Look what the Yarn Fairy brought me!

One of the most amazing and delightful surprises about knitting, this time around, is the greater sense of community and support than when I was knitting 20 years ago. Back then, it was me, and a handful of knitting books, and whatever rattled around and fell together in my head. And just enough knitting commissions to keep us in peanut butter and powdered milk. Lots of fun, intermittently lucrative, and a great learning experience.

Now? still lots of fun; this is yarn and knitting, after all, but now I have partners in crime: knitalongs, fellow bloggers, and my local Sisters of the Wool. Not to mention a raft of new books, and virtual yarn shops to supplement the local ones.

And about the time I figure it can't possibly get any better, something like this happens:



And this:



Yarn sent by a knitting friend, just because, which was waiting for me when I got to work on Tuesday morning after (A) waking LittleBit to catch her ride to Girls Camp and (B) paying the balance of her tuition to All State Choir Camp and (C) discovering that the tire that was looking a little sad needed to be replaced entirely. Really, all four did but I had the Tire Dudes pick the two worst ones for now. And I will take care of the other two next payday.

The green stuff is bits of local vegetation that my friend tucked in, just for fun.

This whole week has been full of small miracles, little things that would only have meaning for me and are the spiritual equivalent of sticky-notes left on the mirror, the bedpost, inside my planner, and on the milk carton. It's as if God has left His fingerprints all over the minutiae of my life.

I cast on the Twin Peaks shawl [repeatedly, LOL] first using these 8's which I'd bought for the languishing-in-a-bag-under-the-bed Elann Crop Cardi. Ordinarily I knit so loosely that I have to gear down three sizes to get gauge. This yarn -- little puffs of merino tangoing exuberantly around an ultrafine black nylon carrying thread, not quite a boucle, not sure what to call it, other than two kinds of gorgeous -- this yarn, I say, does not have the sproing of 100% wool. I cast on my 80 stitches and knitted a couple of rows and frogged it so slowly that I might as well have called it tinking. Moved up to size 10's, knitted 20 or so rows and loved the hand of the fabric, but it still wasn't going to be long enough. So after work on Thursday I frogged/tinked again, taking about an hour while listening to the first half of Take the Lead, and cast on again using 13's. Here's an overview, twelve rows of stitches that just about equal the depth of the 20 I'd done before. I think this time it will be long enough.



You can just see a hint of the subtle color variations.



It's a little more visible in the closeup, above and even moreso two days later [today].



This is after 52 rows; 54 stitches left on the needle, out of the original 80. Here's the deliciously pointy end:



And here's a closeup of some texture.



The grey spots that you see are glimpses of the dark interfacing that I spread out on the table; otherwise this would blend into the arabesque pattern of the tablecloth, and you would suspect that I'm knitting the Emperor's New Shawl.

One of you asked about the Sabbath Socks. Still in progress, approximately 1.8 heels turned. I may work on them a little today, but probably they'll just sit on top of the bookcase until it's time to toss them in my tote tomorrow morning.

I wonder if I can finish this half of the Twin Peaks Shawl http://www.justonemorerow.com before I crash for the night?