so you can eat your heart out because goddammit if I don’t feel pretty!

Diamond Fantasy Shawl
Pattern by Sivia Harding
Yarn by Sundara – Superwash Merino Sportweight, custom over-dyed – BLACK
Beads by ? – made in Japan, glass, size 6/0. I used a 11/12 crochet hook from Susan Bates to add the beads – I did not string them before hand. (Be careful – that sucker is pointy!)
Needles by Addi Turbo, US size 6 (4.0mm)
Dress by Donna Ricco New York
Shoes by Chinese Laundry
Body by Ben, Jerry, and the fine people at Tastykake.

I cannot say enough about the pattern, the yarn, or the photographer! Sivia’s pattern is a dream to knit. This is my second time through and it’s well written, clearly charted – easy enough for a beginner, but challenging enough to keep you going and the results are phenomenol! Sundara was GREAT to work with – I emailed her and told her my vision for the shawl – how big I wanted it to be, how I wanted it to look, the way the beads would work with it and she helped me decide on a yarn and the color (I knew in the black family, but how dark, etc. I left up to her.) The yarn, while stiff and a little scratchy while I was knitting it up (which actually helped me in the knitting) softened up AMAZINGLY after a Lavendar Eucalan bath and it blocked gorgeously. I would not hesitate to buy yarn from her again – no matter what the project.

And Jen the photographer! What can I say about my friend Jen? Jen was a super sport – not only did she take amazing pictures that I actually feel good looking at, she told me I was HOT. She liked my hair, she liked my dress, she liked my shoes, she told me I didn’t need to wear panty hose – that girl really knows how to boost your self esteem. She fed me pizza and root beer. She didn’t get pissed or flustered when I yelled out photography directions (sorry about that.) And she’s got just about the cutest kid ever.

Thanks Jen & Xavi!!! L, C

PS – Shot on location in Jersey City, New Jersey!

I have no clue as to how I’m going to properly photograph it. It’s magnificent. If I thought it wouldn’t detract too much from the shawl, I’d go to the wedding wearing nothing but this beauty. The beads are cool against my arm and gently remind me of their presence. The yarn is soft. It’s (amazingly) light. It’s perfect.

Anticipation

as a form of procrastination.

I had two chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. Because, you know, I have a wedding in two days.

Yesterday was LOADS of fun. Lorette is everything and more than her blog promises. Although she was a bit quiet so I hope my big mouthed enthusiasm wasn’t too overwhelming. Really. I’m a good listener! Wanna know how enthusiastic I was? Welp, at School Products I pulled out the shawl to show Lorette. At Purl Patchwork I pulled out the shawl to show Kay and Lorette and poor Joelle. Kay had to talk me down from all the glorious fiber. I chose SPINNING as the OTHER hobby. NONONONONONO to sewing and quilting! JUST SAY NO! And then later on I showed Jen and Lorette the shawl at Seaport, where we got to take a survey about vitamin water and got $10 bucks off! I told Lorette is was a business disguised as a yarn shop. It was fabulous to meet Lorette! Great to see Jen! THE BEST to play with Xavi! And, as usual, too cool for school to hang with my world traveler and renowned author friend Kay. (Although I know now that I will have to fight her if there’s a baby in the room!)

Speaking of the Mason-Dixon girls, MAN have I drunk up the Kool-Aid!

I told Kay I bought the Gee’s Bend book and she was all like what made you buy it? Where did you hear about it? Um. Kay honey. I read your book. DUH! And that there on top of the book is some rilly fine Euroflax linen for handtowels. The handtowels in my guest bathroom are looking kind of ratty so I thought I’d spiff up the place. I’m a goner as you can plainly see.

I’ve decided if you come to New York there are three yarns stores that are MUST visits. There are a gazillion yarn stores all over the city (well, not a gazillion, but if you look at it statistically by how many actual knitters there are in this city of 8 million or so people, then there are quite a few.) I’ve actually been kind of down on the yarn store lately – feeling like if you’ve been in one you’ve been in them all and since I don’t really have a knitting community (besides, you know, you all) I don’t have any particular allegience to any particular shop. There are, though, quite a few I actually can’t stand, but that’s another random Wednesday. Anyway, I’m basing this observation on many, many yarn store visits around and about Manhattan. First off, you’ve got to hit Habu. It’s just so out there – the yarns and the shop – that you won’t find anything like it anywhere. It’s quite the experience. (And while you’re at Habu, you might as well stop at School Products, because, well, it’s around the corner.)

The next shop I think you should not miss is Purl. Just for the sheer beauty of it. It’s incredibly tiny and more than five people you’re like looking for an exit but the walls are covered in color. Gorgeous, rich color. The prices are eh and the yarns are all yarns you’ve seen before, but it’s the environment you need to soak up. (The Point is a few blocks away and I know lots of people hang out and knit there. It’s okay – I’m not enamored with the layout – yarn in baskets on the walls – but I do like the big table in the middle perfect for a nice big knitting party.)

The final shop I think anyone MUST see in New York is Seaport. By now you probably now the story behind the store – it’s an actual office with actual office workers working amidst piles and piles and rooms and rooms of yarn. Andrea, the owner, has hands down the best variety of yarn and excellent prices and the fact that they only take cash is a nuisance overcome by the ATM machine in the Duane Reade across the street. She also has the best book and pattern selection anywhere. Seaport is messy and overwhelming and site to behold. A must stop.

I know there are many other stores around the city – including a new one – Knitty City. This might get an add on to the list because it had the best atmosphere – warm and inviting. Sadly you don’t get that very often in stores around the city unless you’re part of the “in” crowd. I’m not “in” anywhere. (That’s why I have a blog so I can pretend I’m in somewhere!) At Knitty City it felt like you were in if you were a knitter – or aspired to be one. Those were the only requirements. And it’s a beautiful store – I just wish it wasn’t quite so uptown!

Wanna come for a visit?

Yesterday was a much needed day of adult (and baby) interaction. I’ve been home alone A LOT lately – G’s been working working working – and while The Donner Party is fun and all to hang with – real people who don’t dine on each other can be a special treat as well. When I got home last night I was so excited and exhausted and exhilirated I set out to BLOCK MY SHAWL RIGHT NOW! So I prepared the guest room/den (pulled up the futon and dumped the clean clothes on my bed) so I could lay out the damn thing on the floor. I got a nice tepid temperature running in the sink and submerged the shawl into a relaxing lavendar bath. And IMMEDIATELY realized I had forgotten to weave in the ends. Duh! (Although the Zen master tells me she does this all the time – weave in the ends after the blocking. Made me feel so much better. As opposed to the HEN master who laughed at me.) I persevered though, on my hands and knees, and blocked the fucker home!

This mofo is BIG!

Unpinned, ends woven in pictures later. Gotta have something for tomorrow and hopefully the red dress will come today and it will be fantabulous on my chocolate chip cookie enhanced body and all will be good. I’m not real worried though because I tried on the dress I wore to my San Simeon adventure and it fits. Worse comes to worst, I can wear that, with my shawl draped over my head so I can look like an old Italian widow. So hot!

Dear Comment Spammer: I’m a little bit worried about you. I know you’re trying to convince me that certain parts of the body, which I may or may not have, would do well with a little enhancement, but maybe this isn’t the best way to go about it:

Basically nothin
g seems worth thinking about. I haven’t been up to much these days. I just don’t have much to say right now. I can’t be bothered with anything , but whatever.

OR

I just don’t have much to say these days, but so it goes. Today was a total loss. I guess it doesn’t bother me.

DUDE! Way to bring the party down! MamaCate, Colleen and I have a suggestion though – it may just help this nihilistic streak you’ve got going.

When the world seems dark and cold, there’s no meaning left in the sun and stars and the flowers, you’re alone with your empty carton of milk and your double thick oreos, I have a suggestion. KNIT SOCKS!

Just keep on casting on my friend. Too many are never enough!

* My homage to my High Energy Friend! GO SEND HER THE BEST VIBES! Love you COMPADRE!

I didn’t do the next repeat. Here’s a really, really awful picture of the unblocked Beaded Diamond Fantasy Shawl:

Click on the picture – it definitely looks better bigger. Anyway, I’m SO glad I decided not to go on – first off – this thing is 56″ unblocked – hell – it’s not even stretched out at all. And it’s heavy – between the beads and the yarn another repeat might have sent it over the edge. I added beads below the bind off edge – where the middle of the diamond would’ve been had I done the next repeat, but right now the edge is folding over on it and you can’t see it. And that edge! MY GOD! I can not sing the praises of the I-cord bindoff enough. It’s GORGEOUS! But it also took me like five hours to do. Granted I took breaks every now and again, but still. See that red thread running through? That’s some left over STR that I’m using to do Stephanie’s blocking trick for straight edges. She threads in a piece of waste yarn much bigger than the biggest size you might want to block the piece and then pulls tight. I forgot with the last shawl but I was smart this time. Here’s hoping it works better than pins across the straight edge.

So today I’m off for some knitblogger play. Lorette is in town! YAY! and we’re going to go yarn shopping and a couple of friends might join us. The more the merrier!

Obervation: Last night I was laying in bed – Georgie came home late – and I had just finished watching this super scary PBS show on The Donner Party. The pictures of these people? The true definition of haunted. They labeled the freaking body parts so people didn’t have to eat their own kin. WOW. Oh and by the way – is there anything that Ric Burns HASN’T made a documentary about? I digress. G and I were laying in bed flipping around the tv and he landed on Jay Leno. Robin Williams was the guest. As we were laying there laughing, I had that feeling I sometimes get – I am a grown-up. Nothing says grown-up to me like late night talk shows. It brings me back to my childhood – when my parents would watch Johnny Carson and I would wake up and wander into their room – they were laughing at things I didn’t understand. It was a grown-up thing. Weird huh. I’m the grown-up (sort of) now. Sometimes it feels really good. It’s nice to get the jokes.

or have too many diamonds. Or can you? I’d take a picture of the BDFS but it’s black and outside is gray. Very very gray. Which means even when I turn on all the lights in my house it’s still very dark. How is it that when it’s dark at 9AM it seems so much darker in the house than when it’s 9PM? I don’t understand, but it’s true.

Anyway, back to the shawl. All I did the entire weekend was knit this shawl. Really. I kid you not. Starting from Friday night (G had a work thing) all the way until about midnight this morning I knit this shawl. That’s a lot of black knitting on a pattern I practically memorized nine repeats ago. (I do still need to consult the chart at the beginning of each row.) And while it’s still a great pattern, it’s lace and that means I have to pay at least a little attention. Did I mention it’s black and that every eight or so rows I have to add beads which is becoming more and more tedious as the shawl goes on? At least I had good tv to keep me entertained. The King and I Friday night. West Side Story immediately followed up by Fiddler on the Roof on Saturday. Sunday I woke up and knit during the news shows and then took a small break for a visit with my in-laws for Easter. Excellent lamb by the way. Then it was home to watch Mean Girls (Heathers is just SO much better) and the Sunday night shows. May I digress for a minute? I may be a true romantic cornball at heart but OH MY GOD I’m loving the way The West Wing is ending the series. I know this makes me a nerd of gargantuan proportions but I *heart* Josh. I’m like a broken record but Donna and Josh are SO perfect together and last week when CJ got that big smile on her face because she’s doing it with Elliot from thirtysomething? How cute was our very own Claudia Jean? This is the way a series should end! Hook everyone up! Make everyone happy!

Back to the shawl. Here’s the sitch: ostensibly, I’m done. I’ve got like three rows left (yes that will probably take me three hours) but once I get to the end of the current repeat I’ve done my ten repeats. Which gives me 21 diamonds across the top. When I count the diamonds across the top of my previously finished DFS, I get 23 diamonds. I guess I did an extra repeat. Call me overzealous. Now I don’t know what to do – should I do the extra repeat on THIS shawl? Or just leave it? I hate that I can’t tell how big it’s really going to be, but it’s going to be pretty big given that I knit it with sportweight wool and I think it’s going to look really nice REALLY blocked because then they’ll be all the pretty empty space between the diamonds and the beads but I feel like if I don’t do the extra repeat I’ll know I didn’t do the extra repeat and that will niggle at me. Or will it? Because honestly I’m SICK of this thing and I don’t even want to go to the wedding because I’m REALLY fat and I ordered a perfect dress yesterday from Nordstrom’s but even though I ordered a fat size (for me) I bet you it will be too small and then I’ll be really upset even though I know this particular designer probably cuts her stuff really really tiny. I’ve got the yarn – that’s not an issue – but I know I’m going to have to break into the last skein, which in and of itself isn’t a big deal except that I’ve been having a lot of trouble winding up this yarn and currently that last skein is in a knotty heap on the floor in the living room. It’ll probably take me a whole day to untangle the mess. Which isn’t the best reason NOT to continue on, but I don’t know for a fact that I’ll have enough yarn in the skank I currently have working to finish the next repeat. Sigh. What would you do?

Thank you all so much for your comments on my handwriting post! It touches me that I was able to touch all of you. This ABC thing continues to inspire me – I’m so grateful to Anne for the brilliant idea! Thank you Anne!

PS : A friend just sent me a link to this very excellent (obviously European) commercial. Gotta love those Europeans!