Semi-FO
Pattern: Leaf Lace Shawl (I've misplaced the actual pattern)
Yarn: Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool, color 23, three skeins
Started: December 24, 2005;

I used the Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool when I unfortunately couldn't find enough skeins of a lovely maroon Koigu that I found in New York last summer. Even though this yarn wasn't exactly what I wanted, it turned out to be perfect for the shawl and the color is just lovely. Although I'm tempted to keep it for myself, I'm going to put it aside to give to my tea ceremony teacher next year when I leave Japan. 15 months early--this is a SERIOUS record! The last bit of the shawl was very slow going as I was knitting about one row per episode of Project Runway that my mom taped for me. I don't know if the rows were actually that long or if my eyes were totally glued to the TV. I loved every second of that show!

I love the look of the purl side of this pattern. It reminds me of old-fashioned egg cartons. (Are those paper cartons actually old-fashioned? Or do they just not have them in Japan?) The only drawback to knitting this big shawl is that the only place in my small apartment sufficient for blocking is my double bed. If the shawl were for me, I might be able to sacrifice a night of sleeping on the floor to block this as soon as possible. But seeing as I've got lots of time and the bugs are starting to come out of the woodwork, I think I'll stay in bed and wait to block it next time I go away for a weekend. Hey, I've got 15 months!

I was also lucky enough to get lots of cool stuff in the mail in the past few weeks. For one thing, my first candyswappers package, yum! Blogless (I think) Mya had me totally figured out, and sent some delicious regional candies (that was the theme of the swap) plus a few seasonal necessities. And fingerless mitts, too! As you can see I was totally spoiled. But the big shocker is that it's not all gone yet! It's the new me. (Mum, don't have a heart attack--I'm taking good care of my teeth!)

Finally, I decided to start a new project to get out of my recent knitting slump, and decided there was nothing better to start with than the yoga bag from Stitch n Bitch Nation. The pattern is pretty simple, but I changed it just a bit so that the stripes would be horizontal rather than vertical. Yes, this is the yarn that I bought to learn to crochet, but when it came right down to it, I decided that I don't really want a super bright crochet scarf so why make one? What I do want is a super bright yoga bag so that I can stop strapping up my mat in a bungee cord to go to yoga on Tuesdays. Plus, it's no fun when it goes bouncing out of my bike basket--a shoulder strap option is really in order!

*I've been listening to the OK Go song "A Million Ways" a lot lately and was really disappointed to see that the lyrics are actually "A million ways to be cruel" and not "a million ways to be cool." Don't you just hate it when the right lyrics give the song a whole new meaning? It's still a great song though.