As I sit here, eating with delicious slowness my Leonidis Vanilla Crème Chocolate (my absolute favourite chocolates in the world, as Bibnbub will attest), I consider my knitting state of play.
Thanks to the offers of several kind souls, here and abroad, known personally and virtually, I will shortly have some of the requisite Knitpicks Shimmer. Not in the required dye lot, sadly, but we shall push on regardless and hope the karma of the world is kind to me as I finish this lace gift knit and that the difference in colour is not perceptible to the careful eye of either the knitter (me) or the once-knitting giftee! On the plus side, our local Stitch and Bitch has gained a new Knitpicks Dealer ™ much to the delight of the assembled knitters from a country-so-far-away-Americans-won't-mail-to-us.
I have approximately 27 repeats of the final lace side (maybe 26 when I finish the last little bit of the yarn I DO have). It shall wait patiently for the arrival of new supplies.
In the mean time, I have picked up a long discarded item - my Tangled Yoke cardigan. It had stalled, partly due to a re-take up of the lace stole and partly due to my dissatisfaction with the sleeves. You see they were quite loose on me. I'd knit about a third of the first one and I kept looking at it, willing it to fit better through sheer force of mental effort. To no avail. It wasn't bad knitting - another examination of the pattern showed they are in fact fairly wide at the wrist. Which, on reflection would be good if you lived in a climate which required the wearing of many layers (i.e. a long sleeved shirt under it). I don't however. The delay meant instead something positive happened. I took a fresh look at it.
I ripped out the entire sleeve, did some math and cast on a much smaller sleeve edge. I shall do more increases to get up to the correct arm scythe size, but it is now only a little loose and I think a much more wearable fit. I knit it on the bus this morning, and discovered something. After an hour, I could see visible progress! Wonders! It's obviously been so long since I knit anything other than lace, I'd forgotten that knitting could HAVE visible progress.
This has made me rethink my extended queue of projects. This queue has several lace pieces on it. I am now thinking that maybe, just maybe, I should take a different tack. I think, after I have finished the lace I should reconsider new projects for something.. Smaller. Maybe socks? My little one was admiring the Blue Moon Fibre Arts colourway Fire on the Mountain, and asked if I could knit her some socks in that.. 5 year old socks… now that sounds like a plan, doesn't it?
(note to those who know me: Yes, I know I have Anastasias started already on the needles, and I still have the Tangled Yoke, but still. The Socks that Rock colours are so pretty..)
