Extravayarnza

So,
I was only really upset with Robin for an hour or two. There have been no issues since that night (nor had there been one since the first few days home) plus later than night when he was let out of his crate he came and found me in bed and snuggled with me the rest of the night. How can you stay angry after that?
Plus he cleaned up the mess my bulimic cat made the next morning (yuck).
I've got lots of great photos for you later in the post. But first I'd like to tell you a bit more about the Alberta Shawl that I couldn't share with you the other night.
This is one of those cases of falling in love with a yarn & getting totally stumped finding a pattern. I searched for a week (a long time for me) attempting to find a pattern that met my specifications.
~Triangular Shawl
~Starts at center back (at neck)
~Has an edging that's knit on perpendicular to the main part of the shawl
The big reason for all these requirements is that the yarn makes stripes. I really wanted to play that up. Medium stripes near the neck, growing smaller as the rows get longer. Then big long stripes for the edging.
Plus I get bored really easily & most of the stoles I see have the same stitch the whole time. Nothing is more boring to me than a giant rectangle in lace weight doing the same 6 or 8 rows over & over & over & over again.
Even though the shawl I choose uses the same stitch pattern for the whole thing, since it's a triangle & since it's Faroese in shape there is enough going on to keep me interested, but not so much that I can't knit it in public.

I've also agreed to run a class on shawls from this book (Stahman's Shawls & Scarves) late this summer. All the shawls in the book use the same basic formula, so students can choose any shawl from the book. Plus they can pretty much be knit in any weight from lace to worsted. I'm really looking forward to teaching this class!
It will start in early August and be on Friday evenings (5-7). I don't know the exact dates yet, but I already have two students, pretty cool.

The Pegasus Shawl is actually half way through the 7th chart. Unfortunately I'm at a bit of a sticking point & waiting for some clarification from Sharon.

Okay now for lots of pictures. A box I've been eagerly waiting for arrived at the store today. New cashmere lace weight from Art Yarns.
This is what a snagged for the shawl in my book!

The shawl has a water pond & Weeping Willow theme, so the soft green/blue is perfect.

But don't worry there are lots of great colors left!

My two favorites are actually the dark red and brown on the right & the lilac on the left. If I hadn't already picked a theme for the shawl that red would have come home in a heart beat.

There's also Cashmere 5 (worsted weight)

With several new patterns that only take one skein. I knit a Calorimetry in this yarn last winter & it's yummy.

We also finally have Silk Rhapsody in once again.

Now if I could just somehow get the Malabrigo lace weight to arrive...

The sunset tonight was just spectacular! There was that perfect amount of clouds to allow the colors to really get intense.


Plus I got a little surprise when I was taking photos.

We live a few miles from the airport, so one of these fly by every hour or so. It's not too bad. I suppose if you were a very light sleeper & the window was open it would be enough to wake you up, but it's not like that scene in Wayne's World or anything like that.
Anyways Happy Knitting~