Good things come to those...

...who pester the freight forwarder! Finally, got my Knitted Lace of Estonia book and it does not disappoint! All of the patterns in this book are gorgeous and just reading about the history behind Estonian knitting is riveting. What awesome knitters they had to be, knitting exquisite shawls without the benefit of written pattern or charts! The girls started learning from age 4 - wow!

Like I said in one of my last posts, I plan on doing the Miralda shawl and here you see a pic of the yarn I am thinking of using.



Seeing the pattern in "person" rather than on the web has made me ponder if Knitpicks is the best choice for this intricate beauty. Nothing against Knitpicks as I have used it before for shawls, but the beauty and the history of the shawl inspires me to get something more lucious to invest in this project. There are so many yarns out there that in seeking out what I'd like to buy sends me further down the blog-rabbit hole! I'm picturing some Suri Elegance, but I don't know how well it will go with this pattern. We'll see!

In other knitting news, I've cast on a pair of socks for my deserving hubby. In order to avoid the dreaded second sock sydrome which I have succumbed to on a number of occasions, I decided to go with the 2 at a time sock knitting technique. Well... after a few days, I am now starting row 3 of the cuff. I have a 47 inch cable and somewhere I read that using any longer than a 40 is not recommended but I have to say, the 47 inch is working for me as a beginner to this technique. Synopsis of how it went:

1. Cast on with glee. I'm actually knitting something that can finish in a week or so!

2. Get to step 5 and get hopelessly tangled in two cakes of yarn and a fiddly needle that seems to be growing and simultaneously shrinking with each flick of my wrists.

3. Somehow sort it out and go to second row. Figure out that I somehow twisted one of the socks at the join and was now knitting a sock and a mobeius sock thingee.

4. Rip it out and wonder if hubby truly is deserving in the light of the drama I was at that moment embroiled in.

5. Come to my senses that yes, indeed he is worthy as he is an awesome supportive husband and fighting with wayward yarn and needles was the least I could do for him to make him his long promised socks.

6. Knit 2 rows and let it "rest" on the side table for a little bit.

So I'll be back to it once the kids go to bed and theorhetically won't have any need to call me 5 billion times, times 2, and I can think clearly while conquering this technique. While others on ravelry imply and said outright that it is not difficult, thereby making me feel somewhat challenged, my first encounter has left me somewhat, cautious in my goal to finishing something and soon. After all, it has been over a year since I started the raglan leaf tee! For shame and tsk tsk!

Hope your projects are going better than mine right now!