I took a class on lace shawls on craftsy.com. It's a great course with two wonderful lace shawl patterns. I knit up the first shawl really quickly (Skywalker). I started Clarus in June 2012, hoping to finish it before summer ended.

Then I got other projects...

Suddenly it was March 2013 and I knew that I had to finish it. So I started knitting in a frenzy. I knit for hours. I am FINALLY on the border. There are over 330+ little stitches per row and it is taking me about 30 minutes to knit each row. Perhaps I will have this shawl done on Thursday. I only have 11 rows left!

I will definitely post pictures when I am done. Without blocking it, the shawl already covers my back. Once it's blocked, the shawl will grow at least three times its size. It will be exciting.

I always knew that patience was a virtue; it's one of those knitting lessons that I daily learn. However, this shawl is really testing the limits of my patience. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing how much I will love it when I'm done!

Happy knitting!

I saw this kerchief and thought it was awesome!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-skullkerchief

I finally finished a few projects! And some are still in progress. There's always more! So much to knit, yet so little time!

I've always known that Rumplestiltskin was a fairy tale, albeit a nice one. Who wouldn't want to turn something basically worthless into gold? However, now that I knit, I believe it to be more of a reality.

I went through my stash...my yarn stash that is. Since it has been months since I have bought any yarn, I thought that my stash would be under control. It turns out that I have three bags of unused or partially used balls/skeins of yarn that I have no use for. I know people say to keep some excess yarn for waste yarn etc., but I think I'm fine with three bags. That doesn't count the three containers of yarn that I'm planning to use. Needless to say, I think I'm covered for a year at least.

While I was looking through the yarn, I thought about Rumplestiltskin. Yarn is like hay, perhaps worth a bit more (though I haven't checked the prices of hay recently). Really, unless you are a crafty person, yarn is probably worthless to you. Sure, knitters know that some yarn is really expensive and one only has to touch it to know why. However, yarn doesn't really become worth much more until it is knit, woven, crocheted, etc. Handmade garments and accessories can be extremely expensive, like turning hay into gold.

Now I only need to talk to Rumplestiltskin about how to turn my yarn into gold faster so I can buy some more yarn....

Happy knitting!

Last weekend, I visited my family in San Diego. Living in Arizona, I don't get to see my family much. Although it was a whirlwind trip, it was wonderful to catch up with them...and surprising. I was with my first cousin once removed and my second cousins...I think I got that right. At any rate, for not seeing each other often and having grown up in very different environments, we are very similar. We all have a goofy sense of humor and like to laugh. We analyze everything, but in a fun way. We have similar interests, such as watching "Downton Abbey" (but who doesn't like that show?). And we are always busy. I thought that I was bad going to and from places daily, collapsing on my bed at night, but it appears that my family is that way too. Could it be because we're all from California? Who knows. Getting together with them reminded me how important family is and that I really need to work on staying in touch with people. It looks like I have a new mid-year resolution: keep in touch with people.