Living dangerously...

Posting two days in a row, that is. Thought I would write a bit about projects currently in progress. I will spare you the list of all the UFO's and just mention the really current ones. Top of the list would have to be the Dragonfly Shawl from Interweave Crochet. Someone in my knitting group wanted to try this one, so I said I would join her. I was intrigued enough to start right away; she is still delayed by other projects. I found it to be fun to make, although as it grew larger it did get a little dull. But that is to be expected when making a shawl where the working row gets longer and longer. I finally decided it was large enough and started on the border. The border as given in the pattern didn't look nice the way I was crocheting it, so I ended up pulling out three rows of border and figuring out one of my own. I have plenty of yarn (WEB's Alpaca Silk), so I could make a really extensive border, but I really would like to finish this and get it gifted (it is going to someone as a comfort shawl as soon as I can finish it). The yarn is really nice to work with. Mine is Celestial Blue, and I will warn you that if your monitor is like mine you will find this color looks much lighter on the product page than it does in person. The reason I have so much of it is that this was one of the yarns originally purchased for my youngest sister's wedding shawl; it was rejected because it was not the desired "icy blue" I thought i was ordering.

My other most current project is one sock for an exchange I signed up for. I only have to knit one sock; the recipient gets the rest of the yarn and the pattern and gets to knit sock #2 herself. It was supposed to be done ages ago, but the shawl got in the way. So did the lack of proper yarn; I needed something really colorful and in sufficient quantity for a pair of really large socks. The first yarn I ordered turned out to be two very different hand dyed skeins - in theory they were the same colorway, in reality they were not. Still really nice yarn, just destined to be two unrelated pairs of socks instead of some sort of mismatched pair of large socks. Fortunately I had a chance to stop at WEBS and pick up another yarn. I choose the pattern "Socks of Abundance" which is available free from the designer. I am hoping the socks will be abundant enough and that the recipient will like the wild colourway I have chosen.

I guess that is more than enough words for now. Need to get some rest to be able to stay awake for census training tomorrow. Maybe next time I can even arrange for some photos!

And one more...

Hi! Maybe this will be the beginning of a new trend, where I actually blog once in a while. There is no such thing as enough time in the world, so I don't know why I can't just get over that and get some things done. Anyway, while puttering around the blogosphere, I ran into a blog written by someone who knits and plays the viola (just like me, although probalby better at both). Here is what she has to say:

"The RSE (Roseville String Ensemble) runs on a very lean budget funded by donations, and a small locally funded grant. With this we pay a meager amount to our conductor and soloists as well as purchase music and rent space for our concerts.

It's no surprise in these "tough economic times" that our donations are not what they have been in the past. In addition to that, we have recently found out that the group which provided us with an annual grant will not be able to continue that funding. As it stands, the Roseville String Ensemble will not have enough funding to continue for the 09-10 season."

If you make your way to her blog you can read more about it, including information about some really generous prizes she is donating to a drawing. I am constantly wonderfully surprised by the generosity of the folks out there.

So go check out the blog, donate if you can, and stay tuned for a knitterly post from me sometime soon.