I blame Jane

Dear Jane, you have been posting pictures of doilies, all that doily loveliness made my weaker side cave and produce this so far.




This means that this has suffered.
While on the subject of Princess, I have to say right now, I almost want to stop knitting it now, at least until November, I would have lots of company knitting along with me then, Jane, Miss Alice, Fleegle, I know you are all eager and I bet you all have a copy reserved already to be sent to you when the release happens. I am doing it backwards, once the new lot of Princess knitters start I will be doing the WRS, at least I know a few people now that have knit this, that can offer support.









This also suffered although it finally did get finished, just not yet blocked.




In an attempt to finish some things I did pick up a sock the other day, and promptly put it back down again.

I also tried to knit on a few other things, to break the spell that pafugelhale has cast on me, all futile efforts.

I have tried to knit further on this too, I did break some grounds with it, turning one corner, but the doily kept calling me.




And so I continue to knit on the doily, checking out which will be my next victim!
I have a bid on an ebay auction, lots of doilies!!!! Sunday I will know if I win, it's a pretty impressive set so I am eager.

The local farmers market is great fun to go to, there is some really great stuff there, unfortunately its only on one day a week. I got some beautiful gladioli this week, they are stunning, and far nicer than what I find in the local stores.




This is my favourite one I think even though I got them for the deep purple and maroon colours that were in the bunch.



In the midst of the bizarre weather we are having, this little blossom brightens me up.

Fin!

OK, so some things aren't fin, but others are. Princess isn't, but the exams are, all in all I think I did OK, I went in to the finals with good backing from the coursework, so unless I completely bolloxed the exams, I should do OK, or at least pass.

Turns out Princess in the state she was in going into study time was an excellent stress reliever, I could work on a monotonous pattern on a long row pretty quickly boiling off all that pent up steam and stress, I think that's what got me through these last few weeks, the added bonus was that I got a lot of her done, and now I am in the final stages. She will be finished before the end of the next round of exams.

I plan to have WRS in full swing for that set, it should see me through a few terms.

Well, the last clue to the mystery shawl comes out tomorrow, so hopefully I will have pictures to flash of that, and I still never managed to arrange a meet up with local knitters for it, shame on me. I should try to set something up anyway to meet the other lady that was going to knit along with me and Wannietta.

Jane has been talking doily a lot recently, it has so prompted me to start one. I have had pafuglehale on my list for too many years, so I am starting that. I also have a small book of doilies that are fighting for my attention, so might just sway over there too.



I never did post any piccies of our trip out east, and now that I am trying to photobucket is playing up. In the time it took me to finish the post photobucket started playing nicely again.

On our way out east we dropped in on Quebec city, I had never been there before and was eager to see it, that's basically all we did in our hurry to get to N.S.

We saw Chateau Frontenac








We saw a horse drawn buggy




We saw canon's



And the river.



Then we left Quebec city

We stayed in the province of Quebec the first night, Elizabeth enjoyed getting out of the car!




The next day we got to New Brunswick quite early and finally found a Timmies! Good breakfast times.... To my American friends, next time your in Canada, if you've never had one, have a Timmies.

In Moncton N.B we got to Magnetic Hill
That was absolutely fantastic, Ron was suitably impressed which made it all worth the trip there.




We rode the train around the park, and hit the road again.

We had made it to Nova Scotia!




The next installment shall follow soon I hope, maybe by delaying these photo's I might get to enjoy my holiday a bit longer, I am actually missing N.S, I would love to live out there, it's so calm and peaceful out there.
Richmond Hill, where I am in Ontario is busier all through the day time than Halifax N.S in rush hour.

Back to normal

Well, all seems to be right again, my stress levels have far reduced since my rather stressed sounding post a few days ago. I think I have got to the point with the studying now that if it isn't in there now I will never know it by tuesday.

So much knitting and spinning has been going on.
When we were in Nova Scotia I picked up a spindle and some fluff at the fisheries museum, I love the spindle, and am using the fluff that came with it. There should be enough fluff for a pair of socks if all works out well. There was two balls of white roving and one colourful ball, I have spindled the whole ball of the colour and almost all of the first white ball. This is by far the most amount of drop spindling I have ever done.

I did finish clue 5 of MS3 on the Friday it was released, but this week i am taking it slower, still having a number of rows left to do on clue 6. I still only have a photo from the last clue though, and it's not good, so I may as well wait to post the picture of clue 6 finished.

Princess is really the only other thing I have been working on this past few weeks, so have a few piccies to share of that again.




She has grown, so much so that I am concerned about the size, all of a sudden the shawl got big, so big that I pinned it out last night and did some measuring.





Only slightly stretched out the border measures 26 inches, including edging.



I think (my memory appears to be shot) the centre so far measures 24 inches. The edging alone is in the 2 inch area.


Sharon's dimensions finished were 64 inches in the centre. So far I am running at about 50 inches.




Like I said, all of a sudden she got big! That's me sitting normally knitting, the centre is half way down my lap, the border is well past my knee's.

Anyway, the rate she is growing at is rather alarming, I don't want to do all that work to end up with a monster of a shawl, so I think I have to pick up edging stitches more frequently now, it's supposed to be one a row, but I want to reduce by about two pattern repeats in the next 5 so have to start picking up 2 stitches on some rows. I want to try to spread it out more evenly than trying to do it all at the end, so think I should start now I am almost at repeat 8.

Edit, ok so I figured out that each pattern repeat is about 4 inches, at the 50 inches so far, and 7 repeats done, I need 3 more repeats and the edging, to make 64 inches. I might err on the side of larger may be better and go for one more repeat after that, but I also have to include one last repeat of the little fir tree thingy that I think Jean referred to as a Dalek! That will put me at about 69 inches. I think I have to decide soon though so that I can balance out the pick up rate of the edging. 69 inches is taller than me, by a little bit, maybe ten repeats would be better, 64 inches is about 5' 3", even with a roll at the neckline to reduce the length a little that would be almost as tall as me! Yikes, if I do do ten repeats I am looking at starting the edging pretty soon, how exciting!



And just because its still my favourite feature of the shawl, here is the laurel leaf insertion dressed up a little.

K

Dragging my behind

Well, I have been poorly for a wee while, I got a sore throat on our way out to Nova Scotia, that was it, or so I thought.
A few days after getting back I found a lump on my neck, it was one of those ones that moves quite freely, so I wasn't at all concerned, but funnily enough, the first thing I did when I found it was check my glands around my jaw. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. A week goes by, the lump is still there, so when I am at the doc's for the Bi weekly allergy shot I ask about it, and yes, it's a swollen gland, things went down hill from there. I spent the day on my back yesterday, absolutely out of it.
This I didn't need. In May I started a course with Centennial college, actually two courses, in Home inspection, and my finals are next week. I don't need this.
I am also busy finishing up a secret project, learning an awful lot on the way, trying desperately to work on the Princess, trying to spin some fibre once in a while so that the wheel doesn't feel neglected, trying to put some more edging on the Unst stole(this I have managed to do), trying not to forget about the huge cross stitch project, trying, trying, trying so hard not to forget everything else.

I think my mind just gave out yesterday and told me to have a sick day.

I caved and bought some water toys for the girls for the backyard, I need some peace and quiet.
I was supposed to be trying to set up a meeting for local MS3 knitters, but that has fallen by the wayside this week.

I feel another sick day coming on......

Deborah, the Princess is a pattern from Heirloom knitting, and is currently unavailable, but will be re-released this coming November. If you ever plan to make the shawl, I do have a large list of dont's! LOL.

Lynne, I do feel like it is a huge achievement, I am getting rather keen to finish it now, the end is getting closer to being within sight.

Miss Alice and Jane, the hankies are finished with the weaving bit, now I still have a bit more finishing to do, but soon, and I know you love photo's Miss Alice, so I will try to get pictures, and better ones up soon, there has been some advancing on her.