Back to Work....

Here are a couple of things I do when I procrastinate from weaving. This shawl is wonderfully relaxing to knit. Yesterday I spent the entire day knitting this while sitting on my front porch listening to the rain and watching it fall, and smelling the last of warm summer weather.
And this project should start progressing again, now that I've dyed some more silk with which to knit the border of the shawl. The body of the shawl is knit from my handspun which was hand painted by the Silk Worker. I knew there would not be enough for the whole shawl, but figured I'd cross that bridge when I got there. The pattern is Swallowtail by Evelyn Clark, published in IWKnits. It's a super simple, but very beautiful design, so it's become my favorite for shawls that will be given away. A friend of mine with excellent color sense recommended I try lavender for the border of the shawl. I'm not sure my attempt at logwood will fill the bill, but if I don't think it's compatible after spinning I'll just over dye with either more logwood, or perhaps cocchineal or indigo...or both. I left plenty of undyed white space in this bit of top so that the lavender would be pale when spun. I have a feeling it will be too pale!

Lastly, I need to write up some notes and do some graph paper work on my version of the Cardigan for Arwen (IWKnits, winter 2006) which I'm knitting up in Katia Scotch Tweed. I knitted the back and one of the front/sleeve sections which forced me to make all the design decisions. Now there's just that last front/sleeve to knit and no reason to do so!....except that maybe I'd like to wear it someday?.....