I finished this a day before I came back, so I figured blocking it at my parents' was too iffy, too likely for it not to dry in time. So I did it here.
The pale purple foam squares (they are a lot like those soft foam puzzle squares some day cares have to make the floor a little friendlier for small kids) are pretty genius for blocking. They were a Christmas gift from my mom a couple years ago.
I'm pretty happy with this. The pattern is really clearly written and I think it might be a good advanced-beginner to intermediate (someone who hasn't knit a lace shawl but wants to try) pattern. Yes, there's a lot of garter stitch there but once you get past that, it actually moves kind of fast. The shawl comes in two sizes; I made the bigger size. The smaller one you probably could get out of just one 100 g skein of sock-weight yarn.
Here's a close up of the edging:
That big open pattern is called Bird's Eye Lace. I think it's somewhat traditional in Shetland knitting.
I used a Phydeaux Designs yarn for this - Chausette in the color called "Alchemy." It took just over one ball (I had bought two, anticipating). I'm guessing it took about 50-75 yards from the second ball, but that's fine, I can use the rest for a pair of mitts sometime. Perhaps even socks, if I weigh the remaining ball and do a little calculating.
The pattern is from Shetland Trader. I've knit two of her patterns - this, and the Crofter's Cowl. I've been happy with both of them. (I think the Crofter's Cowl is still free on her website and on Ravelry.)
Another thing I did this weekend:
I had been talking about taking the "Ponyville" (most of my blindbag figures plus my house-teapot collection) down off the mantel and moving it to the now-empty coffee table. I did that yesterday.
This pleases me a lot. I don't know why it does, exactly, but when I was a kid I used to love making little "arrangements" of things like this. And I liked the idea of little worlds. (I had several dollhouses, including one or two I totally made myself, when I was a kid). I can leave this up until next Christmastime if I want to. (And it also means I don't have to find a place to store the house teapots)
I had a lot of fun grouping the ponies - the Apple family (and extended kin like Apple Fritter and Caramel Apple) are all together, and the Mane Six are more or less together, and the musical ponies....and the ponies that have a conceivable fashion-focus (Buttonbelle, Royal Pin, and Ribbon Wishes) are all positioned so they look like they are having a meeting with Hoity Toity....
And I found a possible headcanon pairing, in the process. I have a pony (a boy-pony, those are still kind of rare in the blindbags) called Barber Groomsby, and another pony called Big Wig (I think she shows up in the bowling-alley scene in one of the episodes. And I realized, they seemed to have a natural shared interest....so maybe like the Cakes are a couple, they are a couple:
Yes, it's kind of silly, but I don't care. This kind of thing makes me happy.
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