Acquisitions and Updates

How's this for a pretty flower picture to start off a blog post. Not real, of course, but ever so cheerful in the cold grey snowy landscape around here.

It's a .7 oz Millifiori spindle from Butterfly Girl. Such a sweet little spinner, too. With a short shaft it's perfect for sitting spindling. Look at the lovely little flowers on the shaft, too. So sweet.
She's sitting perched in the July Tactile club offering of Bamboo/Alpaca/Wool (49/28/23) which is a very pretty color but the fiber itself seems over processed as it's not soft at all. The color looks nice with the spindle, though. I may need to switch over to some white Angora/Merino from Toots LeBlanc which has been marinating in the stash for a couple of years since there may be a need for some shawl yarn.

You see, this arrived at my door yesterday.
The English version of Haapsalu Sall. Haven't had a good read through the history section yet but the stitch patterns are so inspiring. Unlike Nancy Bush's book on the subject, there are no actual knitting patterns included, but there are many lovely photographs of finished lace pieces. Interesting that she is listed as consultant and editor for this English version. The book includes a technique section showing how the shawls and scarves are constructed and finished. The stitch patterns are divided into sections: celebrity named patterns such as Crown Prince, Greta Garbo, etc., Lily of the Valley, Pasqueflower (my favorite), Leaf, Twig, Peacock Tail, Paw, Head of Grain (another favorite), Butterfly, Diamond, and other named patterns some of which are traditional and others which are newer, and of course, edgings. The swatches and charts are very large and easy to see which is good because you really won't want to have your nose pressed up close to the page as the ink used is one of those smelly ones--probably it's only downside. I predict there will be many happy hours spent with this book.

In other lace news, I was prepared to tell you that I'd reached the halfway point on my Faroese shawl and snapped this pic of the lace section.
Hmmm, what's this I see...a big 'ole mistake right in the middle of it? Looks like I repeated a row or skipped a row or something. Out it came. No whining, please. I knit because I like to knit and now I just have more to knit.

In Bohus news, I left those first rnds as they were. After threading it on another needle to lay it out and take the photo last week, I pulled it over my head, and don't think I'd like it any smaller around. So, on we went.
Doesn't look like that much farther but this shot was taken with the macro setting on my camera so those sts are quite small--the gauge is probably going to end up being closer to 9 sts/in. One major increase has been done and another coming up in a few rnds. Those rnds are getting long. But I'm loving every minute of it!

Spindling, Knitting, Shawl Designing...looks like this week is going to be busy.