Baby Got Lace

I may have missed the Dance-A-Long, see Knitting While Sleeping, but I'm a Jewish white girl with no rhythm, not even in my little toe, so, that was probably a good thing for all, but I was there in time for the Shawl-A-Long.

When our Top Down class ended, we just couldn't be parted from each other, so we commandeered another Saturday a month of Grace's time, devoted to knitting shawls from Folk Shawls.

Folk Shawls is a well-loved book in my house -- you can even see the grubby thumbprints on some of the pages, but until recently, it wasn't such a well-knit book. But, my friends, my fear of the lace chart is finally over, and my Highland Triangle is now complete, photos of blocking to come. But, I get ahead of myself.

I picked the Highland Triangle because of the name - I like the shawl, I think it's beautiful, but I'm not sure if I really see myself wearing a gigantic triangle. The look, and the feel of it, because it's actually very textured, are pretty old fashioned, but I got sucked into the romance of the name - Highland Triangle. I pictured myself as Catherine Earnshaw running across the moors, over the bogs covered in peat moss, not that I even know what peat moss looks like, to Heathcliff, standing on the craggy rocks by the sea. I guess I should have been more inspired by say, Brigadoon - I lighted hearted Gene Kelly/Cyd Charisse-esq Highland - I could wake up once a year, twirl around the heather on the hill, sing a rousing chorus of Brigadoon, and go back to sleep wrapped in my Highland Triangle. Much more cheerful than a scary, dark, gloomy, rainy bog, running through swamplike peat moss, to a scary man. See, even in my knitting fantasies I take the dark scary Heathcliff over that Take Me Out to the Ballgame kind of guy. Sigh, I'll never learn.

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for pics of the Highland Triangle - blocking scheduled for tonight. So, let's take a look at what everyone else is knitting:

First, we have both Michelle and Cecelia's Irish Diamonds. See, with a name like Irish Diamonds, I don't get that moors, peatmoss kind of feeling. I get more of a "When Irish Eyes are Smiling," lucky kind of feeling, and where do you where the Irish Eyes garment? The track maybe . . . or maybe you just wear it in Philly, and make sure you buy a Power Ball ticket while you're wearing your lucky shawl. In any event, both Michelle and Cecelia are doing theirs in Zephyr.




Michelle, silly silly girl, is blinding herself with black, doubled:










And, Cecelia opted for a lighter, pale green, sensible color, not doubled:



And a closeup of Merrill's lovely Kimono.


And what's this yarn doing here you ask? Ah, the danger of the knitting store, I know you all know it well. You're sitting there knitting one thing, something catches your eye, and then snap - it's off to the races wearing your Irish Diamond.



I asked Grace to show off her organic cotton Rambling Rows,
and the next thing you knew, Knitty D was hitting the Malabrigo, jonesin' for a rambling rows. The above are her potential colorways, and everyone should congratulate Knitty, our favorite yarn slut, for exercising restraint, and putting it all back on the shelves. Now, I'm missing class today, so who knows what damage she's done.

Keep knitting that Clapotis, save yourself for Maryland Sheep and Wool!