I finished the first repeat of the Feathers pattern on the Song of Hiawatha shawl last night. This is going faster than I anticipated (I may live to regret saying that, those sound like "famous last words") but the thing I've noticed when I knit lace is that the desire to see the pattern develop pushes me on to do more rows. And oddly, I feel like I'm getting more accomplished when a pattern says "Follow chart for 32 rows" or something like that, instead of "Knit in pattern for 9"." I think it's the idea that I don't have to constantly be whipping out the tape measure.

That's another reason I like shawls. You only have to worry about them being big enough to cover your shoulders and arms. There's not really a "too big" (unless it's way way too big) and it's not a big deal if it's a skootch small.

Had a box from Elann arrive yesterday. I splurged and bought some of the Shetland Harris 4-ply fingering weight they had on sale last week. I got enough balls of the color called "Harvest Moon" or "Moonglow" or summat like for the Spirit of the Southwest shawl pattern. It's really beautiful, the perfect color - sort of a golden tan with a pinkish undertone to it. I'm tempted to start this shawl too, but I think having two lace projects going would be a bit much. And I do have my mom's gloves to finish, and a Booga bag to knit for my sister in law for Christmas, and a second Booga bag to knit for a gift-exchange I take part in.

I also got some of the Harris Shetland in a color called "Jalapeno." This was bought mainly on spec, I wanted to see it in person and see if it would work for the Southwest shawl. I don't love it as much as I love the "Harvest Moon," so I'm going to find another pattern to eventually use the "Jalapeno" in (I don't HATE the color, I just didn't squeal with delight over it like I did over the "Harvest Moon" when I took it out of the box). I'm thinking perhaps the Sampler Shawl in "Folk Shawls" would be a good one, or I may just design my own sampler-type shawl for it.