One bowl. Two catchen. I see a problem, people. But really, should I even be considering a second bowl?

He’s cute though.

I wanted to love this. I really did. Sundara silk lace. YUM. Icarus. YUM. Addi lace needles. NICE.

But it didn’t really work out that way.

It took three agonizing slow days of intermittent knitting, picking and squeaking and slorging, each stitch an uneven slip of the needles. Ripping back was unthinkable, and dropping down happened too often for my liking.

Thirty one rows total. That was all. That was it.

And no more.

I wanted this so badly, I looked forward to making this specific shawl with this specific yarn for so long… and really, no. Different needles wouldn’t help, really, because the yarn is so thin and slippery and thin and slippery.

I’ll have to try again. But with some other yarn entirely. I’ll have to readjust my dream, my ideation.

Sometimes what you want isn’t what you need. Or what you want to experience.

And that’s okay. That’s knitting.

Ten days ago, the new floorscreen I have (it wasn’t joined in the middle, which has since been rectified) fell and crashed on gramma and the blue fortress of bowlitude. Gramma was okay, just a small cut that bled everywhere. The bowl, on the other hand, shattered into a million small pieces.

The interim solution didn’t sit so well with poor confused unhappy matisse-choo. He was a very sad kitty for nine days, until yesterday, when a replacement bowl arrived in the mail.

The reason it took so long is because he is a giant kitty, and this particular bowl is 16″ diameter, to give you an idea of how huge he is.

Yeah. No 12″ bowl for this boy.

Last night he slept in it for six hours straight that I know of. Aw. It must be good to be a kitty that only wants dinner at 4 pm and a bowl to sleep in.

I got new “inner” curtains hung up yesterday - it’s about the time of the year when you want windows open, but also want privacy against all those people who come and hang out in the grassy area in front of the windows. Not as gauche as miniblinds, not as covering as full curtains, and admits air! And also allows catchenal units to be happy.

Matisse thinks he is satisfied with the arrangement.

Because my life is incredibly busy, I spend a fair amount of time on the chair, working on Alice or knitting or both.

I am visited very often by the boys. Here’s Picasso, helping me read blogs.

I am not fat. I am cute. And also I like to hug her arm. A lot.

And here’s Matisse, attempting KSL.

This is KSL for “mama, I poke your nose”.

There’s a reason why they call it binding off and not finishing off.

Six balls of Regia Silk 6 ply mostly all used up, with 15 repeats of the flower baskets. Pretty pretty!

What do you mean, I have to get the ends woven in and the shawl itself soaked and pinned and blocked?

Oh well. It’ll be worth it. On to the next lace piece! I never learn.

Iz 4pm. Feed me now.

What’d you do this weekend? Among other things, I did this:

That’s the famous gramma and me, of course! The photo session was first thing in the morning Saturday - needless to say it was a heavy on the caffeine day.

I’m gearing up for another dyeing run this week, after having shipped out yet another box to the Loopy Ewe on Saturday, plus a pile of boxes. Next mailing date, this Saturday! Exciting.

What am I knitting? Today, the edging chart on the flower basket shawl! Imagine that, finishing things….

So what’s going on with you?

Fully blocked! And while it’s lacking the final crochet around treatment to just neaten up the edges, I love it. Love love love love love love it. It only took 329 pins to block out what turned out to be 7 feet long and 20 inches wide.

And of course, the catchen, who hate water, by choice sat on the sopping wet stole for two days. WHY? WHY?

Full FO shots… later. 18 feet of crochet, twice, first. So, you know. That’ll take a while.

There are some things that you just set aside, for a day, a week, a month at a time. Or longer. Maybe it needed a timeout. Or you found new shiny things to play with. Or you felt frustrated with it. Or it clashed with your knitting needs at the time. Or maybe, like me, you were learning how to crochet at the time, and couldn’t find the rhythm to keep going. The two clashed, and thus it was put away.

And so it was with my second flower basket shawl. Until this weekend, that is.

I’ve looked and I’ve got 11 repeats of the lower lace chart so far, and I’m still going - I’m “only” on ball five of the six balls of Regia silk 6 ply,
so I figure I’ll keep going for now. What I want is a large practical shawl that’s simple but lovely, and eventually I’ll get there.

I’d like for the ripping back and tinking to not happen so often, though. It would be more practical I suppose to only knit it when I’m not watching TV, but…. heh. Too easy. And no, no lifelines. Tried it, don’t want it. It works fine without one.

Someday is good enough. It’s a lovely pattern and a good sturdy yarn. And that’s good enough for me.