Almost at the End!

I am so close to being in the final stretch of my Stripe Study shawl -colored stripe #12 to go, then on to the last grey section! I even dreamt about this shawl last night, that was a first. Garter stitch is just so soothing. The rows are getting longer, so it feels like it is taking forever, but I do love that I can mostly work on this in an auto-pilot mode.  Auto-pilot of one version or another. If you follow me on instagram, you have seen my mistake – somehow I switched and purled a row or two because I have a very small wedge of stockinette! Design feature anyone? Oh well.

I’m almost to the end of “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake”.  This book is unsettling to me and I am having trouble figuring out why. I heard from 2 people (who I often look to for book recommendations and trust their opinions on such things) that they either a) didn’t like this book or b) wanted to know what I thought because this book didn’t do it for them.  Without spoiling anything, I think I can say – the part with Joe and the chair? What’s up with that? I feel like I’m missing a big chunk of this story, like there were parts edited out or just not included? Maybe it will all come together in the last section.

I have also been working on a crochet project (the star shaped item above) and have run out of yarn! Briefly I considered substituting yarn, but that would mean starting over. Not a big deal to do that of course, but I like the yarn I’m using now – it matched the rest of the project (which is under wraps for now). Luckily, Ravelry to the rescue, I found one skein in the exact dye lot (!!!) and a kind knitter responded to my request quite quickly! I have decided to rip out my “Vanilla with Rainbow Sprinkles” socks that I started (basic vanilla toe up socks). I knit past the toe and they were just looking big to me. I measured them up to the other socks I recently finished and they are wider too. I should pull out the sock books I have and read up on this toe-up business – I saw online in two different places that the toe only needs to be increased to the point where it will cover 4 of your toes, because there will be some give width-wise. Have you heard that? So, I’ll rip them out and start over. I may end up with two at a time, top down because that’s what I know by heart. I am on the hunt for a good toe-up pattern for stripey yarns – let me know in the comments if you’ve got a good one queued!