Hey, Look What I Finished!

The never-ending shawl border!



(Once day, I will take better pictures!)

And I discovered several things:

1. I had way more yarn than I thought. Remember how I worried about running out, then felt like the cone wasn't getting any less full? When I finished the shawl, I wound the remaining yarn off the cone, then weighed the yarn and the shawl. I still have enough yarn left to make Firmaments twice more--about 3200 yards. Guess I had enough yarn originally to make the shawl that required 2200 yards, huh?

2. I miss it. Even the border which lasted forever.

3. It makes a good blanket (fanciest TV/napping blanket of all time!), but it may be a little bit much as a shawl--it's between 5 and 6 feet across, and that's a lot of shawl, even for me. On the plus side, we've had a few days of cooler weather, so I've actually been able to use it as a blanket. And I've been taking some very good naps: on Sunday, my double partner and I did our last long row before our marathon--in a torrential downpour, so we were very proud of ourselves afterwards--then yesterday I ran 10 miles, including up East Rock because I've decided I need to be less wimpy about hills. This resolution will last about 10 minutes, so it's important to take advantage of it.

But back to the yarn: I'm not sure I want to make more shawls out of the rest of the yarn--maybe a lace-weight sweater? There have been some really cute ones recently, and it would keep me from becoming that woman who wears gigantic maroon shawls (TWWWGMS), which would be a good thing. (Or maybe one gigantic maroon shawl is already enough to become TWWWGMS? It's very large. Possibly it shouldn't be allowed out of the house.)

On the other hand, I really miss knitting it, so maybe it's worth it to make more gigantic shawls, even if I never wear them? Maybe a square, just for some variety.

Stripes

I've been doing a lot of proofreading (and it's been hot!), so I've made great progress on small, simple projects:



The socks from the race (the second one is finished too)...



... and a matching hat.

The yarn is one of Blue Moon Fiber Arts' sheep to sock (or shoe?) kits--8 ounces of their roving, which I spun and plied as a three-ply. I split carefully and kept the colors in order, in hopes that they'd line up. They didn't, but I like the heathered stripes it makes--more, I think, than I would have liked solid stripes.

Passing, barely

First things first: my eight won its race on Saturday! And we all got beer steins! (I don't really drink, but I used it for a smoothie yesterday.)

I started a sock with the yarn from last time on the way down, then tried to turn the heel in the dark on the way home, which went badly. But I finished it on Sunday, and I'm working on the second one now, and swatching for a new shawl for Schaefer Yarns. And I'm still slogging away on the Firmament shawl--65% done as of yesterday! I can't want to see it off the needles and blocked, because by now there's way too much of it to see while it's on the needles. Too bad that's still weeks away.

Actually, it's not too bad at all, because this project is exactly what I hoped it would be. Now that I'm through the section that I never understood, I can pick it up and set it down whenever. I like the yarn, I like the needles, and I'm using my favorite stitch marker. (It's a good thing I like the yarn, because I'm pretty sure the cone is still just as full as when I started!)