Last of the summer wine....

Well, not really. Just almost the last of my birthday presents has finally rolled in. I'm waiting on one more, but as I a) know what it is and b) get a vacation out of the fetching of it, I'm not all that chuffed about its arrival.

Here is what I got this week:

 Actually, my friend gave me cash money instead of a gift -- there was a bit of chaos in our lives this past month, and if she'd actually gotten me a gift, it probably would have been destroyed in horrific fashion. So much better done this way, really. That's an image of two skeins of Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk in a stinkin' hot blue color and a bottle of my favorite wine. Mmmm, sweet wine. I love it like buttah. I've already cracked into it, actually -- not while knitting, of course, that lesson I've learned in ages past -- and will be having another glass again tonight with dinner. Good for the cardiovascular, you understand. And, to be honest, my jaw. The internal bruising and swelling has (for the most part) receded, but there's some leftover tenderness and muscular tightness from the whole bollywoggle still going on. So I take a glass in the name of medicine every night to relax my jaws a bit.

Don't knock it, it works.

And here's a close-up of my supah-swanky yarn:

Isn't it beautiful? I had the shop wind it up for me, and since I've got 874 yards of it, I'm pretty glad I did. Fingering weight, silk and superwash blend. I'm thinking shawl, if I can find a stitch pattern I like passing fair, or maybe use someone else's pattern. Gasp! Me, use a pattern?!?!

I know, I can hardly credit that myself. But it's been known to happen, and quite often for proof of concept projects so I can see how they work and figure them out before I make up my own ride.

Don't be looking for a shawl out of this anytime soon, though. I've got a project queue about sixty miles long, and I'm stalled out on Little Loki. All my excitement for the bead work has exhausted itself in the tedium of miles of left-leaning mesh. It's a wonderful project for those nights when I'm not sure I feel quite like knitting on something I have to think much about, but not so much for long-haul knitting. It's a bit...tiring, really. Oh, I still love it and I'm looking forward immensely to having the thing finished, blocked and on my person, but I'm bored of mesh.


Oooh. I've got some worsted weight silk/merino yarn wanting to be turned into a shawl, too, somewhere in my stashtainer. Maybe a simpler shawl pattern will work for me.

Hmmmm. I must go have a think now. Between Loki and the other projects I've got going, I need a warm pattern that's fairly mindless. And I need to make my mother a new scarf for the winter, but that's neither here nor there right now. She can borrow one of mine, if needs must. Until I finish hers.

See what I mean? Sixty miles long. If I got paid, that right there would be job security!