This is what crying over not enough yarn looks like.

This is my Print O' the Wave stole.
This is, you will remember, a gift for my man's grandmother who can no longer knit herself and who's last knitted item was a perfect lace Christening shawl for my daughter.

As you can see from the above, I am less than a single side away from finishing the edging. I had done the math, you will recall, to work out how long I would need to knit to finish it (I think my sampling error was a bit high, and I should have taken more than a single timing measurement, but that's another post). The end was in sight.

Then karma takes me, and... slaps me stupid for my hubris.

This is how much yarn I have left.
I have posted on Ravelry seeking a swap/trade/buy/beg pathetically...

I can't however, buy the yarn myself directly from the company, because they refuse to post outside the US or Canada. (sulk) And our previous acquirer is no longer availible (sigh).

I should be able to get some in the same colourway, but not the same dye lot. There are a couple of people over on Ravelry having them for trade, but none with the right dye lot as far as I can tell.

This is how I feel, after all that work.

(photo kindly borrowed from D-Hub on flickr).

'Nuff said.
(and before people *cough* Fitzwilliam *cough* start to panic, I'm fine. Just kicking my own ass for not buying an extra skein when originally buying it. It had about 100m more than the pattern called for. That seemed.. plenty.)

Lace Stole Math

This is what I just figured out. I have (both literally and figuratively) just turned a corner on the Print O the Wave stole.

248 edge stitches on a long side. 88 stitches on a short side. One of each remaining.

One repeat takes me approximately 17 minutes. A repeat consumes 8 edge stitches into the knitted on border.

This means...
248 = 31 repeats of edging.
88 = 11 repeats of edging.
(31+11)*17 = 714 minutes of edge knitting left.
714/60 =11 hours and 54 mins of knitting time until I can block, sew in a couple of loose ends and it will be done.

Somehow, 12 hours of knitting time suddenly doesn't seem so bad. I see end of the project! Can I get a huzzah?

Knitting badly interrupted... by reading...

Yes, well. I was loaned this on Friday night.

Thought I'd take a look Saturday and bang! It ate all my knitting time.

I finished it this afternoon, walking home from the bus stop. Yes, I can read and walk home at the same time, can't you?

It was wonderful. A story of the fae, with lots of rock music. Wonderful read.

So, I've only done a little more - continuing the ongoing yawn that the Print of the Wave stole edging has been. This hasn't, of course stopped me drooling all over various lace stoles on Ravelry while I plan my next project...

Also, I am in the market for some of those embroidered Arabian style slippers. Couldn't find any at Freo markets, so keep an eye out for me, won't you?

Was I the only person who didn't know about the free Rowan patterns online?

OMG.

Found here. There are heaps. Going back to 2001.

Que Sera, sera..

Remember that bit..

"I asked my mother, what will I be? Will I be pretty, will I be rich? Here's what she said to me..."

So my anticipated Belisa silk lace weight arrived, bought on sale from Ozeyarns. At first, to be honest I was a little disappointed - the yarn is a lot more yellow than I had expected.

This isn't the end of the world of course, it just means I probably won't be using it for the initial bought intention - wedding garment. Looks like someone I like (a lot) might get it at some distant point in the future as lace shawl-type garment.

On the definitely plus side, I am quite taken by the Centolavaggia deep red laceweight the terribly nice secret Santa brought me... and also by the suggested Celtic Knot Stole pattern.

I'm making progress on the Print O' the Wave too - I've completed one short side and maybe a quarter of one long side of the edging. It has suddenly started to drag, feeling like I'm not making progress. Which I clearly am, but it just feels like it is taking oh so long to get anywhere. I hope every lace edging isn't like this!! The Vogue cardigan wasn't :(

New Year's Resolutions...

Michelle, over on craftyaction blogged about her crafty New Year's Resolutions. So I got thinking... I am quite one for resolutions but rarely get into sharing them overly from a fear I won't get far.
(Witness the failed photographic Project 365 project).

However, one one of the blogs I read they were exposing the importance of telling people about your new resolutions in order to facilitate change. This does mean a few things. It means there is risk of the failure being known. But, since you'll see for me that this represents something I intend working on this year, all to the good. I may be blathering about now, so I will get on with it.

There are a few things I want to work on this year.

1. I want to be the good role model for the kind of person I want my daughter to be. This has a couple of sub-resolutions -
1. don't yell through the house, go find the person and talk to them.
   
2. be brave.
   
3. be nice to other people, even when I feel like crap.
4. eat better.
2. Lose 4kgs (so I fit back into some of my favourite clothes) by end of June. (1.4 should help)
   
3. Reduce discretionary spending. For this, I plan on using two previously effective techniques - "If I had this much money to spend on yarn, would I buy this thing, or would I buy yarn?" and secondly - delay. The "Oh... I'll just buy that tomorrow/next week/when I get paid" etc.

That's all really. I mean, I intend to finish the projects I have on the needles, but I won't get worried about it if I don't. I intend to knit another lace shawl/object (maybe two) but again, it doesn't have the status of resolution. I may use knitting related items to reward myself for sticking to the others - buying yarn instead of junk food always works, but really knitting isn't a chore for me. It happens all by itself :)

Happy New Year folks. I hope it rocks your world (in a good way) and you get what you need. Peace & good karma to all.