Knitting & Shopping


Your Inner European is Russian!


Mysterious and exotic.
You’ve got a great balance of danger and allure.

It must have been the vodka and caviar answer that landed me in the “Russian” category.

I want to thank everyone who commented on my last post. I can’t imagine going through all of this nonsense the past two months without all of you cheering me on. Most of my non-Internet based friends are non-knitters, so though they’ve been supportive, they don’t understand the frustration that I’ve had with not being able to knit. I’ve been knitting this past week, but can only manage a row or two at a time. Between the weakness of my muscles and the discomfort, it’s slow going. But it is better than just fondling all my yarn wistfully. At least I’m knitting. I’ve found that knitting heavy worsted wool requires just a bit more tugging than I want to do for very long. So I’m back working on the Birch shawl, a project that I started a long time ago. This has been hanging out in my project bag for months while I was working on Rogue. Laceweight hairy dental floss is easier on my hands, though possibly not my sanity. Here’s where I am:

Five repeats done, twenty-five to go. The lace pattern is actually fairly easy to memorize, though I’m planning on sticking with my stitch markers and lifeline for now. My hand isn’t agile enough to fix any complicated screwups just yet.

Here’s the shopping part of the post. I haven’t bought any yarn up until now since my injury, but have been looking for a special project to save for when my fingers are back to normal. This yarn came in the mail a few days ago. I ordered it about ten minutes after Amy told me that it was OK to start knitting.

It’s KnitPicks Shimmer, which is a laceweight baby alpaca/silk blend. I plan on making a shawl out of it, though I’m not sure which one. I ordered several patterns also, from Red Bird Knits. They are all shawls; the Flower Basket Shawl, the Estonian Garden Wrap, and the Leaf Lace Shawl.

Everybody in blog-land seems to be posting pictures of beautiful flowers this week. Here’s what’s in my garden:

The rhodies here are very prolific. Mine are a bit behind some, as this part of my yard only gets partial sun most of the day. Willie really likes his yard much better than the shelter that he came from.

I don’t know what these flowers are called, but they grow wild in everybody’s yard. They smell divine, and when you go out in the yard in the early evening, the fragrance is almost overpowering. Nice weeds, eh?

Last but not least, here is the little wall that I tumbled over two months ago.

Here’s Will demonstrating that he is fearless. “Wall, what wall?”

Author: Lorette

My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog!

10 thoughts on “Knitting & Shopping”

  1. I’ve been fighting a losing battle with KnitPicks Shimmer in that same colorway. I just can’t get it to do anything except pool. I’m really interested to see how it works out for you. Glad to see you’re back to knitting strength!

  2. Great things to look forward to. I think shawls are sweeping blogland. You got two of the three I’m considering for Judy’s yarn.
    Are the blue flowers grape hyacinths? Can’t quite make out the detail.

  3. Great to hear you’re knitting!!! Love the yarn and the yard pic’s, too. Just a FYI, I changed my blog name from”knit happens” to “drop stitch Knitter” because of a copyright problem (check out my blog for full story) and I notice you have me linked on your blog – if you can, would you change my name so I don’t invite any further, er, um, situations? thank you and sorry for the inconvienience.

  4. I’m so excited you’re back to knitting, even on a limited basis and shawls sound like the dream project to me. I just finished the Pacific Northwest Shawl with the Alpaca Cloud and I loved the yarn. Haven’t tried the Shimmer yet, but that and Birch and are my wish list.

  5. Yay for knitting, again! I have some Shimmer waiting in the wings. I’ll be interested to see how it works out for you.
    W. 🙂

  6. Life is good – you are knitting again. I am still on a bit of a yarn diet, but I am knitting up a storm. Nothing like last minute Mother’s Day gifts. I am making my MIL and our oldest daughter these easy summer ponchos. Wish me luck. I still have about 3/4ths of the daughter’s to go.
    And, my inner European is Spanish:
    (Energetic and lively.
    You bring the party with you!) Yep, that’s me. I’m all about the party.
    Happy Knitting!!!

  7. So glad that you’re knitting and the lacy shawl your working on it gorgeous! That Knitpicks yarn color just makes me happy. Can’t wait to see what you whip up with it.

  8. Your Birch shawl is beautiful. I’m glad to hear that you’re able to knit again at last – it must have been horribly frustrating.

  9. Just wanted to let you know that The Knitty Gritty Cafe in Moorhead is closing!
    Boo Hoo! I really liked the store and the sisters that owned it are really nice!

Comments are closed.

Discover more from The Knitting Doctor

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading