So, no, no pics today. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

• Need to get me some wires to block out my Forest Canopy Shawl – yay! It’s sooooo soft. I just want to huddle under it until Spring remembers it’s late for something.
• I’ve signed up with The Kitchn’s 8 week Kitchen Cure challenge. Yes, that middle photo on their post is, indeed, my kitchen! I took a ton of before pictures. It’s keeping me fairly busy.
• Yesterday I spent most of the day working on painting my Skorne Hordes army. I’ll take some pictures when they’re all done. I’m painting their armor peacock turqoise instead of the red they’re shown in, which is part of the fun of these figures. My elephant-like Titans are the palest shade of pink, because what is scarier than a rampaging pink battle elephant?
  • In case you aren’t sure what the heck this is all about, it’s a game that is sort of like chess in the sense that there are figures with different moves that you play against an opponent’s army. But unlike chess, there are several different factions and the rules get pretty complicated. Still a lot of fun though.
• I’m eyeing several different projects to begin soon. A couple of friends are pregnant, so I may work on some baby booties for real.
• Just for fun, here’s the stuff currently at the top of my Ravelry queue:
  • Urban Aran man’s cardigan – going to KAL with Mom
  • Saartje’s Booties – I hear good things
  • Arbor – a woman’s short sleeved sweater
  • Spring Things Shawl – I would totally jump right into this one except I haven’t blocked Forest Canopy yet and I don’t know how often I’ll use it. I’m also chomping a the bit for the Icarus shawl.
  • Ophelia - a sleeveless summery lacy cardigan. I’m still kind of on the fence about this one. I might try to concentrate on more mittens over the summer to prepare for our trip up to Victoria, Canada in November. We are going to freeze to death.

That’s about it for now. I’ll try to post some tasty pics this week.

Tonight, though, I’m returning to yoga after a week away, and I’m bringing my knitting to see how that goes. I love to get there a bit early so I don’t have to worry about traffic and then I use the extra time to knit. They have a nice selection of teas there too, so I can hydrate in style. Good times.

I really liked how the pattern was constructed, hardly any finishing. I didn’t do any finishing since I just wanted to play with the pattern and see how it worked. It came out pretty large, and used all my yarn, but the color isn’t appropriate for the baby I need to knit for anyway. Best to be conservative with colors for coworkers’ baby boys.

The sole is worked back and forth, then you pick up and knit in the round. I was a bit daunted by the old “pick up and knit” routine, but I’ve been learning recently (I CAN be taught!) that often the way I fear something has to be done is different than the way it’s actually done. I found a video online and it was pretty easy. Fun, actually. They mention that some knitters like to use a crochet hook, and I think they must be Continental knitters because I’m a thrower and having the yarn in my right hand gave me a good angle on pulling the yarn through. *shrug*

On to my latest project, suggested by Opal, the Forest Canopy shawl.

It’s knit on size 8 needles (I went down to 7 since I’m such a loose woman knitter) and it’s soooo pretty. I love the leaves! They will definitely open up a lot in blocking. The yarn is such a dream, so soft, just a whisper in my hands as I knit. I’m heading up to Victoria, BC in November for a wedding, and I think this will be a great item to keep on hand to stay toasty warm. In fact, my brain has been working furiously on millions of projects to work on for that trip, like this one for B. But I digress.

Oh, look at those gorgeous, wondrously useful and glorious lifelines delicately wandering off into the distance! Oh how I love them. They’ve come in handy at least 3 times so far. It’s also really interesting because the construction of a triangular shawl is kind of funky. The lifelines show how the knitting bends in the middle. It’s sort of hard to describe, but that bumpy border is the top long edge of the shawl, and it is somehow at the beginning and end of each row. Magic!

I just wanted something small, easy, and above all, new.  The pattern seemed really well-designed and adorable, too, plus I owe a coworker a baby shower gift.  So SockPixie’s Magic Slippers seemed just the thing!

Seriously, have you ever seen anything so cute?  Haven’t yet decided yet whether they are cuter than the socks my friend’s sister’s baby had on that were colored to look like mary-janes.

I’ll take pictures soon.  This morning, literally as I was about to press the button to take the first picture, B came in with freshly made breakfast smoothies, and when you’re presented with a fresh smoothie, you take the smoothie.  Don’t even try to resist.

I didn’t have the right size yarn, or for that matter, tiny enough needles, so I just figured I’d fiddle around with some Lorna’s Laces I bought eons ago and my tiniest #2s, which I magic-looped.

I am loving the magic loop, by the way.   Previously, I had tried to learn the magic loop while also attempting to learn two socks simultaneously, and that was another instance of “more than I could chew.”  But the other day I was messing around with some yarn I had in my purse and a circular needle I threw in there on my way out, and it just sort of happened without my paying attention to it.  I believed that I could knit a small circumference on long needles, and then, I did.  Weird, eh?  Only later did I realize what I’d accomplished.

The miracles of yarn and sticks.  I love it.

I just can’t fix it, and I can’t continue on, either. My short attention span got me good this time, and then my “try it and see” got me too. I just can’t rip it out right now, I know I have to, but I have to let it be for a little longer. I somehow feel like I must honor it by allowing it to exist untouched for a short period of time. It’s a weird feeling.

I went on Ravelry last night to see if there were any patterns that looked interesting, particularly a more beginner-friendly lace project. The Veil of Isis is the opposite of that. But oh! How pretty it is!

What. Is wrong. with me?

Maybe I’m the compliment to people who will knit anything for any reason, regardless of its utility or how appropriate something is to be made out of interlocking loops. (I’m looking at you, edible knitted thong pattern!) Apparently, I’d rather torture myself to make something intricate and breathtaking.

Yep, that totally fits.

It’s so disheartening not to know how to fix something. I’ve helped countless people fix their stuff but I’ve bitten off more than I can chew this time.

Also. Hubris is a bitch. All this horribleness is happening after an easy finish to the Hint #1 chart, after which I did NOT add a lifeline, and now I’m stuck on the first row of Hint #2. So frustrating.

Hint #4 came out today. I am feeling really very far behind indeed. Maybe I’ll be able to figure something out this weekend.

You may ask yourself, what in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s name is THAT?

Well, here’s the thing. I swatched with size 2 needles, and the cast on requires a size 1-2 sizes larger. And I only had a nice set of double pointed needles in size 4. My TWO interchangable sets, which are full of false promises of never needing to buy needles again, only go down to 5 or 6 I believe. Anyway, I grabbed one of the dpn’s, threw a rubber band on one end, and merrily cast on.

Those orange bands? They’re sport weight stitch markers, one every 10 stitches. The yarn I’m using is THAT tiny. And that needle is about 5 inches long. The picture is pretty close to life-sized.

Yes, I’m planning on seeing my eye doctor very soon.

I decided when there was no yarn package on Saturday that I’d better cast on the Secret of the Stole with the Alpaca Cloud and have done with it. So I did. Good thing I swatched with the same yarn!

Lace knitting is pretty advanced. I liken it to the point in a given field of study when the scholar must choose her specialization. Some choose socks (too hypnotic), some choose colorwork (meh.), some choose sweaters, and some choose lace. Lace shawls appeal to me. Why? Well I’m glad you asked.

• I’m cold all the time, and even in the summer when I’ve got a good heat tolerance going, I do have to go into offices and shops where people without heat tolerances live.
• I love dramatic, tasteful clothing. A beautiful lace shawl is just that. Who wouldn’t love to button up a marvelous and witty point of conversation by subtly throwing a point of gorgeous shawl over one’s shoulder? Who can argue with that?
• I dislike knitting in tiny circles. That became painfully clear while knitting B’s cigar gloves. I also dislike seaming. A lace shawl is full of win on both of these points.
• I want to learn to knit pretty lace, rather than live in stockinette hell. New skills are good for the brain!

The glass is half full. I must remember that. Because last night, after chugging along with the chart and getting everything perfect, reading my knitting, feeling free and new and wonderful, I made a mistake. And when I tried to back up to fix it, I think I may have made another mistake in my tinking. And I may have dropped a stitch when my dear little 50 lb doggie landed on me from 4 feet away.

After trying unsuccessfully 8 times to unknit and reknit that part, I saw my knitting life flash before my eyes. Learning to make balanced increases, a breeze. My first cable, a success. Seaming a baby sweater, unpleasant, but pretty easy.

And this stupid little section of tangled string was utterly stumping me.

Ugh. I threw a bit of a laid-back hissy fit, lamenting my lack of lace knitting friends, I doubted that even my glorious mother could help me with it over the phone. She is clever and has chosen the Path of Socks, which allows for the occasional modest dabbling into the lace pool.

Poor B tried to help me out, and we managed to sort out that I had a few options:

1. Keep on truckin’ and live with the mistake (but but but, PERFECTION! and not sure where I lost the stitch)
2. Tink back to the last purl return row (but I had already messed tinking up)
3. Try to fix it from the current row (but that’s what I’d been doing)

I chose none of the above, put the lace down, step AWAY from the LACE, ma’am. And when I picked it up again this morning, yesss the siren call of the laaaaccce, I knew what I must do. I did the best I could with counting and comparing to the chart, getting the stitch back where I thought it should go, then just sallied forth! I did have to do some additional repairs after the next return row, but I think it’s OK now. You can see where I screwed up, but I think it’ll be only visible to me, and it’ll be a good reminder to never let perfectionism ruin your fun.

Next time on Looptangle, a photo of the amusing way I cast on the SotSii of Doom!

Still no yarn. Mailbox Yarn Watch 2008 continues. As does the SotSii KAL. Boo.

Instead I cast on Through the Loops’ Beret Recipe with some awesome yarn B gave me two Christmases ago. It takes me a while to get through ye olde stashe. It’s Noro’s now discontinued Transition. The colorway is there on the left.

I’m calling it my Haute Beret, because, well, a beret is not a garment to be trifled with. You’re putting an oddly shaped thing on your head, it might as well have some flair! So I’m making it on the larger side of the recipe. It’ll be thick and warm and floppy and I can’t wait to try it on!

It’s really a shame the yarn is discontinued. I do think it’s a bit overtwisted though, and I’ve been un-spinning it a bit as I go, to make it fluffier and squooshier. That’s a technical term. Don’t question me, I’m an expert!

It’s lots of different fiber types, but the angora blended in is just heavenly. O! So soft! It’s only been blended into the very beginning color of the yarn, sort of a gray color, which gives the beret this cool halo just at the center of it.

When life hands you lemons, make a beret!

(Sometimes I astound myself with my corniness.)

It’s sort of magical how much you can stretch it out. I enjoyed it. I was worried it would be a step (like swatching) that I might have to trudge through, but it’s kind of exciting to see the pattern come out, and there’s a rhythm to it. (I don’t much mind swatching anymore either.)

My dog tends to follow me wherever I go in the house, and he settled down to guard me from any intruders who might interrupt my Important Lace Blocking Mission (ILBM).

Of course, it didn’t take long for him to be asleep on the job.

Also, can buttons be delicious? I am in love with these. Got them in a little mixed-size bag at Hancock for half price, yay!