Secret Pals, Socks, and Shawls - oh my!

I'm behind on posting. Again.

My Secret Pal, though, is right on the ball. Dan brought the mail in with a quizzical expression on his face on Thursday afternoon, wondering who would send me a card. Well, there was a picture on the front that I quickly identified as knitting needles. Turns out my Secret Pal had sent me a cute little card to say "hi."

Isn't that great? How thoughtful! Thank you, Secret Pal. Put a smile on my face. I didn't send my Secret Pal a card (though I might next time - still thrilled about how great an idea that is), but I did send her first package out on Thursday. I hope she likes it!

I went out and got the yarn for my Sockapal-2-za socks today. What do you think?

I was going for something that said "fire" to me. This looks more like dying embers, but still fire-like, I think. I even have a pattern in mind. Stay tuned!

I also finished the sock-knitting bag. It's an original crocheted pattern, but I'm heavily indebted to Tasha. Sadly, because I chose to use black chenille, you can't see the crocheted cables on the strap. I used about three skeins of Lion Brand's Chenille Sensations.

It was designed so that I can bring my socks with me and knit on them while standing up. Sadly, none of the pictures I took of me actually carrying the bag and knitting turned out.

And there's been a great deal of shawl upheaval in the Palmer house lately. The Landscape Shawl, which I've been working on so painstakingly, is still not showing itself to be worth the Lorna's Laces it's being made of. And I just had to rip back about 10 rows, which is not making me love it any more. On the advice of friends, it's being given three days to sleep in my shawl workbasket before I decide whether or not to rescue the yarn for a more deserving project. Perhaps an Old Shale. Or perhaps the Shoalwater version. I don't get to decide until Tuesday. But I think the Landscape Shawl's days are numbered...

The mystery stole also met an inglorious fate this weekend. The needles were wrong. The yarn was wrong. My skill level, I suspect, was wrong. So that's on hold. I'm ordering some Shimmer from Knit Picks and smaller needles, and I'll try again someday. The beautiful grey yarn in being held, I suspect, for the Harlot's Snowdrop Shawl.

But, with all these shawl deaths, a new shawl must be born. I've started the Highland Triangle Shawl from Folk Shawls. Isn't she pretty?


It's just Wool-Ease, but I thought the colors were lovely. There's some purple and iridescent colors mixed in with that gorgeous blue. Since this year's fest garb will (hopefully) be green, blue, and purple, this will probably be something I wear out to Fest for the one cool day a year we have out there.