I am back from the frog pond...

...and from being sick. You know you are sick when you can't knit tuppence worth (2 cents). They no longer mint farthings and tuppence in England, I think. A farthing was a quarter of a penny.

I have finished the Wabenschal (honeycomb shawl) designed by Birgit Freyer from http://www.die-wolllust.de/. It's a free design we received by belonging to the Yahoo group "Knitting Delight." This is not to be confused with the Honeycomb shawl designed by Monika Eckert of http://www.klabauterwolle.de/ who is hosting the Yahoo Group secret-of-chrysopolis for which she has designed a rectangular shawl and which I am currently knitting.

So here is a picture of the long-ago finished Honeycomb (Wabenschal) scarf. I finally blocked it. Blocking has become literally a pain-in-the-back. I thought I had found someone to block shawls for me, but I haven't heard yet from her. Therefore, I need to put my thinking cap on a design of a tear-down blocking station, large enough to block 7' in diameter shawls, in sections so it can be easily stored and high enough that my back has not to bend more than 1mm, zero tolerance would be even better.

I've also blocked the Icelandic Shawl from a 1999 Piecework issue which the http://www.knittingdaily.com/ site made so generously available after a number of us whined about not being able to get the pattern without paying an arm and a leg on E-Bay. The shawl is also known as the Thordis Shawl. The yarn came from http://www.sarahsyarns.com/ a yarn shop from Brooklyn, NY. and is JaggerSpun Maine Line 2/8 weight, which is about fingering weight. It's a wonderfully soft yarn and is spun in Southern Maine. I am not 100% sure, but I think the fleece are also from local sheep farms. If you ever need this type of yarn, Sarah is friendly, efficient, and her yarns are reasonably priced. She also sells coned yarns.

And here is Mrs. Bear all warmly tucked into the shawl

Unfortunately, the size of the shawl as presented in Piecework is for a slimmer person than I am, so it will need to find a different home. I might just have to make another shawl, using either a heavier yarn and larger needles, or increasing the number of stitches when casting on. This is entirely within my mathematical capabilities which aren't exactly outstanding.

The teachers lost my interest when at the tender age of 10, a=b was introduced. It wasn't the teacher's fault but was entirely due to the fact that I was two years younger than any of my other classmates. My excuse, therefore, is that I was not developmentally ready for Algebra. Of course, other science subjects, such as Biology or Chemistry didn't interest me either, other than poking a hole in the ox eye during Biology and thus, letting all the gelatinous material ooze out of the eyeball to the delight of my classmates. No one ever ratted on me either. We put all very innocent faces on, and the poor teacher was unable to figure out which one of us had done it. After all what do you do with a class of precocious, curious girls? On top of that the poor teacher was a refugee from East Germany and spoke "funny." Never mind that our dialect was strange to him as well. Poor fellow he did last through the rest of the school year, but then taught in one of the two all boys schools. Bright, precocious boys were probably a heck of a lot easier to teach than us.

But I've digressed once again. Amazing how my thoughts can wander from knitting an Icelandic shawl to math, to biology and poking an ox's eyeball. Luckily it wasn't on the ox any longer.

The green socks are finished. I have to wash them yet and block them. I've wound the skein of sock yarn my daughter gifted me into a ball and now have to decide what kind of pattern to use. I have one too many sock books from which to choose a pattern. I am half-way through the honey-comb shawl, and about 1/3 through the crazy shawl also designed by Birgit Freyer. And this Saturday, my daughter and I are going to S.O.A.R, (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat) just to see if we can spend money we don't have. It's being held in Michigan this year and is only about a two-hour drive from here. Besides the leaves should just be about the right color, now that Fall has arrived with a vengeance. Air conditioning to heating in one day. That's Michigan.

So, "Knit on!"