All stockinette, all the time

Dear Cynthia (aka Birthday Girl -- Hey, Happy Birthday!!),

I have a few minutes to put a little post together, thanks to the magic of the library and the Scooby-Doo DVD my four year old found there today. The boys were playing the game Clue with dh last week, and dh made a comment to my six year old that he might want to enlist the help of Scooby-Doo in order to figure out who dunnit. I couldn't have been prouder when my six year old told dh that he didn't want Scooby-Doo's help; Velma is the one who figures everything out, so he wanted Velma on his team.

I've made some progress on the Murphy sweater. Here's the back and most of a sleeve.It's almost all stockinette, all the time. (The colors actually look better, so when the thing is done, I'll try to get some snap shots in real daylight.) Though I really enjoy the monotony of the stockinette thing most of the time because it's simple to carry around to the library, knit in front of the tv or during a piano lesson when others in the room are counting out loud, knit while I'm reading books with the boys, etc...I was getting a little bit weary of it...

...so I started a Leaf Lace Shawl using the hand painted yarn from the three quarters of a sweater I just ripped out. This yarn loves being a shawl so much more than it was loving the whole sweater thing. And, after the trials of my lace weight Summer in Kansas last year (recall the beginning...and several crises in the middle, etc., though it did have a happy ending (click on link in sidebar for proof - I still can't believe it myself, as it was certainly not without *major* frustration), using this thicker merino yarn, which is labelled as something between DK and Sport weight, and this pattern, I'm having a great time! I cast on the first two stitches for it on Saturday and I have almost half of the rows already knit (though, in shawl math, it means I am only one quarter of the way done). I wanted a really big shawl, and something I could throw on to take a walk around the neighborhood wearing normal mommy clothes. (I actually *have* worn Summer in Kansas twice -- once to go out to dinner and a concert when dh and I were celebrating ten years of wedded bliss, and once at a dinner thingy for dh's work -- though it is not the type of shawl to wear with birkenstocks and blue jeans when walking atop mulch next to a pond.)

Anyway, things here are a little bit off kilter, because dh has been out of town for work since Saturday afternoon. Of course, it snowed six to eight inches on Sunday, which was beautiful, even knowing that our snow blower, which I don't know how to use, has a flat tire....I generally shovel the stuff, anyway...but it's a little bit different when I'm solely responsible for getting it done. Things are going well, though, and dinners are down graded somewhat since the kids wouldn't appreciate Penne in Cream Sauce with Sausage even if I made it for them, so dinner time is a little bit easier....though I think everybody will breathe a sigh of relief when dh returns in two days.....

I went to Lakeside Fibers today (let's hear it for "double punch day"), and you'd be proud of me. I think I broke a record, which, for me, isn't saying a whole lot, but as a preview, I'll just tell you that I left the place with two full bags...

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)