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Okay, so The Whole Ball of Yarn(s) hasn't been so much about the knitting lately. I've been in a slump, with none of my projects really motivating me and with no time to dig through stash and patterns to find something that will. I ditched my current projects, took some time to frog my T-Twist to recoup the yarn for who knows what. But it's lovely yarn, and since I won't wear that top, it made sense to reclaim it. Then I went through my stash spreadsheet with some patterns around me and chose the Heavenly Camisole and Scarf from Knitter's Stash in Elann's Peruvian Baby Silk. I had a quantity of this to make Annie Modesitt's Corset Top, which I chickened out of wearing (I was up for knitting it, just not sure about wearing it, and it was a tough enough pattern that I'd want to wear it all the time). The color is orchid or something, but as my down-to-earth husband noted "Wow, that's purple. Do you have anything to go with it?" when I explained what I was making. Well, I don't have anything to go with it. I suppose I can find someone to gift it to, but most importantly, it seems fun to knit, and I like the yarn. So there. I'll rip it out at the end if I don't like it. It's knit bottom-up in the round, with the front in a leaf lace pattern and the back in stockinette. It's light and purple and pretty, and it's exactly the knitting I need right now. Of course, this is all I have so far:


I've also decided to do an Irish Diamond Shawl from Folk Shawls for a Christmas gift. After googling for a while, I decided to do as others have done and use a lace weight instead of a fingering weight. I'm using Jaggerspun Zephyr in black, and hoping it doesn't look like the recipient is in mourning or something. I showed my husband a few shawls from that book that I was deciding between, and he said of the Irish Diamond Shawl, "Cool, it looks like bat wings!" which, surprisingly, I failed to see as incentive to knit it. After I acknowledged that it did indeed look like bat wings (with accompanying eye roll), he said that it was also very pretty. I had been leaning that way anyway, so Irish Diamond it is. The bonus is that a cone of Zephyr is enough to make more than two lace shawls, so my next next project may be a black shawl for myself.

I find myself once again apologizing for being out of touch with the knitting blog world. It's a tricky time, with much traveling and house hunting and packing up/throwing out our stuff in preparation of moving. I can sometimes manage ten minutes a day on the internet with all this going on, so I'm just going to be slow for a while. Hopefully, once we've moved, I'll be more in touch.

Reading: I have read a lot since my last post, I think. I read Jane and the Ghosts of Netley and Jane and His Lordship's Legacy by Stephanie Barron, and loved them. I just don't get tired of the Jane Austen mysteries. I'm currently on Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, the second of the Peter Pan prequels. I loved the first, and the second is very fun so far.

Writing: Shelved, I'm afraid, until moving is complete.

Cooking: Urgh. Too much traveling, not enough food in the house.