Lace Binge and Other Things

I’ve been on a lace knitting binge for a few years now. I’m hoping to finish up these last three projects and then move on to cables and fair isle. The lavender Flower Basket shawl (Interweave Knits, Fall 2004 issue) is finished but not blocked. This is the second one of this pattern I’ve made. The previous one was a rich milk-chocolate brown color, very scrumptious. I used Crystal Palace Kid Merino this time, and have to say that it’s *not* my favorite lace knitting yarn. With its blend of 28% kid mohair, 28% merino wool & 44% micro nylon, it just doesn’t have the luxury feel of some other yarns. I guess it must be the nylon content.

The white is the ongoing Tina Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. I’m using Knitpicks laceweight Merino for this one. It’s been living in a bag for awhile because I just could not face the remaining 1.7 sides of the border lace pattern, a 16-row repeat done over and over and over and over and over. . . you get the picture. I’ll pull it out again (promise) and do hope to finish it before it is found by those four-letter-word creatures beginning with the letter “M”.

The blue is my favorite yarn so far - Madil’s Kid Seta. It weighs *nothing*. It’s like knitting with air. The yarn flows through my fingers and over the needles effortlessly, and practically knits itself (as long as I’m not riding in the car on a bumpy road). I have decided that using a headlamp is a great help, especially in the car or for those late-night-knitting-in-bed endeavors. I can watch Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and David Letterman and still see my stitches. Oh Joy! I should mention that this is the Oregon Shawl, by Knit One Crochet Too. I have just started it.

On to Other Things

This is a recent sunrise here on our little hobby farm. This is Mount Baker, and for those of you who don’t understand about real mountains, well, this is one. It’s a Washington thing, I guess, but we don’t consider it to be a real mountain unless it’s covered with snow and/or periodically erupts.


And this is my hubby, Doug, milking a goat. Not our goat, but belongs to one of his co-workers. It’s an Oberhasli and the milk is truly rich & creamy. As I am lactose-intolerant, I still need to take lactaid or some other enzyme to drink it, but it is sooooooo good. I also must be allergic to the casein in cow’s milk, as even with lactaid, I experience significant gastrointestinal pyrotechnics. Goat milk contains different proteins! They don’t bother me! Will we get a couple of goats? Well, it’s under consideration. We’d need to further work out fencing issues, as goats are more challenging to keep in. We’ll keep you posted.


And here is Angus the Gray, enjoying the back of my vest project which is still in the works (combination of Lamb’s Pride Worsted & handspun, in a free-form modular design that I’m making up as I go.)