Stormy Weather - a scarf!

I walk around heavy-hearted and sad
The sun comes around and I'm still feeling bad
Snow poundin' down, blinding every hope I had
This pitter and patter and beating, freezing rain driving me mad
Snow, rain, windchill, the misery will be the end of me...

Stormy weather...

(with apologies to Ted Koehler and Sorry, Billie...!)

This is the tune I was humming for most of the week. However, my mood has now improved drastically. Why? Because early on Sunday when I was trudging to the gas station for smokes, the glint of beads caught my eye even in the glare of piles and piles (and piles!) of snow...


So I went to investigate...
... and look what I found!


All right, all right - I really didn't find it. In fact, I made it all by my little self. Not bad, eh?

In fact, thanks to Evelyn Clark, I now feel like a genius! This is because with the help of her Knitting Lace Triangles book...

... I could design my very own lace triangle shawl - witness the chickenscratch to the right of the photo above! (and, fellow knitters, so can you. Buy the book. It will be the best $25.00 or so you ever spent if you love lace...)

Specs:

Pattern: my adaptation of the Sunshine and Shadows pattern in Knitting Lace Triangles
Yarn: Handmaiden Camelspin (70% silk, 30% camel) - 70g total (the skein was 100g/300m). I don't know the name of the colourway... but isn't it gorgeous???

Needles: 4.0mm Addi lace
Start Date: 2 March 2008
Finish Date: 8 March 2008
Finished Size: 41" at widest point, 23" at deepest point
Number of Stitches: 13,934 (why take this stat? There is a method to my madness... stay tuned. Two weeks from now or so, all should be revealed...)

Notes:

• if you find out you can score some of this yarn locally, run, don't walk. Words cannot describe how luxurious it is.
  

• despite the relatively thick yarn and large needles, the fabric is feather light, which I hadn't expected.
  

• I placed some beads on the scallops as per the recommendation by Evelyn in the book. Good call, Evelyn...

• earlier, when fondling rolling around naked on trying on the shawl, I realised what it is I love so much about lace these days. Have you ever had croquembouche??
  

One of my favourite desserts - I have many fond memories from childhood of Fay's fabulous creations at the Christmas dinner...the combination of the beautiful crunchy spun sugar and silky smooth pastry cream is unparalled in my experience. And, the lace fabric reminds me of soft spun sugar. Hmm.

• This is the first time I have used blocking wires - and many thanks to Wannietta for recommending them. I now understand all those "blocking p@rn" photos I have been hearing about! The wires helped turn this:
  

...into this:

...with minimal effort and not all that many pins. Get some today!

• I like the blocking wires so much, in fact, that I intend to reblock my Tuscany and Swallowtail. This is very significant, in that I usually take all measures to avoid blocking anything at all (although this has, to date, been difficult to avoid with lace. However, if I recally correctly, I never actually blocked the Tuscany!)
  

Nothing to report this evening, news (or fearmongering) wise. The only news is the weather this weekend, apparently. Nothing else is happening of any consequence anywhere in the world. They have been showing the same cars driving sideways on some highway in West Virginia since Friday night... I'm writing this Sunday night.

Why restrict the accident coverage to West Virginia of all places when we live in Toronto?!? I wish they would show video of the guy who nearly ran me over earlier today on Bathurst while yakking on his cell phone and driving way too fast! And run a public shaming campaign while they're at it.

Where was I? Oh yeah - time to stop rambling and start working on the Secret of the Stole II go to bed so that I can get up and go to work tomorrow. Gotta pay for all this yarn lusciousness somehow!

So, bye for now...