Iced in

Yesterday we had a shadow repeat of last week's winter storm, and I decided I was too scared to try driving with idiots again with more ice on the road, so I stayed home. Which meant I got an entire day for knitting. And that is exactly what I did. I sat on the couch, watched tv and knitted on my Ethereal . I had the goal that I was going to get through the first part of the shawl by the end of the day, including all the repeats of the current design, so I was starting on the very large border section, or at least prepared to start on that section by the end of the day. Alas, I didn't get that far. I knew how big I wanted to make the current section, and although I am really close, I didn't quite make it. I screwed up about three times yesterday - whether to not paying attention, or just the inevitable dropped stitch, but I'm something of a perfectionist, so when I find a big mistake that is noticeable, I rip it out and fix it. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at picking up stitches in a twisty-lacy project yet.. and tinking back a few rows generally doesn't work for me either, as I inevitably drop more stitches that way. So if I find a mistake, it means ripping out to the lifeline and starting over from there. I've been putting in lifelines every 10-15 rows or so, so its not a HUGE thing to go back and do them over. But it does take time.

I worked on the ethereal on Tuesday night too - while at DnD. And it was going quite well. Till I dropped a stitch close to the end of the night. I had to rip out everything I had done that night, and had just enough time to get it back on the needles before I needed to put it away. *siigh* Losing two-three hours of work is always frustrating. I'm not sure I can even measure how much time I lost in my three rips yesterday, as I kind of lost track of time since I knitted All Day. But considering I was generally able to get a repeat done in 3 hours - and I only got two repeats done in all of yesterday.. I suppose that is sort of telling. Frustrating!

But, I think if I can sit down and focus on it tonight, and pay enough attention so as not to have any mistakes, I can get the last life line in for the current section, and start on the large border. Yay!!


On another note, I did make it to the Woolie Ewe on Tuesday evening. I'd been needing to go to get new needles for this lace project. My interchangeables were snagging the yarn every RS row, and it was getting tiresome to pull each stitch over that bump in the needles. So I knew I wanted new needles - smoother ones. I did end up getting the Addi Lace needles for their super pointy tips. And yes, Lynn, they work like a dream.

I also picked up some Malabrigo yarn in Sock and Laceweight. I decided I wanted to pick up some of this yarn since the Woolie Ewe started carrying it, and I'd only generally heard good things about this super soft loveable yarn. I'd also decided I wanted to try making a pair of socks. So I grabbed up a pretty Sock yarn in a purple-pink-blue mix (i think the colorway is Abril). then happened to notice this one skein I'd been fingering was actually Malabrigo laceweight. Its in a green, going from light light green to very dark green (colorway likely called Verdes - shocking, I know). It was so pretty and extremely soft. And it wasn't too expensive either..so I sucked it up and got the three skeins of that they had. The sock-weight was a bit more expensive than I would have liked, but I chose to suck it up and try it for this miracle yarn I'd heard about XD.

I haven't added them to my stash on Ravelry yet, because I've really just been focusing on that Ethereal for now - haha - but i'll take pictures of them and get them added soon.

I *will* get to the 2nd part of this shawl tonight, though. That is Goal Number 1!!