Advance notice

I haven't talked to DH yet about this, so it's not set in stone, but I think I'm going to try and come out to a Lettuce Knit SnB this week. I really miss everybody and I really want to show off my baby, :) so to heck with waiting until DH gets a Wednesday evening off work (it's never gonna happen), I'm going to bring both kids and to heck with DD1's bedtime. (She will probably be bored to tears, but hopefully the weather will be nice enough that everyone will be knitting outside and she can putter around. Plus I'll probably leave around 8 instead of the usual 9.) DH needs to be consulted for this trip because it involves me taking the car that evening, so we will need to make sure he can get to and from work without it.

The Girlfriend Shrug for DD1

I may be screwed. Reason: I cannot find the bloody pattern for this thing. I've hunted high and low and there is no sign of it. It certainly doesn't help that the pattern is on one measley sheet of paper the size of an index card:



...which makes it even harder to find than an 8.5x11" sheet of paper.

Without it, I'm not sure how wide the white strip in the middle of the back should be, nor how many stitches I should be picking up around the edge. Argh!!!

Update: OMG!!! In desperation, I Googled "girlfriend shrug" to see if there were any bloggers out there who had the pattern - I was going to send them pleading emails for the details I need, with accompanying photos of my copy of the pattern as proof that I do actually own it and was merely stupid enough to lose it. However, the very first hit that Google came up with was the pattern itself! It's right there online for free! Oh, what a happy day. Oodles of thank-yous to Wendy Bernard. Hee hee!

The Poncho for DD1

Work continues. I have to do a total of 13" with the variegated colour. After that, I start the edging. At the last measurement, I'd done about 10". Slowly, the finish line approaches!

Baby girl dress

I started in on a second swatch for the edging, this time using the leftover denim yarn from DD1's Carnival Coat, which looked like it would 'pop' cables better. It does...but I'm still not achieving the look that I want. (Curses.) I do have a few more ideas before I give up and just do a simple braid cable instead.

Knitted Petal Doily

Well, I hunted around the Internet for examples extremely cool lace designs that would look good in fine cotton. Stuff like this, or this, or this, or this, or...well, you get the idea. I figured I could take a look at all these examples and come up with something of my own.

Well...I realised I need a bit more experience actually doing lace 'medallions' before I can slap a design of my own together in just a few hours. (A few weeks and I would probably be able to do it...but I wanted to start soon so that the store would have a sample ASAP, since laceweight cotton makes such great 'summery' projects, and we are already over halfway through June.) So I said, to heck with (for now) the idea of designing my own, just go with something gorgeous and simple and not too huge of someone else's.

Therefore, this morning I cast on this vintage pattern. I didn't have five 2.75mm DPNs (I have three available in my needle caddy, which ain't exactly helpful), so I went with 3mms instead. It was of course rather tricky to start up with, but it's coming along very nicely now and I'm having fun with it.



When I went to the SnB at the shop this afternoon, the owner, June, said she was indeed keen on the idea of having it as a store sample, and encouraged me to keep going. She also asked if I'd be willing to teach a lace class after the sock class was finished?

Well, duh...I said yes. :) (I didn't admit to her that I had actually started to mentally plan a lace class while I was casting on for the doily.)