Sometimes It's Better Not To Do The Math

This is exactly one ball (109 yds) of Baby Cashmere worth of Bird's Nest Shawl. One ball gave me the twelve row border and one complete 46 row pattern repeat with about three inches of tail to spare. It's about seven inches long by 20" wide or 5404 stitches. Hmmm...only nine or ten balls to go. The colour here is not bad, but still not quite right. I find greens hard to photograph accurately.



I'm working the shawl from the short edge, instead of from the long edge. I find that I enjoy my 93 stitch rows just fine, thank you, and feel no desire to work 360 stitch rows. The shawl is quite a lovely knit. Baby Cash is so light and pettable, and the fabric feels weightless. This is only 25 grams worth of shawl here, so it is going to feel feather light but oh so soft to wear. The shawl I made myself last spring in worsted weight is more like a blanket by comparison. But I wear my "blanket" over my lap on cool days while I knit.

I'm doing seven repeats of the pattern across the width. Seven is such a theologically sound number, and my friend R wants it for a prayer shawl. I'm working with size 7 needles (4.5mm), but that is for aesthetic reasons.

I had one boo-hoo early on in about the eighth row of lace, and I decided to rip back to the stocking stitch and start over. This time I used markers for each repeat, and I count on the back rows to make sure I'm fine. I've already caught and quickly averted two disasters this way. My mind wants to wander when I knit. I need reminders when I'm Abacus-Knitting.

In OTHER news:

I'm working on a side project this week that I hope to show off in a few days. Not saying anything else; y'all will just have to be surprised.

I would like to say a big hello and welcome to some new names (Madge, Julia, Cindy G., the AP Bag ladies, and the ubiquitous Anonymous) who have stopped by and left comments lately. It's always fun to hear from knitters.

A big Happy Birthday to CatBookMom!!

And Thanks to Tracy On Bowen Island (my knit-stalker, lol) who recommended Brenda Dayne's Podcast: Cast-On. I had a chance to listen to an episode of Cast-On last night, and it was very enjoyable.

That leaves me with a question that I will leave with you. I am new to Podcasts, and I noticed that there were several knitting-related ones. Can anyone comment on these? And on Podcasts in general?? Got any really good ones you can recommend? I saw Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion on the list, and I would recommend that highly. He is a treasure.