Have You Ever

seen a more beautiful lace shawl?

You have?  You've seen Faroese shawls, Estonian Lace shawls, Orenburg shawls?

Well, OK.  

But have you ever seen a more beautiful lace shawl knitted by yours truly???

No you haven't (because I haven't made any others).

Seychelles from Ravelry designed by Susannah IC

I bought the materials for this four years ago and then put it all aside thinking that it was much too difficult for me.

But I corresponded with a couple of knitters on Ravelry who had made it, and who assured me that it was easy.

And it WAS!  Amazingly easy.

Shhhh....don't tell anyone else.  OK?

I Did It!

The pattern for Seychelles, which intimidated me for four years, turned out to be really easy, especially after two cabled sweaters I made.

State Fair Cardigan

Currant Cardigan

Each of these sweaters has patterning on the wrong sides of the knitting as well as on the right sides. It was a lot to keep track of!

The Seychelles wrong side rows were always just purl stitches. A breeze, and there were only 41 stitches per row, and only 20 rows per repeat section. 19 repeats but still, they were easy, so easy that I could work on them while I watched the new season of Endeavour. Yay! I love Endeavour, the prequel to the dull Inspector Morse series; the main character, the older Morse, was depressed, and I suppose he was such an effective actor that he made the show .... depressing. I never finished watching the series.

Anyway, here is the beaded lace portion of the project.

Now all that remains is to pick up a million zillion! stitches along the non-beaded side of this lace and knit the stockinette part of the wrap. There are (shudder) short rows to keep track of, but I think that is as complicated as the rest of the project gets.

This will be the most delicate thing I've ever had to block, and I think that will be a bit challenging. I'll be afraid I'll break the fine thread-like yarn!

I'm a Southerner?

Yes, I currently am, although you wouldn't think so based on the amount of wool clothing I have. Surprise! I said to myself when I needed these three bags to hold it all.

THREE trash bags contain all of my woolens, clothing as well as things I have knit.

I live in HOTlanta, Georgia, y'all.  For goodness sake.

I am paranoid about moths after losing two winter coats to them over a couple of summers, two beautiful camelhair coats.  sniff... So each summer, I put everything moths would like to eat in these bags in the car and let them ride along with me for a few days. In the driveway and in parking lots, I've gotten the heat in the car up to 132 degrees, and that is supposed to kill all stages of moths. GASP... I have to open all of the windows and run the ac for a few minutes before I can get in and touch the steering wheel.

From these bags, the clothes go into airtight plastic containers until it's cold enough to wear them. IF it's cold enough to wear them. I haven't replaced my winter coat because for the last few years, I just haven't needed one. Winter here is like winter was in Florida when I lived there; a good sweater for cool mornings was all I needed.


I have just finished my snood, and it's all set for Norway, and of course, I will break out a sweater or two to take along. It is supposed to be in the 60s while we are there, perfect weather for tourists!

hmmm.  I see that this needs to be blocked to even out the decreased stitches area. As my youngest granddaughter says: Easy peasy, nice and breezy.

Off to soak a snood in Soak.  A little alliteration!

Lately

I am currently knitting this snood to take with me to Norway in the fall. Seems as if it would be useful, plus it's an easy knit and that is nice to combine with the more complicated Seychelles that I am slowly working on.

Blue Skies Woolstok, Earth Ivy

And I made another Cherry Clafoutis, yum, half recipe since no one else in the house likes it and I get to have to eat it all by myself. Poor, poor me.

But I will NOT be making any more jam. At first I did think it tasted ok, but it really doesn't. It wouldn't jell as quickly as I thought it should (a no-pectin recipe) so I would add more lemon juice, and then I would think that it would taste too lemony and I would add more sugar, and it made for the weirdest sweet sour jam. It just doesn't taste very good. It is edible, in the sense that someone desperate for sustenance would probably eat it, but I will leave jam making up to the professionals. My attempt at blueberry jam does not compare to this:

It's so good that I ate it all! On my second batch of crumpets. But not to fear. I bought more.


Speaking of desperate for sustenance, I have finished reading The Best Land Under Heaven, by Michael Wallis, and what a terrible story. Of course cannibalism is a terrible choice to make, and some did not choose to eat cannibalized peers. I guess I had always thought of the choice as the result of sort of a reasonable conversation amongst reasonable people, but starving people aren't necessarily reasonable. Some were so starved that they hallucinated, and others truly went mad. It's no wonder that they did what they did.

However, each person did agree not to partake any of their own cannibalized family, but I'm not sure that that even held up as time went on. One young boy was seen eating a live mouse he had just caught; others ate raw organs as they were taken from the bodies. Necessary? I guess they thought so. I don't know why others survived without resorting to cannibalism.  

On a lighter note...sort of...Abraham and Mary Lincoln were good friends of one of the couples who went on the trip and these friends, the Reeds, tried to convince the Lincolns to go too. Abe was fascinated by the idea of the west coast and had indicated interest in going, but finally decided that he was more determined to have a political career. Mary had no interest in leaving her comfortable life in Springfield, Illinois in order to travel in wagons through very difficult terrain, populated with native Americans---some friendly, some not.

Imagine how different American history would be if Lincoln had gone on the journey with the Donners and Reeds.

The End!