fibre Girl club. You can read about it from that link.

And I’m just sayin’ that I may or may not be providing a pattern for one of the club offerings somewhere along the way . . .

Current Knitting

I’m making good progress on the second Manly Aran sock.

The red lacy thing from yesterday’s blog? I’ll show you that tomorrow. That is, assuming I have electricity to power up the ‘puter and access the internet. We are supposed to have blizzard-force winds tonight and tomorrow, so if you don’t hear from me, you’ll know why.

Lucy is on snow watch.

Because I am far too lazy and impatient to do anything like actually swatch out the lace before starting work on it, I’ve been designing it on the fly. In fact, the last two charts of the pattern underwent a significant overhaul after I worked a couple of rows and just wasn’t feeling the love.

This is a more-than-a-triangle shawlette and I’m still planning to keep the yarn requirements down to one skein of sock yarn, so it will be wider but not as deep as the previous two I just completed.

I love the yarn — MadelineTosh Tosh Sock in the “Oak B” colorway. It may look brown in photos, but in real life it’s sort of a browny-olive-greeny mix. Very nice!

Lucy sez:

“It is not as pretty as my colorway!

This shawlette can be knit from one 100-gram skein of sock yarn and when blocked measures approximately 56” across the top (wingspan) and 25” down the center back.

This pattern is perfect for a beginner knitter who wants to knit lace. The pattern is written in great detail and spells out everything you need to know. The lace is charted in 4 relatively simple charts that are easy to follow.

It is knit from fingering rather than laceweight yarn, which is much easier for a lace newbie to execute. The stitches used are knit and purl, and a few simple lace techniques – yarnover, knit 2 together, and ssk, and sl1 k2tog, psso (which are explained in the pattern).

And now I’m working on another shawlette, this one yet to be named.

The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the “Oak B” colorway, on a U.S. size 6 needle.

Lucy is working on her nap technique.

I cheated on the pic I showed you yesterday, because it is from Sunday afternoon. Here is the current state of the shawlette.

Sorry for the crappy flash pic — it’s dark, so hard to get a good shot.

I’m knitting this from one of my favorite sock yarns: Sanguine Gryphon Eidos. The colorway is “Polimarchus” — ain’t it purdy?

I’m using a U.S. size 6 needle for this one. I used a size 5 for Argus, but the Eidos is a bit . . . I dunno . . . firmer than the MadTosh sock yarn I used for Argus so I figured I’d go up a needle size.

Like Argus, I’m trying to make this from one skein of sock yarn and so far it looks like I’ll be successful.

And Lucy is hard at work keeping my place on the couch warm.

Remind me of those goals when I finish it and it’s hideously complex and takes 1200 yards to complete, okay?

Excuses, Excuses

Before I show you my progress pic for said shawlette, you have to listen to my excuses for why I haven’t made much progress.

I had a couple of errands to run after work yesterday, so was late getting home. One of the errands was at the grocery store, where the cashier seemed unable to scan the items that the woman in line in front of me was purchasing, so he took each item, one at a time, back into the store to check the price on the shelf, and keyed each one in manually. One at a time. So much for multi-tasking. He did not call for help until he completed that transaction and discovered he couldn’t start a new transaction for me. The manager came over, and pressed a few buttons and all was well. But that took a good half hour.

I did, however, have a nice conversation about clementines with the woman in line behind me.

And I stopped knitting by 7pm because I was tired. So there.

Okay, here’s my progress pic.

No, I’m not writing a shawlette book. Or a shawl book.

There was a question in the comments about what kind of needles I use for lace — I have been using Addi Turbo Lace needles almost exclusively for lace. I love ‘em

And another question — do I ever get wrist pain from knitting so much. I almost never do, because I tend to take a lot of breaks when knitting. When I am knitting at home,. I am doing so in front of my computer. I’ve got my email and Plurk (my favorite social network) open. So when I get an email, I stop and read it. When one of my friends posts to Plurk, I stop and read it.So, lots of breaks!

Speaking of Social Networks

I keep meaning to say this and I keep forgetting. If you send me a friend request on Facebook, please just mention in the request that you are a knitter or something like that. If I get a request from someone I don’t know, we have no mutual friends, and I can’t tell from the profile if that person is a knitter, I ignore it.

Lucy Sez

“Hey – why am I not on Facebook?”

Next she’ll want her own computer.

I seem to have hit a bit of a dry spell with the knitting.

See, in less than a month I am embarking on the Unique Sheep’s Enchanted Wood Lace Shawl Knit-Along. We start January 10 (if I remember correctly). I’m sorta sick of socks for the moment. So what to knit?

Aside: I did finish my socks-in-progress, see?

They are sportweight, knit from Fiesta Boomerang in the “White Zinfandel” colorway (which is one of my all-time favorite colorways). I like the socks, but as I was knitting the second sock I thought of some ways I want to adjust the pattern a bit. So i shall be winkling it a bit at some point and knitting another pair.

But not right now.

I am feeling uninspired, so what to do?

Wollmeise to the rescue!

This is Wollmeise sock yarn in the “Rhubarber” colorway. I started knitting some lace with it last night, but I didn’t like my results — I was using too large a needle (a U.S. size 7 – 4.5mm). I didn’t have other needles handy just then, so I just frogged the bit I did and will start again today with a size 5, I think.

I tend to like more “solid” lace, particularly when I’m using a variegated yarn. While this colorway isn’t wildly variegated, there are definite shifts of color. If I knit on too large a needle, the open-ness of the fabric plus the shifts in color detracts from the lace pattern.

Tune in tomorrow to see how successful I am!

Before I start in on the knitting, I have some gifts to wrap.

And Lucy is getting ready to settle in for a long winter’s nap!

I was all set to purchase the multimedia docking station for the Droid — the one that charges it while displaying weather, time, photos, etc. I figured I’d replace my alarm clock with this nifty little solution that costs $29.99.

Well, you can download a free app from the Android Market called “Dockrunner.” It puts your Droid into multimedia mode without the dock. Here’s my little Droid running multimedia mode and going commando without a dock.

You need to plug your charger in on what is now the bottom of the phone, so you do need some sort of stand for it if you want it to stand up nicely on your nightstand.

I ordered this stand from ThinkGeek.com for $3.99. Beats $30!

I’ve had my Droid for a week, and I am still in love with it.

Current Knitting

I’m working on a sock design using the lovely MacKintosh Iona sock yarn pictured in yesterday’s blog post. Here is the first sock, which I completed yesterday:

I’m calling the design “Thistle and Heather Socks” and it will eventually be available for sale from MacKintosh Yarns.

Or maybe “Heather and Thistle Socks.”

We Have a Winner

The winner of the Nicky Epstein book is Carol R., chosen by the great and mighty Random Number Generator. Thank-you to everyone who left a comment. If your name is Carol R., check your email.

Psssst! I’ll have another book to give away later this week . . .

Meanwhile, Lucy hasn’t done any more mountain climbing.