I have made a little progress on the petite shawl that I’m knitting from the sea wool Sally sent me in the swap. I really like that this shawl is knit from the bottom up. The rows get shorter as you go! By the time I get to the garter stitch portion of the pattern, it will be done in no time at all. The lace pattern is easy to memorize. It’s a very enjoyable knit. The pattern is a Knitspot design, from Anne Hanson.

She was very generous! Those Werther’s chocolates are not long for this world.

The Wollmeise order was both a nice surprise and a bit of a disappointment. I love the skeins of Twin. My hope was for something nice and dark, and that’s what I got in the brown/black grab bag:

The top skein is a “guinea pig” colour, and is very dark brown and black. The bottom skein is Im Jahr der Ratte (Year of the Rat). It’s a blend of gray/brown and dark blue. The blue looks a lot darker in the photo than it is in real life.

I wasn’t as happy with the lace-garn grab bag (grab bags are purchased without the buyer knowing exactly what colours they will get).

This is Vamp, a tomato red that is just way too bright for me. I may commit Wollmeise heresy and overdye this to a purple or brown. Stay tuned…

I have finally made some more progress on my Paper Bag Roses quilt. It was so frustrating to not be able to see well enough to sew by hand! My new glasses are wonderful. Now that I can see small details again, I can get back to English Paper Piecing, which is my preferred method for sewing hexagons. As you can see from the thread tails in the photo, I baste my fabrics to the thin cardboard templates, and then whipstitch the hexies together. This flower came together twice as fast as the last one I made wearing my old glasses. Thank goodness for progressive lenses, even if they cost more than a mortgage payment!

This is the first sock from Cookie A’s 2011 sock club. I used String Theory Caper Sock in Bye Bye Blues, which was a special edition yarn for the Loopy Ewe’s sock club last year. A skein of Caper Sock came with the Haleakala pattern, too, but I’m saving that yarn for another pattern.

This yarn has a bit of cashmere in it, so it is very soft. It’s a bit thicker than most of the fingering weight sock yarn I use, so these socks are very warm! I’ll put them away for next winter.

I’m so pleased with the colour and patterning in these socks. Now that I have had my vision corrected properly, I’m knitting and sewing so much faster. Imagine! It only took a few days before I adapted to the progressive lenses. Sometimes I still feel like I’m looking through a tunnel (like when I’m in a large store trying to take in the entire space), but detail work is so easy. I’ve already started another sock, in a cashmere-blend yarn that feels like knitting with whipped cream. Heavenly.

The latest Cookie A sock from knit.sock.love. I used Studio June Sock Luck yarn in the Coneflower colourway. This is a yarn with 25 percent nylon, so I expect these socks to last through many hand washings. This is my first pair of Monkey socks, and I will probably knit this pattern again. It is a quick knit and looks much more complicated than it is.