Other Things

First then first before we move on to other things.

Savvy bead storage.  An no, I did not get all of the bead stash in here.  Next time I see something cool, like this, I am going to follow my first instinct and pick up 3. A third set would have done it.  

Moving forward, I was feeling tired of Shetland stuff so I took a little side trip into easier knitting.  

This is one of my little shawl projects to finish up in 2011.  A small simple shawl from  a single ball of Zauberball Crazy Fach 6, IIRC (the ball band is missing).  It is the sport weight version of Zauberball.  Very interesting to work with, as all Zauberball is.  

The cone the shawl is sitting on, is the most amazing coincidence.  I was in search of a perfect red lace, and in the search, I tried Webs Colrain Lace in Plum.  Plum.  Yes I am a desperate woman (for red).  Sigh.  Plum.

And it is.  Plummy that is.  Very very.  The perfect plummy fuchsia to match the rich tones of the Zauberball. 

From the moment I saw the colours side by side, I knew what I was going to do with it.  The shawl body is Zauberball and the finishing touch is a lace border, the English Crystal design, from Marianne Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting.  

This is not a long pointy edged lace.  It is a simple straight edged lace, the sort of thing you would find along the sides of a linen tablecloth, the kind of tablecloth of linen and lace your great aunt would have painstakingly finished off with fancy hem stitching. The pattern could almost be called an insertion. Yet, for all its origins in tablecloths, it still is lace knitting and, when added to what is an otherwise simple shawl, quite right.   In the book, it is finished off with a crocheted loop edge.  I've saved just enough, I hope (and pray), to do the crocheted edge in the blackest part of the Zauberball.   

My hands are a bit achy from knitting all day.  Playing with it has been a lot of fun.  It is getting close to bed time, but I keep looking between it and the clock and wonder if I have time to do just one more row.