Not only two knitting magazines this week, but now the Patternworks catalog, too!

Just what I need . . . more temptation.

Ooh, my Brooks mohair came today, too! I don’t have a picture yet, but the colors are lovely. My only quandry . . . the two skeins are actually SO similar in color that I don’t think there will be enough contrast if I knit them together. The proportions of blue-to-brown is different in each, and the texture is very different . . . though deliciously soft for both . . .

Hmm . . . so, I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could buy another coordinating skein and then save one of these two to knit up by itself . . . Or, is that silly??

(Look who I’m asking. Everybody knows the online knitting community is made up of notorious enablers! But really, isn’t that part of the fun? Knowing we’re not alone in our addiction? Heaven knows my family doesn’t get it!)

I finished reading “Creating your Own Original Handknit Lace” last night. A good, informative book, but I probably would have gotten more out of it if I had given the swatches a try, to see how the stitches behaved themselves. And while I appreciated reading how she developed some of her own designs–the steps she went through, the modifications she needed to make upon swatching–they didn’t really show me how to design lace that I might want to make–just how to make hers. That’s probably my fault in the reading, though. It was well written and certainly there’s nothing else out there like it. I just like reading technical kinds of books on techniques I may never actually use–at least the knowledge is in my head if not in my hands!

One thing I would like to state here and now, though. I like charts for lace, I really do. The pattern I’m using now in my pi shawl is charted and it makes it much easier to follow. However (you knew there had to be a “however”), the fact that almost every writer and designer around uses a different coding system drives me nuts! You just get used to one and then you move to a different pattern and suddenly a dot doesn’t mean purl anymore. Or it means it, but the writer is charting what you see on the right side of the fabric rather than what you’re knitting from the wrong side. Or a symbol you’re used to meaning one thing suddenly means something else. It drives me bonkers. Why, oh why, can’t we all just get along?

Finally . . . a photo of my dear little boy. He was curled up in his crate, all tucked up in his towel, when I got up to take that picture of my new yarn. Naturally, he wanted to see if he could help, so he got up and, well, brought his towel with him. Need I say how much I enjoy watching him maneuvering that towel around himself? You try covering yourself up just using your teeth!

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