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Bound & determined gosh darnit

I am going to finish this fan & feather shawl if it is the last thing I do. So.close. Only 10 rows to go but man are they some serious rows! I timed myself on row 171 of 189 and was knitting at 31minutes a round. Not so bad for over 1200 sts a round. The pattern rows are the killers. Over an hour because I am triple checking my stitch count after every yo & decrease section. Last thing I need is to drop a stitch or make a mistake in the 11th hour of this shawl (knock on wood). So, hours will be spent knitting around & around in gorgeous merino single spun handpainted yarn. Darn.

I really wasn’t too concerned with getting balls of yarn all perfectly spaced to not have color changes. The yarn is handpainted/kettle dyed and a one of a kind 3 hank batch. I wanted it to be kind of raw moving from hank to hank. I like it a lot!

So in a completely selfish mood I decided to stop by Knit & Pearl this afternoon, before getting the kids from school, & purchase a pick me up in the hopes I would be motivated to complete the shawl & move on to something colorful & new to work on.

3 hanks of Patagonia Araucania yarn in shades; reds, oranges & blues. They will go with the emerald/blue that I already have on hand (all 9 balls) and become a large shawl. Triangle or spiral circle I am not sure yet. I was going to make a cardigan but have since decided that I will use a cotton shawl more. I already have a dozen knit cardigans that get passed over when I get dressed.

1 more ball of misti Alpaca lace for another shawl. I am slowly collecting the yarn for this shawl since I need over 3000 yards for the pattern.

And 1 ball of DB cashmerino aran yarn to make myself a pair of Fetching gloves for this winter.

And a sample of Soak (her prices are better at knit & pearl than online), a new wool wash that Julie had samples of. It smells so good…so good…

Oh & I did start a project the other night at a really late hour when I wasn’t thinking straight.

Woolease granny square blanket from Lion Brand.

I am using all the same colors as in the pattern pictured above. So fast. It’s an easy set-it-aside-pick-it-up-whenever project. Inexpensive & washable. Can’t beat that!

Let’s see, what else have I got going on? I have more sock yarn calling my name than I know what to do with. It’s almost worth staying up 72 hours straight & knitting socks just to use some of it up. Not a good idea you say? Shucks. Oh! And I started a Filatura Di Crosa sweater from the fall 2005 book. Gorgeous sweater. I will get a picture up once the shawl is done & I get past the 7inches of ribbing.

Now if I could only get some spinning in sometime….