Finished: The Amethyst Fair Isle Sweater

February 17, 2017February 14, 20174 Comments

It’s been finished for a couple of weeks, but it’s also birthday season here in Brooketopia, so I’ve just been too busy for blogging while finishing up birthday presents and the inevitable Valentine’s Day stuff that moms of school-aged kids deal with.

But, yes, the big purple sweater is complete, she loves it, and I thought I’d share some more photos of it outside of Instagram.

I loved sketching out the fair isle designs, my cat got in the way constantly, and the long expanse of purple body knitting was something I really enjoyed–so mindless and soothing.

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But the best part, ALWAYS, of knitting fair isle anythings is the actual fair isle knitting. People, I had a fabulous January, even in spite of a really mean chest cold that I caught from my kids. Who cares if you’re sick and can barely breathe when you can just weather it out in bed watching Netflix and knitting away on a big, beautiful bunch of colors?!?! Best bout of sickness EVAH.

I had the goal of finishing it up before my girl’s birthday at the beginning of February, and I’m pleased to say that it was blocked by her birthday, but still needed its underarm seams and end-weaving, so not completely finished, but definitely finished enough!

I got those last bits out of the way over the next few days, and she was able to wear it to church the following Sunday.

Yes, I’m monstrously pleased with how it turned out. I did a little bit of shaping in the waist, and the fit was just so good! Pre-blocking, the neck was really wonky and caused me a great deal of worry, so I blocked it rather aggressively and the photo shows that it turned out just fine.

I haven’t done a whole lot of knitting in the past few years, so this was a bit of a crazy undertaking, but I’m so glad I went through with it–it’s very beautiful, and I got a bit of a “Heck yeah, I can still do this!” ego boost from it, ha ha.

I don’t really see any knitting in my immediate crafty future, but I’m sure the bug will bite again come autumn and its chilly air. I heart fair isle knitting so much!

A Snowstorm Can’t Even Halt This Sweater’s Progress

January 21, 20171 Comment

During my post-surgery bedrest in November and December, I found myself with no project to work on, so I whipped up a couple of Fair Isle hats for two of my kids as last-minute Christmas presents, but that only took three days and then I was once again project-less. After a little stash-diving, I came across a sweater’s worth of purple yarn that spoke to me.

Unfortunately, I’m kind of done with purple. I really, really loved it for a long time–my wedding colors were periwinkle and amethyst, I almost named my first daughter Amethyst because that’s her birthstone and I thought I could call her “Amy” for short, and I’ve painted my great room a beautiful shade of periwinkle. But about six months ago, I just started to dislike the color.

So, we’re scheduled to re-paint the great room this summer, and I needed a way to use up that sweater’s worth of purple yarn in such a way that would result in me NOT wearing it. I asked my oldest daughter if she wanted me to knit her a purple sweater, and she enthusiastically accepted the offer.

So I’m knitting her a purple colorwork-yoked sweater, which is also a little nod to our Icelandic heritage. The timing has been spectacular; I’ve had some bad back days, and I have now caught the cold that kept my son home from school this entire last week. I am flying through the knitting because I’m stuck in bed with nothing to do and the cold medicine makes my brain all fuzzy, so planning, letter-writing, managing finances, and the like are out. Knit, knit, knit.

I finally got through all the mindless purple knitting and started on THE BEST PART: the colorwork yoke. I originally got into knitting for the Fair Isle sweaters–colorwork is my FAVORITE thing about knitting. Mmmm, colorwork. Love, love, love it.

201701211957782402 Row #3 of my colorwork chart introduced green. I started knitting with a green yarn from my stash, and wasn’t really loving it, but hey, stash-busting! I kept knitting.

Row #4…I’m not sure if this green is a good idea. Nah, it’ll be fine.

Middle of Row #4…you know, I’m starting to actively dislike this green.

3/4 of Row #4: No. I am not putting all of this effort into a HANDKNIT sweater only to regret the color of yarn I used because I was trying to “make do.” This is 2017, I don’t live in a little house on the prairie, I don’t knit with yarn I made from my own sheep flock, I am allowed to JUST ORDER THE COLOR OF YARN THAT I WANT TO USE.

What I was using was a forest green yarn from my stash, but when I colored my colorwork charts, I didn’t have a forest green-colored pencil crayon, so I used an emerald-colored pencil crayon…and man, did I like my colorwork chart with the emerald-colored squares.

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Also, the forest green yarn just simply lacked contrast with the purple yarn it was paired with, which does make for a good colorwork design. So I ordered some emerald-colored yarn. (Well, I ordered two skeins of different emerald-colored yarns…just to be sure I had what I wanted.)

And three days later I still had not received a shipping confirmation email. The sweater sits in its little IKEA rolling cart next to my bed, staring at me in its incomplete state while I resign myself to yet another day of mindless NetFlix viewing without the bonus of being productive because I can’t knit on the sweater because I don’t have the right green yarn. Yes, I’m recuperating, but it feels like a completely waste of precious time that you get so much of before you die. (For those of you who are new around here, I HATE, yes, hate, wasting time. I don’t “do nothing,” even if I’m sick or injured. It just feels…wrong. Hence my love of handwork…even if you’re sick or injured you can be productive. And also reading, reading is good, but only if you’re not taking cold medicine that makes you all fuzzy in the brain.)

I force myself to get out of bed once an hour and walk around the house so I can hopefully avoid back spasms from too much laying in bed while I’m sick. I talk to my family, take medicine, get a drink of water…you know, break up the monotony a little bit.

Apparently I’ve been worrying out loud whilst strolling about my home; worrying out loud about my green yarn not being right, and then worrying out loud that my “right” green yarn hasn’t shipped. I vaguely realize that this is a not a big problem in comparison to keeping our home running while I’m once again stuck in bed, but it’s on my mind and the cold medicine lowers my inhibitions, so I ramble about the things that flit around in my brain.

My husband got a phone call from work this Saturday morning–the facilities manager needed to use the snow plow to deal with the snowstorm that rolled in this morning (a SNOWSTORM, people! PERFECT knitting weather!), but the keys to the snowplow were in a different building across town, and no one had keys to get into that building except my husband. So he set out to solve the problem.

An hour later he phoned, presumably to let me know that he was coming home (I’m an anxious soul that likes to know where my people are and what they’re doing), but instead of telling me he was heading home, he asked if I needed him to run any errands while he was already in town. I said that I didn’t need anything, and to drive safe because the roads were pretty bad with the ongoing snowfall.

“You sure about that?” he said, “Because I’m already in town, and the yarn shop is nearby…”

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My husband is a sexy, sexy man who voluntarily does yarn runs for me in a snowstorm. Mmm.

And now for undoing two rows of three hundred stitches and starting over with the right green…

…and I’ll need to figure out what to do with those two skeins of emerald-colored yarn that will be making their way to me shortly. Thoughts?

Bed Rest, Weeks 1-3

December 1, 20161 Comment

Sooooo…

…had some surgery in November, which wasn’t supposed to take that long to recover from, but then, at the one-week follow-up appointment, my doctor broke the news that I needed to stay in bed for another five weeks. So I went from expecting one week of lying around to SIX WEEKS. DURING THE HOLIDAYS.

The six-week follow-up appointment happens during the week before Christmas, so I’m pretty much stuck in bed, drooling over all the gorgeous Instagram posts of beautiful Christmas quilts and lamenting that I can’t finish all the stuff that I promised myself that I was going to finally finish up this year. 2016 has not been a banner year for me, people.

BUT…I do not want to be one of those people who mopes about and whines about their difficulties, so that has meant trying to stay “busy” despite the bed rest.

Week #1:

I spent the days leading up to my surgery frantically finishing up a quilt to the point where I’d only have the hand stitching of the binding left to do. During my first week post-op, I finished hand stitching the binding. Then I designed some alterations for a dress I own that’s too short on me, and, inspired by the idea of sewing clothing, I read Couture Sewing Techniques, which then had me researching Christian Dior-everything for a few days.

Week #2:

After receiving the very unexpected news of another five weeks of bed rest, I panicked and decided to start a Christmas EPP quilt, but after finishing two of the blocks I realized that I didn’t actually want to make it and abandoned it. I’ll keep the blocks for something else in the future.

Then I decided that the quilt label for the quilt I’d just finished binding could use a little extra pizazz, so I opted to embroider parts of it, which took the rest of the week and little of the next. (There is a lot of napping happening during my day.)

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I also read The Art of Manipulating Fabric, and Draping: The Complete Course. I’m seeing some garment construction in my future, and I’m excited. I have three daughters who are about to embark upon their teenage years, and I’ve always thought that one of the funnest parts of having girls would be making their party and dance dresses, and it’s always good to practice a skill before you actually *need* it, so maybe next year will see me venture into that arena a bit.

Week #3:

Thanksgiving, which had to be delegated to my kids and they did a pretty great job of it. A friend from my quilt guild saw my SOS Instagram post and brought me over a ton of books to read, so I spent most of my third week reading:

A Curse Dark as Gold (very good retelling of “Rumpelstiltskin!”)
Dragonfly (enjoyed very much!)
Once Upon a Marigold (not sure I’ll finish it), and
The Blue Sword (enjoying)

So here we are, amidst Week #4, and I was really hoping that my doctor’s “six weeks” prescription was just overly cautious, but I tried to sew up the swap block for November this week and it about killed me with pain and exhaustion to just do a fabric pull, so I had to send out an email apologizing for the block’s tardiness because it will not be getting finished anytime soon. And, as a precaution, I wrote to December’s swap recipient as well and gave her a heads-up that her block could end up being late as well. Sigh.

BUT…I woke up from this surgery with NO BACK PAIN for the first time in three years, so the future is looking mighty bright! I can rest three more weeks if it means no back pain.

And, for Week #4, I’m feeling the knitting a-calling to me…especially:

Color-Tipped Italian Cashmere Beanie by Churchmouse Yarns (because it’s beautiful in that wonderfully elegant way that “simple” is beautiful)
Honeymoon Cowl by FitzBirch Crafts (learning double knit could be fun)
Botanical Yoke Pullover by Purl Soho (oh, that cabled yoke…will have to wait, but it’s sure fun to stare at it when I can)
St. Brendan by Kelbourne Woolens (I’m making this some day, but not now because it takes some planning), or
Socks! (Because I can do that…)

My son does need a new winter hat…I think my second daughter might need one, too…OH! And I was supposed to mend my youngest daughter’s Hello Kitty hat…bed rest or not, a mama’s work is never done. I cannot wait to get back to making pancakes, and vacuuming, and cooking dinners that don’t come from a box. Resting is a nice change, but it’s sucky to be forced to rest from taking care of the people you love.

Randomly in November

November 19, 20152 Comments

I saw the sign-ups for the Bee Hive Swap in time this year, and got in! :::happy dance::: So excited!
My own swap group that I’m running liked it so much that a bunch want to do it again next year! So, busy with setting that up at the moment.
Yeah, two year-long swaps…talk to me at the end of next year. 🙂
I wrote up an exhaustive inventory of the many works-in-progress taking up space in my craft room, and then hammered out a plan to plough through almost all of them in the next year.
The first WIP that will reach completion as a result of my awesome new plan is probably a pair of socks that I started back in Australia.
A newly-finished pair of socks right now is kind of perfect, given that the snow has started. I was actually thinking the socks would be a Christmas present for someone dear to me, but my feet are freakin’ freezing, so I’m going to keep them. Mwa ha ha.
The second WIP that will probably get finished is a baby boy quilt I started almost eight years ago.

The kid in this photo is Penguin, who is now nine years old. She’s drinking from the mug I received after giving birth to Junebug, who is now seven-and-a-half years old…
It’s funny how you can start a project with so much excitement, but with each passing year of not completing said project how much that excitement turns into resentment and shame. So much so that I definitely don’t want to keep the quilt when I’m done, but fear the repercussions of giving a new life an item infused with so many negative feelings from myself. The act of giving wipes off all the bad juju, right? Right?
I’ve also fleshed out a “Baby Gift Flowchart” to help me decide what to make for tiny humans on my radar. In this age of social media, I find that I’m inundated with the awareness of many a pregnancy, and the baby-lovin’ crafter part of me really wants to make something for every one of them. However, given the physical limitations of time, I can’t. So I came up with a way to shrink the pool a bit and ease my conscience. A line had to be drawn somewhere, or I’d never be done with making baby gifts.
I’m currently aware of nine pregnancies, and of three women trying to get pregnant. That’s twelve impending births in the next year. My flowchart narrows the gifts down to five recipients, which is still a lot, but gives me back a bunch of time. I am raising four children of my own…
My son broke the teeth off of the zipper of his winter parka the first day he wore it. Of course. Even better, he broke off enough teeth that the actual zipper pull fell off, too. So, instead of working on WIPs, my time is needed to repair a zipper in a parka.
Once again, making plans is a dumb idea.

Autumn Socks

September 22, 2015September 22, 20153 Comments

The upside of having a broken foot and not being able to use your sewing machine, drive a car, or basically do anything is that it gives you more time for handwork-style crafting like knitting, which I’ve neglected for the past year during my sewing obsession. I started these socks while we were living in Australia last year, hoping that they’d be ready for Thanksgiving; but they weren’t and it was OK. They’re ready for this year’s feast.

I finished the first sock while we were in Australia, but didn’t get around to casting on for the second sock until July of this year. Our family went to Lagoon, and seeing how I was still recovering from back surgery and banned from all the rides, I set up camp and watched over all our stuff while my husband escorted the kids around the park.

I then worked on it mostly at physical therapy appointments for the rest of the summer, and finished it up on a lovely autumn day spent doing archery amongst the changing colors of the leaves in the mountains. These are the autumn-est of socks.

I’ve procrastinated writing up a post about them because I haven’t wanted to model them–I’ve got a boot on one foot for my stupid broken metatarsal, and I had to have something done to a toe on my other foot because my feet are just whiny little pansies right now. But I know, from previous experience, that I’ll just never get around to writing a post if I don’t do it when the finish is still fresh in my mind, so foot modeling with a broken foot it is!

Fabulous.
Just fabulous.
Limp down that runway.

I roll my own eyes at myself. 🙂

Hopefully, next week’s check-in appointment will find me wholly healed and then I can ditch the boot. *fingers crossed*

The yarn is Manos del Uruguay’s Alegria in colorway “Ceibo.” I knit these up for my US Size 10 feet and have quite a bit leftover. I may even weigh the leftovers at some point so I can really know just exactly how much is left over.

I used Diane Soucy’s “Beginner’s Lightweight Socks” pattern, which is my go-to pattern, even though I really wish I could get the Yarn Harlot’s “Sock Recipe” to work for me…I mess that one up in some little way every single time, so I went with my tried-and-true pattern.

Pretty autumn colors. Yay!

Click here to view this project’s Ravelry page.

The Strutting Will Happen Later

February 10, 2015February 10, 20151 Comment

It’s interesting how much my mood changes based upon whether or not I’m sticking to the schedule I’ve laid out for myself in regards to making progress on creative projects. Falling behind equals feeling gloomy, and checking every step off on the day they’re supposed to be checked off equals a little bit of swagger. “Oh yeah, I am owning this spreadsheet!”

I’ve struggled to stay on track with the Peacock Stole since we’ve returned home, so I decided to slow down on its creation, opting to shoot for twelve rows a week instead of twenty. Perhaps it will stay at this rate until it’s done; or maybe I’ll find a little bit of internal kindling in the future to step up the progress to its former level.

I’m recovering from a new bout of back pain which has me laid out on the couch for large portions of the day. It’s been three weeks since it started up again, and I probably have three to nine more weeks of taking it easy and letting the discs heal. It’s very frustrating, but I am thankful that I have projects that can move ahead while I’m stuck on my back.

So, while I can’t literally strut over the progress I’m making on the Peacock Stole, I’m feeling rather proud of how well I’m doing in moving ahead on it. Progress is inhibited by the necessity of taking some medications that make it hard to concentrate on reading and executing lace knitting, but I’ve been playing it safe and not knitting when I’m taking those medicines. (Good news: Haven’t taken any medicines in that category in over a week.) There was an evening where I was thinking I could probably handle knitting “under the influence,” but then I walked into a wall and thought that maybe I’d just play it safe instead. Patience, patience.

To date: Row #100 on the second half. At the new rate of 12 rows per week, I’m expecting a completion date in July.

Two of a Kind

November 17, 2014February 1, 20151 Comment

Oh, my knitter heart is very happy. Not only do I now possess a new pair of handknit socks, but they’re made from yarn sent by my wonderful best friend, AND the self-striping matched up perfectly! Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

I busted out an old pattern for these–the first sock pattern that I ever knit, actually: Diane Soucy’s “Easy Lightweight Beginner’s Socks” pattern. I made my first socks with it, three years ago. Sadly, that pair of socks wore out earlier this year, after many, many times of wear. These replace those.

The yarn is ONline’s “Supersocke 4-fach” in the “Neptun” colorway. The thing I’ve enjoyed with people sending me sock yarn is that they choose the colors, and the colors are different than what I would choose. It was fun to knit these up in a colorway that I probably wouldn’t have chosen myself simply because I tend to choose other things. I really liked this colorway, especially how the turquoise-y part ended up on the heels. Mmm, turquoise heels. It made me smile both times it happened while I was knitting them.

Of course, I won’t be wearing these in any regular fashion until we return home, because it’s wicked hot here in Queensland. (Summer has a way of being hot, doesn’t it?) However, I couldn’t resist the urge to take a quick photo of my newly-finished socks against the palm tree backdrop of our backyard, even though it’s kind of ridiculous to wear wool socks for any amount of time when it’s 93 degrees (F) outside. This finish is far more suited for my permanent residence, which saw its first snowfall this past week.

Whatever. It’s 90-something degrees in November, I have palm trees in my back yard, and a fresh new pair of handknit socks. Life is good.

(He keeps stealing them because they make “great dancing socks.”)

Peacock Pride

October 23, 2014February 1, 20151 Comment

It’s already been a month since I last showed you some Peacock progress! What?! I’m quite certain it was only two weeks ago, but the blog doesn’t lie. Time is flying.

So here it is, after three months of consistent attention. I am finished with all but the last chart, and when that’s done I’ll pick it up and start all over again for the second half. I’m pretty pleased with myself right now. Slow and steady, slow and steady. I don’t think people tend to use those words to describe my crafting, but they have to now, mwa ha ha ha. Expectations, shattered. Lookee me, I’m, like, responsible and stuff.

Isn’t Penguin so cute? She was super happy to help “model” the stole for its photo shoot. Her missing teeth on the sides of her two front teeth crack me up. Growing girl.

I’ve reached the point where I am getting kind of tired of this project, so there’s no magical progress moments where I feel like knitting any extra beyond my daily amount scheduled. However, I’m ridiculously pleased with the fact that this thing is growing, so I just keep knitting my pittance of rows five days a week and then rejoice over the stole’s progress. Isn’t it funny how you can be absolutely psyched about something, but really not look forward to the work you have to do to make the cool thing happen? I guess that’s what we call laziness, and it explains a lot of the problems we have in the world from time to time.

This section is brought to you courtesy of the month of October.

I’ve scheduled some time off from this in November, after I finish the first half. When I put that break in the schedule, I wondered if it was wise, but now that I’m approaching the midway point, I’m so glad that I gave myself some time off guilt-free. Just a week or two, but it will be needed.

Yay for slow and steady!

Soothe

October 8, 2014February 1, 20153 Comments

I messed up, big time, with my crafterly expectations for my time in Australia. While my goals of moving ahead on two behemoth projects were very well-intentioned, I made the foolish mistake of expecting myself to stay entirely faithful to said behemoths.

Reality check: I am not that kind of creative soul.

You see, crafting fits into my life as an anti-stressor, alongside the things I’m already doing. It sets my teeth on edge to sit and not do something with my hands. You’ll notice it right away if you talk to me–I gesticulate like a drunk schizophrenic. Talking is an aerobic activity for me. And while I view my spirited conversational quirks as endearing and entertaining, I don’t much relish the idea of what I would look like doing the same whilst watching the television. Enter the crafting to fill my hands with something useful and keep the windmilling down to a sane level while doing sedentary activities like media viewing, waiting for water to boil, and teaching. The Star Spangled Diamonds Quilt (SSDQ) manages to fit into this “crafting alongside another activity” domain rather well.

Exception: Riding in the car. In order to have the car during the week, I must drive Michael into work. This is a good twenty minutes of sitting time that requires me not to wave my hands about (driver safety!), hence the need for a calming craft project. I assumed that the SSDQ would work in this scenario; but, alas, the roads here are not terribly smooth, which makes sticking a teeny little applique needle through two threads of fabric ONLY kind of hard to do. I stabbed myself in the fingers, I dropped my needle repeatedly, my work was sloppy and uneven, Michael flinched every time I pulled the needle out of the fabric and maybe just a little too close towards his face…sewing in the car was a no. And the Peacock Stole requires silence and concentration; and, most notably, non-movement of my body while knitting.

“That’s OK,” I thought to myself, “I’ll use the time to really talk with Michael, and really take in my surroundings. I’ll probably grow as a person as a result of this so-called ‘inconvenience.'”

Wrong again.

I’m married to MICHAEL. I know, kinda obvious, but all my years of crafting in the car while driving along suitably-smooth American roads had made me forget that MICHAEL likes to drive fast. Not dangerously fast, but fast enough that I feel like I’m on the brink of an anxiety attack because he does. not. brake. when I think he should start braking. It sets me on edge, I scare him with my gasping at our impending, bloody deaths, and no one feels like they’ve grown in any positive manner at the end of the journey. He sees nothing wrong with how he drives, so that’s not going to change simply because my middle name is “Caution.” (Oh, the irony of being the one with the speeding ticket in this particular situation…)

I needed a mindless, non-intricate project. Bad. The internet problem still wouldn’t allow for some yarn browsing, and the one-two punch of international shipping restrictions (i.e. no knitting needles for you if we know you’re trying to ship them) and credit card technical difficulties made the entire venture pointless.

Enter the Best Friend.

Oh, sweet, sweet, best friend of mine, how I love you. If this were a long, long time ago, I would pay people to sing prayers on your behalf when you died. Which is a gruesome thought, since it involves your death, but the sentiment is nice. (I’m a historian, and that’s what people did to show gratitude and respect for a long time, OK?)

Denise watched my online neurotic unraveling, and decided to do something about it before I became certifiably insane. She drove on down to her local textile shop in Washington, USA, talked to some yarnies about my spiral of descent, and walked out with yarnie-approved sock yarn and correctly-sized needles, which she then mailed to me on the other side of the world. The woman is pure gold.

Not gonna lie, I actually cried when I opened that package. Not full-out ugly crying, but some definite “Dude, why’s your nose running?” kind of crying. And then I ripped into that skein of yarn like a reformed vegetarian tears into their first filet mignon.

Oh, sweet, soothing, self-striping stockinette stitch. I can feel my body relaxing whenever I pick these up and start working. Oh, balm to my soul. The thrill of the mindless caressing of yarn that turns into plain vanilla socks. I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. Deep, from-the-bones, sigh of relief LOVE IT.

Which is more than I can say for my son, who prefers playing Plants Vs. Zombies for his personal relaxation:

Thirty seconds later he was in a heap on the ground, sobbing because he can’t beat whatever level he’s on at the moment. I do not understand the lure of video games.

Now I have a mindless project to keep my hands happy as I sit in the car and consciously avoid imagining our fiery demise. It’s also nice to take out upon the deck and put in a few rounds while decompressing after a long day of homeschooling.

So beautiful, so delightful.

So soothing.

Another Peek at the Peacock

September 22, 2014February 1, 2015Leave a comment

It’s been three weeks since you last saw the proud little Peacock Stole-in-progress, and I’m happy to report that what you’re looking at is what this looks like at THE END OF CHART #6.

It turns out that Chart #6, despite being a whole lot of rows, was pretty much just a eight row repeat that was easily memorized, so I took to knitting up eight rows a day for the last two weeks, instead of the formerly-planned-on fours row a day. As a result, I’ve finished up this chart two weeks early. Today I will venture into Chart #7, which has some stitch symbols waiting for me to learn.

The stole is at Row #204, and there’s 304 rows per side, so we’re getting close to being done with the first half! (Yep, once I reach “the end,” I get to pick up all those live stitches waiting on the lime-green yarn and literally knit all of this AGAIN.)

I love, love, love the peacock feathers part of this pattern. The beginning charts with the diamonds were hard for me and I despised them, but once those are out of the way, this is such an enjoyable knit. I really like the double yarn-over rows! The peacock feathers are surprisingly simple and I still smile triumphantly each time another row of completed feathers emerge. Pretty, pretty!

I talked to my granny (the $500 phone call that actually cost $17) after the last Peacock post went live, and she is beyond excited that this is finally happening. She’s never bothered me about it not happening, and I’ve apologized profusely over the years about it not happening, but both of us were eager to see for it to happen, so we’re both just a little ridiculously excited that it is finally happening and not kicking my butt. Yippee all around!

I’ve decided that I will not add beads to this project. The idea has been swimming in my head for a long time, but I’ve decided that beads would just be a little too much. Given also that it’s a long rectangle, adding beads on the ends will add weight to the ends and I think it will stretch and distort the lace pattern. The pattern is fabulous without any extras added to it, so we’re going to stay the course and knit it as written. Goodness, do I love the color.