Dear Internet: what shoes should I wear? Love, spinnity

*** UPDATE, Feb 1 ***

Several people asked for a view of the Via Spiga Serge shoes _with_ the dress. Your wish is granted.. at least as long as you only wanted to see the hem of the dress AND you don't mind the condition of my legs. Via Spiga is clearly the front runner in the voting so far.

******

To review: Standing up in brother's wedding, in March, in a chestnut brown chiffon dress. Two other ladies in the wedding party are wearing the same dress in apple green - a pastel green like the skin of a granny smith, with more white mixed in. Dress arrived Jan 3. Foundation garment has been obtained. Now it's time for shoes.

buzzed into Nordstrom's and picked up 3 pairs of shoes tonight. Surely one of these three (or maybe the 2 other ideas I found on the Internet...) will work for the wedding, I hope, I hope! Since I take it as read that all of you know more about shoes than I do, I'd love it if you would give me some girly/creative advice on these choices

These are the 3 I actually have:

Munro HEART

** Only shown in black on this web page - but the ones I have are dark chocolate brown. These I am keeping whether I wear 'em for the wedding or not. The brown is a little darker than the dress, but the HEART is so cute & wedding-y. Very sensible heels, too.

Linea Paulo - MEDDY

** In Kiwi. This green is probably a good match for the other dresses - and the brown trim on this one is a nice integrating touch. But the heel is a little too casual, maybe? And the flower has 6 points ... not 5, like a certain engagement ring.

Via Spiga SERGE

** This is a very vintage-looking shoe in suede. I can just imagine R wearing shoes like these. The matte surface complements the chiffon of the dress. I have the brown/green colorway.. and I'm worried that the green is very OLIVE and might not be appropriate with the bright & pastel colors of the rest of party. I figgered the men might go to some of the darker greens in their ties or whatever. But there is also a lovely pink & brown look in this shoe - perhaps that would work. I really like this one, I just want to make sure the color is good before committing.

Then there are the two -- late-entry Internet contenders that showed up as I was looking up links for the 3 I already have. I have not had these on my feet nor seen the greens in person, but they look cute on the web pages.

Via Spiga sandals - BELLEZ - in kiwi

** I love these, they are shaped *sorta* like what Sarah's looked like and they *might* be a nice complement to the green dresses.

Via Spiga - GARR - slingbacks in a color called Cedro

** Roughly the same green as above - in a very different shape

So there you have it. The non-girly girl with no shopping buddies bought some shoes & needs help choosing! I would love to hear your opinions on them!

Love from your shoe-challenged pal,

- spinnity

Ancient knitting history - the pony

From pretty early on in my knitting career I had an interest in unusual knitting techniques. I learned twined knitting. I knit a sweater where the body is in one piece with a giant cast off-cast on boat neck in the middle. I knit a gansey for a teddy bear out of the Knitting Ganseys book. And I tried double knitting.

On Sunday at SnB, Janice mentioned a fingerless glove pattern from Marnie McLean which includes double-knitted half-height fingers. Not a bad idea since fingers are sort of a pisser on double points. So I had to tell the gang about my attempt at double knittting. This is a story about my double knitted pony - possibly the oldest (knitted) UFO in my collection.

Double knitting is a process where you set up a certain number of stitches on 2 straight needles and then knit one, slip one all the way across (which makes the front half of the tube.. ) then turn & knit one, slip one all the way back (making the back half of the tube). When you are done, you bind off carefully maintaining the pattern and, viola!, the front & back halves can be separated from one another into a tube. The technique can also be used to make a knitted tube that has a stockinette face on the inside *and* the outside. As Strong Bad says.. "Your head a-splode".

The pony is the sampler/learning project from Beverly Rocye's out of print "Notes on Double Knitting". The yarn is Peace Fleece, and it was a gift from a friend who found it on a house-hunting trip to Maine. I think I cast on in spring 1994. I love the yarn, I love the idea of the project but I just can't bring myself to finish it.

For one thing.. the yarn is just plain wrong for this project. I thought a nice firm yarn would make a strong fabric for stuffing. That might be true, but it also rubbed holes in my fingers at this gauge and, um, it's pale pink. It does not make a very cute horse. And the shape of the head looks goofy to me. [Click to enlarge]

Takes a fair bit of imagination to see this as pony, doesn't it. The last straw that killed this project: the back foot can't be turned right side out.. I screwed up the knit-slip pattern in the decreases and connected the front to the back. That was apparently the nail in the coffin.

So there it sits: half finished pony. Can't bring myself to rip it out, because how cool is that?? Double knitted pony! Can't bring myself to go on - wrong yarn, wrong gauge, wrong color.

So what would you do? Rip it out, finish it, or leave it as a monument to not paying attention to details?

Knitting nirvana: Sally Melville class and SnB in one day

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy was this a good day to be a knitter. After church, I went to Knitting Arts this afternoon for a class on Buttonholes and Borders taught by one of my knititng heroes, Sally Melville. We used our two swatches to practice picking up stitches along horizontal, vertical and curved edges. We tried out 3 different button hole and 3 border styles - ribbed, garter and reverse stockinette. I learned a lot and re-inforced a lot as well. I'm totally bummed I can't go to her two additional classes tomorrow, but being a working stiff prevents me from taking more than 2 days off to knit this quarter.. and I've already planned two days off for Stitches West... where I'm taking 2 classes with Sally.

The best thing I learned was how to avoid a droopy edge to buttonholes involving casting on stitches. The big trick is this: if casting on with a cable caston, make sure you bring the yarn from back (where it is resting while you pick up stitches) to front (where you will want it very soon to continue the row) *between* your last and second to last cast on stitches. This tip alone was worth the price of admission, given the number of baby sweaters I knit with buttonholes.

I will be putting all my picking-up skills to work on Cindy. I finished the fronts tonight, using stairstep bindoffs just like we preacticed in class. I'm halfway thru the back and will be ready to do the even picking up when I get to the neckline edging. I'll have to wait until the Diamond Seed Baby Jacket to try out my new buttonhole skills

Ok, but after Sally's class, I drove straight to Campbell for Stitch-n-Bitch where I got to see Janice's DSBJ nearly complete - always good to let someone else try out a new pattern to see how it goes. It was a big group today with many familiar faces and 6 (mostly) new-to-me participants. Jeni's Klaralund looks even better in person than on her blog and her crocheted house slippers were perfect: firmly stitched, impervious to cold floors, easy to get on and off, lovely color.

I had to split from SnB to get to the movies to see Sky Blue (Korean anime film about a post-apocalyptic world with servants and overlords but no blue sky. I give it a 7 out of 10.. a little bit plot holey, but nicely drawn & voiced. And home to.. more knitting!

Yup. Pretty much a great day to be a knitter. Tomorrow, when I have to put away all the random yarns dislodged in my swatching frenzy for class as well as the many needles, yarns & books... might be a bit of a let down in comparison!

EZ books, baby knitting, and those boots again

In other updates: I finished reading Knitting Around (even the patterns) this morning. I guess I'm on a little Elizabeth Zimmerman kick, here. I'm totally gaga for the Bog Jacket in Knitting Around and I'm planning to participate in Laura's Baby Surprise Jacket knit-along. The BSJ is in EZ's Knitting Workshop -- a book I clearly remember buying in hardover in the last 6 months. But where is it?

I was tearing up the house looking for EZ's Knitting Workshop. I knew I had a copy somewhere, but just couldn't find it. At Santa Clara County Knitting Meetup on Wednesday, I was kvetching loudly about this and knuknitter explained that of course I couldn't find it.. it's at her house. Sigh. I got to get a log book for when I lend out knitting books! Janet's got my copy of Stitch-n-Bitch.. I think. A friend suggested this, but I'm not totally sold on gluing stuff inside my books.

Also on Wednesday at Meetup, I knit up a gauge swatch in Noro "Big Bebe" color #1, a discontinued cotton/raimie/wool/nylon blend from Laura's stash and just loved the results. I think I will turn this into a Plymout "quick to knit" raglan cardigan, just like the ones I knit for Renata and Rebekka. And I made a good start on Cindy. I'm loving the magenta color.

And Ilona dropped a comment today with a link to the elann preview.. they are selling my beloved Reggia clear plastic boots for half price next week. Maybe I'll get a backup pair, in case I thrash the current pair "in the field". Tomorrow might be a good gauge of whether this field use is destroying my boots - I'm going to help with a flora & fauna survey at the Redwood City bay shore and I'm told waterproof boots are a good idea for getting into the Zodiac boat. So think of me tomorrow morning at dawn (7:20) in my Reggia boots and birthday socks motoring out to look at birds.

Sometimes they come back.. like boomerangs

Remeber way back in February of last year I made the first of the Fuzzy Stripey hooded cardigans? Well, it's back. Turns out baby Jake is, um, portly in the tum. If this sweater was just 2 inches wider (24" finished "chest" instead of 20"), it would fit him for another 4 months. So back it came. An says she washes it by hand & dries it flat.. and it's been washed about a dozen times. It looks great for a well-used sweater

On Thursday I knit up the first 'expansion panel', using separate lengths of cream and blue yarn cut from the ball. I carried the unused color up the side and compared my new panel against the striping on the front to make sure it matched. At the top of the 6th stripe, I started decreasing pretty agressively down to 5 stitches. Then I dropped the center stitch all the way back to the ribbing to make in Elizabeth Zimmerman fake seam stitch - easier than I though it would be in this goofy chenille yarn. I decreased in 2 more rows down to 1 stitch. I think of my little add-on panel as a 6-stripe-tall rectangle with a 2 stripe triangle on top. I haven't sewn it in yet, but I think this is going to work... what do you think?

The fake seam stitch is doing it's job very well - the panel folds right down the center very nicely.

Welcome home, iBook

Wow am I behind in my blogging! You all didn't even know the iBook was gone. So let's back up a bit... to January 8th.

Me, sitting on the sofa. iBook resting next to me. Attention wanders and when I turn back, the screen shows only pink/orange/green vertical lines. Turns out my 2-year-old iBook was a victim of a known logic board failure. There was no time to deal with the problem before our birding expotitions, but my spouse-o was able to make backups (PHEW!) before taking Everything in to the Apple store for repairs. Shipped off Wednesday... and returned today with brand new logic board an all my settings/data/preferences intact.

I am one lucky chick!

Did I show you this birthday pressie?

Another topic in retroactive blogging is this **fabulous** beret from knuknitter which was one of my many knitting-oriented birthday pressies:

The beret came from Paper Moon in Macgregor, IA - spoils of the "meet the parents" trip for knuknitter and my brother. It came with the sweetest card from my new sister and I wear it with great joy.

Other knitterly gifts to love include my new Red Cross WWII knitting kit from my charming spouse-o and the luscious magenta Rowan Cork yarn I got with a gift certificate from Mel. I've got the book Rowan Babies and I'm planning to turn Cork into Cindy as part of the Many Baby Sweaters plan.

Who says they're just for show?

I love my Regia clear plastic boots, designed to show off my hand-knitted socks. They were a gift from my very indulgent mother (hi Mom!) a couple years ago. I usually wear them to work a couple times during the rainy season and they are always worth a smile or two.

Well, this weekend I took them with me "in the field" to go birding in the rain. Here's a photo of my show-off boots in the mud at Bolinas Lagoon

(I'm sitting on the bumper of a car, wearing my waterproof pants, eating lunch after seeing a YELLOW RAIL, one of the coolest life birds ever.)

The birding was great and I came home with a cold that just won't quit. Coughing, snotty head, tired & achey. Lots of napping and early bedtimes since we got back on Tuesday night.

In the field, I cast on & knit about 30% of my secret project. I thought I was going to be working on the Diamond Seed Baby Jacket (DSBJ) from Interweave Knits, but my gauge came out way wrong and I didn't have the right needles to switch to. So the secret project got a bit of a boost in the queue and is now 50% complete.

Today I went to Uncommon Threads to buy the size 2's for DSBJ. I was looking also for sock yarn to make socks to match my purple rain jacket and purple birding sweater, but there was not much selection in stock right now. Instead, I came home with the needles and couple new baby pattern books. After I'd actually left the shop, I had to go back inside to have a look at "Not Just socks" by Sandy Rosner

I like several of the projects in here, but it was the spirally gauntlets on the cover that caught my eye. Back in sock yarn land, Uncommon Threads had a sample pair knit up. I love them. I bought some Meilenweit Fun & Stripes yarn to make them on the spot. Mmm. Stripey gauntlets!

Finally, on a lighter note, badgers. Tee hee.

Twined knitting makes great outerwear

Bill and I are off on a 3 day high tide weekend birding adventure around San Francisco Bay with bird guide Steve Shunk. Today we were at Palo Alto Baylands looking for the Black Rail and tomorrow we will be at Pt. Reyes doing the very same thing. Bill's trip notes are already online, thanks to internet access from our hotel room.

The knitting connection is these twined knitting half mitts:

These grey half mitts with contrasting red braid at the cast on edge were my first twined knitting, knitted in 1992. The first one was intended as a test of the technique before I made a pair of mittens for a library school colleague. I planned to chuck the commpleted mitt in the swatch basket & move on, but Bill really liked the feel the fabric and asked me to make him a mate. He did wear them in Illinois, but their true value has been as birding gloves for the past 10 years here in California. The fingerless design leaves his fingers free to manipulate binoculars, spotting scope, and camera in cold weather.

Twined knitting or "two-end knitting" makes a very durable fabric thanks to the extra firmness and thickness created by this technique. But after 13 years, the inside edge of the thumb had started to wear out. In preparation for our current birding trip, I ripped out the thumb, looked up how twined knitting works again and knit a replacement thumb. The photo shows (clockwise from top) the Twined Knitting book containing the pattern for the mitts, the Pingouin Fleur de Laine yarn I used 13 years ago and still had in my stash (hah!), size two bamboo dpns I used for the repair, a small pile of very worn yarn from the old thumb, and the finished mitts with the new thumb closest to the center of the photo.

I don't have a "before" picture, since I started the reknitting after my photographer had gone to bed, but I'm reasonably pleased with the repair. The new thumb is fuzzier than the rest of the glove, but a bit of wear should solve that problem. Twined knitting was pretty tough on my arms, because of the extra twisting motions required and the one-size-too-small needles I chose. (Should have looked up the project notes before I started the repair -- pattern calls for 3 mm needles.) This is the first time I've tried twined knitting in many years, and again I am struck by how fabulous this fabric is. I would love to make more small projects in twined knitting if I can build up the strength to do it!

Bride's Maid (or is that Groom's Maid?) update

Subtitled: Who knew bra shopping could be *fun*? [warning: no knitting content]

On March 12th, I will be in the wedding party when my brother marries knuknitter - an honor unlooked for in my 39th year. I am part of the groom's party, but I'm wearing the same dress as the actual bride's maids - in a different color to make me more groom-y than bride-y. We ordered our dresses on November 20th through Unique Bride in Burlingame, prompting a round of self-congratulatory & rather stunned emails titled "We got Vera Wang dresses!!!"

Well, the dresses came in Monday and I went for a fitting. This dress has spaghetti straps and a "neckline" that goes right under the armpits & around the back. Not the matronly type of dress I generally wear. So my stock of available "foundation garments" was totally inadequate to the task.

Now, I don't know about you, but I HATE bra shopping. As a full-figured gal, I spend a lot of time alone in dressing rooms trying to squeeze into a tiny selection of just plain awful bras. Small wonder that I hate, hate, hate, hate the lingerie department. After a very lovely specialty shop in Burlingame totally let me down, I thought for sure I was doomed to travel the globe hunting for just the right bra. I thought my new hobby would be ordering hundreds of dollars worth of useless models from the Internet and returning them in disgust.

Imagine, then, my surprise when a VERY helpful sales gal at Nordstrom helped me try on a bunch of not-quite-right strapless bras to assess my size, checked her computer and called another mall to put on hold the only strapless bra in stock in 3 counties in a large enough size. Knuknitter picked it up for me yesterday, offering a moment of hilarity when the sales gal asked my pixie-ish future sis-in-law... "Don't you want to try it on?" Um. Honey, did you see the size of that thing??

This morning, I tried this $70 wonder on this morning with the dress and damn if it doesn't fit perfectly. That sales clerk has earned my undying patronage. I will be driving to San Mateo for every bra I ever buy from now on. I absolutely can't believe it took ONE 30 minute trip to the lingerie department to get all set up. Boom. Done.

And what was the secret of this success? The Nordstrom lingerie gal had zero hesitation about stomping right into the dressing room with me and poking & prodding various body parts to check fit. And she knew her stock intimately (*g*), knowing which lines carry which types of strapless bras in what size. I swear, no more solo trips to bra land for me! Being waited on hand-and-foot (no comments from you in the back!) has serious advantages.

Next up on the wedding preparation front: shoes and wraps. "m rather dreading shoes, but the wraps will be fun to design & knit. We have some great Crystal Palace ribbon yarn that ties together the green of the bride's maids dresses and the brown of mine with the ivory of the wedding dress itself.

Yes, I am wearing the birthday socks!

Thank you, everyone who offered birthday greetings. I'm having a very, very fine day indeed. And although I was up *somehwat* later than I should have been, I am wearing the "A Step Above" birthday socks today. They are strangely baggy at the ankles, and one of the toes is too short -- both Janice and I came to the conclusion that more length is needed in the toe of these socks. So even though I am wearing them, I can't quite declare them "FO #1" until I fix that first toe.

Overall, I thought A Step Above was genius. The pattern is from Knitters 75, Summer 2004 and it was the first project to ever make entrelac look attractive to me. The use of ribbing instead of stockinette in the entrelac squares reduced the weird puffiness that entrelac tends to develop. Also, the way this entrelac pattern shows off the 3-12 inch color runs in the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn is just fabulous. The knitting itself was pretty easy - you're only working on 12 stitches at a time for most of the project. Even the shortrow transition from the straight ribbing to the angled entrelac sections went smoothly The one big bummer on this project was the allegedly easy afterthought heel that led to hours of cursing on sock #1. So that required a pattern adjustment.

Where the heel is inserted, you have just finished a bunch of short rows and the "heel preparation" of knitting each stitch together with a loop of the stitch below it and doing M1 increases. The very next row is supposed to be the waste yarn for the heel. Then on the foot portion, you do a bunch of shortrows to get back to the original stitch count before the heel. So both before and after the waste yarn, you have stitches which are somewhat unformed - just made, just short-rowed, or just knit together with the row below. Picking up stitches from this mess was incredibly aggravating. The fix was really quite easy: 1-2 rows of straight stockinette before and after the waste yarn. I held off knitting heel #2 until Janice finished hers to see if the fix worked, and, yep, it worked like a charm. On sock #2, I picked those heel stitches up in about 20 minutes in a very sleep deprived state with no whining whatsoever. What a difference!

Today I am working on a gauge swatch for my next project, the Diamond-Seed Baby Jacket from Interweave Knits, Winter 2004 in a pale grey Dale of Norway Baby Ull, courtesy of the big sale at Knitting Arts in Saratoga. It's a small gauge at 7 sts/inch, but that's good for Bay Area babies who don't really need thick woolly sweaters. So cute, so retro!

Mailing day. Having trouble letting go.

After much foot-dragging and with nudging from my darling spouse-o, I packed up 3 Finished Objects today: Meadow Flowers, Crocus Cardigan, and Fuzzy Stripey #2. Bill took them to the Post Office for me, which made it easier to say good-bye. They are all so light, the postage was very cheap, so we splurged on priority mail. They should be there by the weekend!I hope hope hope I get some photos of the items in use!

Now with empty nest syndrome, I did a survey of WIPs and FWIPs and made a startling discovery. There are 10, ten, TEN items I think I need to have finished by February 10. I made a list today and freaked out a bit. So here, more for my use than yours, is the rundown of what's in the queue.

First, I've decided I MUST wear the ASA socks tomorrow for my birthday, so I may be up late tonight finishing 5 more rectangles, 4 triangles, toe and heel. Luckily we have Knitting Meetup tonight, so I should be all set. So that's item One on the pre-Stitches checklist: ASA Entrelac Socks.

Next, the remaining items from the Christmas list:

• Two: The knitted tie for John.. might have to be scrapped and re-done as a straight tie. Quote from the recipient: "Hmm. The only knitted ties I've ever seen were straight." I do have a great idea for a striped shadow knitting tie with a hidden university logo in it.
• Three: Aunt Christina's scarf. Found the pattern I want to make and the yarn is in hand
• Four: Nar. Cisse. No really. This time for sure. In fact, Saturday is when I want to finish this up.

So that's the leftovers. Next and most important are two items I consider a Debt of Honor (as the gangsters in Kiss Me Kate say it, pronouncing the B)

• Five: OXO Gansey for Bill. This is my biggest goal for the next 6 weeks - finish this sweater before Stitches West. I feel it would be Wrong to return to Stitches Market and buy wads more yarn without having used the yarn I bought at Stitches 1997. This project is such a stay-at-home thing, because the dye comes off on my hands and makes a mess. I just have to sign up to watch some TV series, like Sex in the City or Buffy all the way through, so I can sit my butt in the chair at home and crank this one out.
• Six: Myosotis or some suitable replacement. Started in July, this poor thing has been languishing for months. Must finish sweater before baby walks!

Then we have the flood of babies. I've got 3 more friends/family members having babies by February 7th and someting (probably something VERY small and simple) needs to be produced for these 3 new arrivals. (Seven. Eight. Nine. I might be able to fudge these by giving the gifts after the babies arrive. But they're so fun to knit!)

Ten is a secret. But easy to knit. Bill and I are going on a weekend birding excursion this weekend for 3 days. I'll be taken Number Ten, The Secret Project with me. Portable, easy, good car knitting.

Man. It's like Christmas knitting all over again. Of course, I chose all these projects and deadlines myself, and it'll be fun knitting. But if I finish all this, I am going to dedicate the rest of the winter to knitting for ME. Hah!

2004 Knitting Favorites

I wrote this earlier today and posted it on the message boards for the Santa Clara County Knitting Meetup Afterwards, I'd rather have this "year in review" as part of my blog, so here it is again, copied from the original post. The questions came from Amy at The Boogie Knits via several other sites.
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2004 Year in Knitting
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Favorite needles for 2004:
Bamboo double points - mostly Crystal Palace. This year I decided I absolutely detest metal double points, even though I have probably 9 sets. This year I replaced all my metal needles with bamboo and was I ever happy. Anyone looking for double-ponts for sale cheap?

Favorite online shop for 2004:
OK, I didn't do much online shopping, but I do love The Websters in Ashland, Oregon. I got to shop there twice in '04 and came home with about 6 skeins of Great Adirondack Sequin yarn, yum! I mostly dig going to my LYSes - Rug and Yarn Hut, Uncommon Threads and Knitting Arts in the South Bay. ArtFibers and Imagiknit in SF. Think of the knitters in small town America who don't have this luxury!

Favorite yarn for 2004:
A tie between Koigu KPPPM used for Charlotte's Web and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. Both are just dreamy in the hand and so gorgeous.

Favorite finished object and/or KAL for 2004:
No contest here - I love my 2 socks on 2 circulars made this summer during the mini-KAL of the Stitch-n-Bitch group in Campbell. I learned SO much and I made the world's best fitting socks. If I wear them 3 times a week, how long do you think before they wear out? Must knit more socks in '05!

Favorite new technique for 2004:
2 socks on 2 circulars. We used the Double Trouble socks pattern from Ingrid Knits. I loved learning the provisional cast on, shortrow toes, the 2 socks on 2 circs technique and the 3x1 rib. So practical, so fast, so much learning all at once!

If it counts as a technique, I ought to mention "Knitting with others" as a really important new technique for me this year. Joining the Stitch-n-Bitch group, the Knitting Meetup and a knitting group at work has really opened up the world of knitting for me. It's the most important change in my knitting life for 2004 - having knitting friends! So thank you, Knitting Meetup gang[, and Stitch-n-Bitch gang, and Nortel Knitters, and other knitting friends] for a great year in knitting!

- spinnity / mary / [Knitting Meetup] organizer

Xmas prezzie round-up

What a great Christmas for knitting gifts this was! From my mom, I got an Elizabeth Zimmerman book which we talked about on her last visit in May:

From John and Susan in Philly came a lovely momento of my visit there and shopping at Rosie's Yarn Cellar - a house pattern for a vertical and horizontal scarf and the luscious mohair yarn to make it:

From Wendy, a pair of very fun-looking books about felting and knitted toys:

I was just thrilled to recieve a KnitWhits felted flower kit from knuknitter. Izzy, however, was clearly not as excited. She declared an end to our prezzie photo shoot by reclaiming her nap spot as we were shooting this gift:

   

What very generous friends and famiy I have. 2005 is clearly going to start off with a Big Bang of knitting reading. Thank you, everyone!

All done shawl

Hah! Finished the last edging on Meadow Flowers on Thursday night and pinned it out to block in Friday afternoon. I can't believe it, but the finished shawl was dry and ready to wear by noon Saturday. I guess the ceiling fan in my "knitting room" really sped up the drying process. I had 3 other knitted objects drying in there as well and all three were nearly dry by morning.



Here's Meadow Flowers pinned out on the floor on a rag-tag fleet of towels:

And here it is all ready to wear:

   

Along with Meadow Flowers, I also washed up Fuzzy Stripey #2, so I am now ready to double my Xmas knitting score by delivering two more items next week... if I can actually bear to part with them!