Packages in the Mail are cool

My good friend from the Wool Room offered to send me socks she'd knit for her girls that they'd grown out of. Hand knit socks are definitely a fabulous hand-me-down. But I was thrilled to find more than just socks in the mail! Lori sent me a book about shawls that has a great pattern I plan to use with my yarn from Tibet and yarn that she hand dyed and spun. It is soft blues and greens that are soothing to the eye and pleasing to the touch. Looking at it is like sitting in a spring meadow in the morning before the sun has gotten too high.

Did you hear the choirs singing? That's because I finished the shawl with the yarn my dh brought home with him from Mexico. I realized early on that I wouldn't have enough so I added in some black alpaca - I think it gives it an avant guard edge. I also discovered toward the end that I was making the yarn overs wrong. Here's my tip - if you want a hole, or an eyelet, wrap the yarn the way you wrap it for a regular stitch so the front leg of the loop is forward on the needle. If you wrap it the other way, you get an extra stitch, but no hole. This changed the look of the pattern, but I think it will look fine to those who don't know, especially those who don't knit. Thank you to all who offered help and advice on the lace knitting. While I do like the shawl very much, I'm not quite sure yet what to do with it. I don't picture myself as the type to wear shawls, although maybe that will have to change. It will look nice draped over a chair, I suppose.

I'm also make progress on my next lace a project - the Dodile, which I'm knitting with the French Knit-a-long. I think that we are knitting from the top down even though we started with just three stitches. I'm having quite a time puzzeling out the chart. I got as far as row 21, 23 or 25 and realized I wasn't quite sure where I was supposed to be and that the count was off. Long story short I had to start all over. By this time, I'd gotten the hang of the pattern at least so it went more quickly and I am back to row 23. I tried using a life line, but it didn't work. The mohair in the yarn made it to sticky to effectively pick up the loops. I also forgot to write down in what row I put in the life line, so I might have had problems even I'd been able to pick up from there.