Daedalus Begins Working

I finished blocking my very first shawl attempts yesterday. It went pretty well.

And by pretty well, I mean that I closed the door to the room where the shawls were drying and told everyone not to leave the door open. After being satisfied by everyone's promises, I left the house for an hour. Upon coming back I found said door open and the shipwreck shawl no longer pinned to the futon. The door was closed to keep a certain somebody out of the room and off of the shawls.

I, of course, was not upset with the dog. I already knew that given the chance he would lay all over the shawls and pull up all the pins. I was more upset with a certain tall and funny-looking housemate who promised not to leave the door open. Liar liar pants on fire. Luckily all was well in the end. The shawls were re pinned.

They dried without anymore incidents. (Of course that was because I locked the door and gave a fair number of dirty looks)

Later on I started a new shawl. The Icarus Shawl. Brennan has taken to calling me Daedalus.

Land Ho!

Yesterday I officially finished knitting the Shipwreck Shawl. Phew. I ended up watching four seasons of Law and Order: SVU while making the shawl, which comes out to around 65 hours. So, I am naming the shawl Law and Order. Seems appropriate.

A new dilemma arises though. Originally I was going to dye the shawl using the instructions from Knitty. But I'm not so sure anymore. This is where all you readers come in. Should I dye the shawl as seen in Knitty, or should I leave it as is. Please vote. I am equally divided.

What Color Should The Shipwreck Shawl Be?

In other news, my camera is starting to give me problems. This morning the camera portion just wouldn't turn on. Only preview worked. So it looks like I'm going to be saving up for a new camera. I'm just happy it worked long enough for me to get a few pictures of the shawl and the beautiful day out by the mill.

Law, Order and Knitting

Just a little update. I've knitted three tams this week for farmer's market. Unfortunately, I didn't see Jane. I guess this gives me more time to find a model. Anyone want to model a tam this week? I'll put you on the blog. Until then, here's what they look like sans model.

Now that I don't have school and my jobs are only part time, I've had lots of time to knit. For the past two days (maybe four... who knows at this point) I've been watching Law and Order: SVU and knitting. The Shipwreck Shawl is coming along nicely. I can feel my knitting skills improve. Today I was able to spot a mistake with the lace within ten stitches, which is much better than yesterday's, "Hmm, I have two extra stitches at the end of this round, I wonder what went wrong."

Another Scooter report for everyone. Usually Scooter goes under the bedsheets and sleeps all curled up. Today he decided that having his head outside of the covers made it easier to breathe. I managed to get a picture of his right before he noticed I had the camera and flashed an irritated "not another picture of me" look.

I Thought Graduation Would Be A Bit More Exciting

It is official. As of today, I have graduated. I thought it would feel a bit more exciting than "I guess I don't go to school anymore." But in honor finishing school, I am posting an assignment I am particularly proud of. It was done in 30 hours over five days last summer. The music is by a local artist called Nat Lefkoff. You should check out his other music. It is quite excellent.

In other news, I bought myself a ball winder and swift. I can't believe I didn't buy it sooner. I can wind piles of yarn so quickly. It use to take me nearly a whole James Bond movie to wind one ball. But now.... Zoom!

Scooter investigates. Seems harmless, but it takes the attention away from him.

I got rather addicted and wound all the loose yarn in my collection.

While I was taking the yarn pictures, I noticed some bees pollinating the flowers. Naturally I had to follow them around. A sort of bee paparazzi if you will.

Macro shots are some of my favorite to take.

New work in progress. I started on my first lace project. And by first, I mean the first one I intend to finish. There was the disastrous lace scarf incident that scarred me so badly that I haven't tried lace in four years. I knit faster now. I'm sure this will go better. The pattern is the Shipwreck Shawl.