Long Road Ahead

The stars have aligned and I’m finally able to participate in my first season with my first Shakespeare in Lace shawl. I joined the club each year since 2009 but never had time to actually knit one. I picked the Midsummer Night’s Dream shawl kit because there was no grafting required. The last project where I tried to graft lace was horrible looking so I need more practice in that area.

Ravelry Pattern Link

The yarn is 1300 yards of Wooly Wonka silk/merino lace weight in the “Love in Idleness” colorway that was dyed for the club.

I starting this on January 19th which was a bit late for Selfish Knitting Month but still counts in my book! I’ve got all 439 stitches on the needles, knit the 2 garter rows and just finished row 8 on the border.

I do know how do place beads with a crochet hook and I’m really enjoying the process:

I don’t expect to finish this in time for this Season of Lace but I saw a category for spanning several seasons so that might be it for me. I’m getting about 2 rows done a night so far and I should speed up once I can start decreasing. It feels so nice to finally be knitting something just for me!

35,843

That's the number of remaining yards in my stash that's up on Ravelry. It doesn't include my charity yarn or left over balls from projects.

Yeah, it's a big number but I'm thinking I can double it in 2011 if I try real hard. Most people may be looking to knit from their stash and reduce what they have. I'm looking towards retirement when I won't have an income. I've got about 25 more years of stashing to make sure I'll be comfortable. I heard another knitter call it our 401(k)nit savings plan :)

I like it!

I'm in both 2011 Shakespeare in Lace subscriptions so my lace and fingering weight yardage will increase from those. I'm also on the look out for some funky sock yarn from festivals. I don't ever seem to have enough sock yarn. I knit almost every day so it's just a further investment into my happiness!