New Beginnings Shawl - Done!

and, ah hah, I knit.  This is the New Beginnings Shawl, a Facebook KAL.  I title this one yarn vomit.  It is unblocked but finished shawl.  It has beads, etc.  The pattern was free to those of us who participated in the KAL.  Four clues distributed over four weeks.  Great fun!

This is Zachariah helping me block the shawl.  He loves to help block the yarn vomit until it turns into a loverly piece of knitting.  I love having him help me block my knitting.  In fact, as soon as I rolled out the foam, he actually put down his Ipod and jumped down to help me.

and this is the final blocked piece of work.  I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed doing this.  It was with Caron Simply Soft Light yarn in Hawaiian Sky  (a better pic of the color is below).   It isn't really green but more of an aqua/blue, like, oh, a Hawaiian Sky!  

I don't remember what the variegated yarn was but I had in my stash.

I used a multitude of a variety of different color beads.  The beads go up the "Y" and various other places, including a beaded bind off (a new technique learned).  

 There is a new KAL being started in March.  I already have my fingering weight yarn, in black (gasp) for that KAL.  If you want to join in the fun, go to the link above for this KAL on Facebook.

Vacation . . . knitting . . . Learning how to block

Finally, we have returned. It has been a wonderful vacation. Beautiful weather (actually, mostly hot weather). We were in Collingwood, Ontario. There were only two days that it rained during the day. On the first week, it rained on Thursday afternoon (around 4:00) and on July 1, Canada Day, it rained and was cool in the morning but was about 75 degrees by 1:00 p.m. and the sun was shining. In fact, it was soooooo nice so much of the time by Tuesday evening (July 1), I told Dave that I would really like a day that was gloomy and rainy so that we couldn't go swimming or practice our putting or play on the playground or shuffleboard. So he said, tomorrow you can pretend. So Wednesday, I stayed in all day (I did put a beer bottle in the recycle bin which was right outside the front door . . . but I'm not counting that).

Anyway, I did manage to finish some lacy stuff . . . I also have a bowl mostly finished and ready for felting . . . and I finished the clutch which needs to be sewn up and felted . . .

When we got home on Saturday, we unpacked and sat on the back porch sharing some brews with Cortney's parents. (Cortney is Lindsey's friend who went on vacation with us).

Yesterday, Lindsey and I went shopping for fabric so she could sew up a bag. We spent HOURS in Joann's. Lindsey is very artsy and saw a bag in Canada that she really really wanted and "Gee, MOM, what a deal, it is only $75!" It was nothing. A square tote with 4" quilted squares and the whole thing was absolutely nothing to write home about. So we bought quilting fabric (in various shades of blue), a Vogue pattern (regularly $20 on sale for $3.00). I also bought mucho other things (they had Debbie Munn yarn regularly $5.99 on sale for $2.00) and another pattern for me (regularly $15 on sale for $2.00). The store is doing inventory today and they always have great sales before inventory.

When we got home, I cut Zachariah's hair, plopped him in the tub, cut Lindsey's squares and started blocking the lace. Zachariah wanted to help . . . and here he is learning how to block knitting . . . he kept dropping the ruler and finally informed me that if he keeps everything lined up with the lines on the mat, he doesn't need a ruler, thank you very much.

some other time I will post the photos of the vacation! It really was great fun and very relaxing.