WIP* Of The Day

I posted a photo of my Evenstar on Facebook yesterday, and got a nice “I love the cream color” comment. The problem is that it’s not cream, it’s a pale aqua blue. Of course then someone had to ask “is it really blue or is it white”, which cracked me up. But I’m easily amused.

It is notoriously tough to take photos in the Pacific Northwest in the winter time and end up with anything close to the right color. Fortunately we’ve had some gloriously sunny early spring weather here, so I dragged my lace outside and got a few photos. There are some shadows from the trees, and our patio table is filthy, so I covered it with a white towel, since I am way too lazy to clean it now when it’s not going to be warm enough to eat out there for awhile.

I’m posting all of those, since I can. Of course it’s not blocked, so you really can’t see the lace pattern all that well, but that is pretty close to the right color. Click on those to make them bigger so you can see the beads!

Beads! Thousands of them! The edging to this sucker is taking forever, and it is very boring, let me tell you. It’s knit sideways onto the shawl, it’s a simple 20 row repeat, I have about 22 repeats left. Each repeat has 50 beads. Yes, I know how many rows and beads that is. It is going to be stunning once it is done, but this is just the really boring part. And I sort of have to pay attention for a couple of reasons. First, it is fine thread, and it’s a cashmere silk blend, so it has no memory and wants to jump off the needles if it gets a chance. And then I have to focus on putting on each bead. So it’s not really good TV or movie knitting. It’s not really whisky knitting either for the same reason.

If it looks like there is a stray white thread in there, there is. After I finished the body of the shawl, I put in a fine lifeline since I’ve never done a knitted on border before. I figured if I screwed it up, I’d have somewhere to go back to. I probably should put one in now after one of those repeats as well. When I get all the way around the circle, I will have to graft the beginning and ending of the edging together, so there will be a lifeline there as well.

And just because I can, here is Lewey. He wandered outside while I was taking photos.

By the way, Wintergrass was a total blast. We had a great time. There were lots of great bands, including some old favorites and new-to-me groups. My favorite of the weekend was Mark O’Connor, who is a terrific fiddler/violinist. He is originally from the Seattle area, though has never been to Wintergrass before. He is a fabulous musician, and plays in multiple genres, including jazz, swing, classical, bluegrass, and American folk. I have been following his music career for years, so it was fun to see him perform. And we got to meet him after the show, he is as nice as he is talented.

My other favorite, which was one of those new-to-me groups, was Steel Wheels, a band from Virginia. They are very high energy, and great musicians. They were a crowd favorite, so hopefully they will be back. Give them a listen, this was one of my favorites that they did.

And another one. This is not as good of a recording, but this was simply electrifying live.

If you want to see some photos, check out my husband’s blog, One Eclectic Guy!

*Work In Progress for you non-knitters!

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! View all posts by Lorette