Good news!

It may have taken a bit longer than originally planned, but I've finally cast off my 'Lace Modular Shawl'...


Apologies for having photographed it with our awful pink carpet as the background, but it was the easiest place in my house to lay the whole shawl out.

By way of comparison, here is the cast on end of the shawl...


I'm quite pleased with the way this shawl is turning out, and have high hopes that the ends will be quite well matched once it is blocked out properly.

Now I just have to weave in the ends, and get up enough nerve to run the power steamer over it -- which is how Iris Schreier (the designer of the shawl) said she finished hers.

More good news... The yarn I ordered for my Mystery Shawl 3 finally arrived here on Tuesday. Woohoo! :)


It's JaggerSpun 'Zephyr' (50% fine merino wool & 50% tussah silk) lace weight yarn in the 'Blueberry' colour.

Unfortunately, the knit along is pretty much over now -- the final clue was posted on March 18 -- so I guess I really will be doing this one on my own now. ;)

I also received this on Tuesday...


... some GGH 'Soft Kid' yarn in shades 32 and 63, which came all the way from the UK. This yarn really is amazingly soft, and I can't wait to see how it knits up.

One of my Christmas presents from Michael was a lovely fountain, which has sadly been left languishing in its box for the past few months while it waited to be set up.

Well, we finally got around to it...


... and I can't believe how well it fits in where we decided to put it. The angled slope of the top edge is just perfect, and it looks like we had it custom made to fit the space. It really was just serendipity though -- Michael decided to buy it for me after I made a stray comment that the fountain was pretty as we went past it on one of the escalators at the local shopping centre. Now I only wish I'd got around to setting it up sooner, as the tinkling sound of the falling water just makes me feel so happy.

The other thing I've been putting off for a while now was admitting to myself that I really needed to see an optometrist to get my eyesight checked. Yes... reading the fine print has been becoming increasingly difficult, and even my knitting has been looking a little fuzzy lately. *sigh*

So, not surprisingly, I now have my first pair of glasses...


Want to see them modelled?


Well, I didn't say I'd be modelling them... ;) I'm not feeling especially photogenic at the moment, so this will just have to do for now.

The last thing I'm going to write about today is my secret project. Shh! It's secret because I wasn't supposed to start another project until after I finish knitting Katherine's 'Skull Vest', but after the marathon that knitting the 'Lace Modular Shawl' turned out to be -- mostly due to the long, excessively humid summer we've had here in Sydney this year -- I felt I needed to do something easy that I could finish quickly to recharge my batteries before grappling with what is essentially a fairisle design -- albeit with a distinctly Goth twist. ;) So the Lorna's Laces 'Lion & Lamb' yarn in the 'Tahoe' colourway which has been maturing in my stash for about a year now has at long last been given its chance to shine...


... as my second Clapotis.

Those of you familiar with this pattern will probably be able to notice already from the photo of my work in progress above that this will be another of those mirror image projects which helped me come up with the name for this blog. ;)