Spring Shawl - Clue 2

Clue 2 to LUL's Spring Shawl Surprise is finished and has been finished for over a week. Here is a picture. I can't believe it took me to a few rows into Clue 2 to realize that the shawl isn't symmetric. There is one fewer row next to the right side border. (That may be why I kept having trouble with the borders. I was using the left and right pattern sheets interchangeably.)

The shawl is not blocked. And so the pulling from the k3tog's toward the center of the picture is visible. (The brown threads show the dividing line between pattern sheets. The green marks the center.) I really like the little birds' eyes. I'm not sure I'm doing them right, but at least they look ok. -- When reading a pattern from left to right, I naturally switch a k2tog to a ssk and vice versa.

The move to north of Chicago went well. We got the cable tv, internet, and phone hooked up this past weekend. We got the printer hooked up yesterday. It is interesting trying to knit a pattern like this (ie Clue 3 of the pattern) off of a laptop screen -- but doable.

Spring Shawl - Clue 1

Clue 1 for the Spring Shawl Surprise is done -- and Clue 2 doesn't even come out until Monday. I'm using KP Essential Vineyard and size 4 needles. It's easier to knit than I thought it would be -- at least, so far. I like the edging -- and actually all of the design elements. Though, when I make a mistake, it's more than likely to be at the edging. I guess that my concentration isn't as great there as elsewhere.

added Sunday: LUL, the designer of the shawl, just sent a note out that the next section will be more difficult. She's posted a picture of the shawl to Clue 1, on her blog. You've got to like a person who can leave out a couple of rows and still have something that looks nice.

fyi. Sign-ups end on the 8th.

Happy New Year

Here are a couple of Christmas pictures that I thought I'd post. The first is of our 2 cats just after they opened the catnip presents we got them. Clearly, they didn't want to share. But, at least, it wasn't like last year in which both of them got so zonked out on catnip that they didn't even want to eat.

The second if of some of the presents we got. (I like the fireman with the cat. There's a bottle of glögg under his hat.)

I finished one sweater before New Year's and so have a total of 11 for the year. I'm about half done with another. So, I guess it will be my January sweater.

The first clue to the Yahoo! group Spring Shawl Surprise came out just after midnight Central European Time. And so I have a lace shawl to work on.