Socktober!

This week has been quite busy but I did get a lot of knitting done. I finished the lacy shawl from the Regia book. I didn't take a photo of it after it was blocked before I took it up to the shop but this is what it looked like while blocking.

The long edge was really tight and it blocked kind of 'wonky'. I should have folded in half and pinned the points together.

The Merino Lace yarn was very nice to work with but a little splitty. With nice pointy needles I really didn't have any problem.

I took another skein to make a shawl for myself but while I was looking at my faves on Ravelry, I was drawn to the Traveling Woman shawl by Liz Abinante (feministy). It doesn't need a lot of yarn so I pulled out the skein of Dye-Version Hand Dyed Bamboo Fingering yarn that I had picked up at the Knitter's Fair. It was such an autumnal colour, I thought it would be nice to work on it now that fall has officially started. 

Oh, the cat? That's my Ollie. He was having a snooze after a gruelling day of finding spots in the sun to sleep on, so I didn't want to disturb him.

I'm going on a couple of longish car trips soon and I definitely need something to knit in the car. The Regia lace shawl is too intricate for car knitting but I think the Traveling Woman shawl will be a good choice. I'm also still plugging away on the Sea Lettuce scarf.

I'm SO close to finishing the toe of the first Halloween Sock. My knitting friend, Elizabeth, snapped this photo of me yesterday celebrating Socktober.  :-)

It's just the Patons Polka Dot sock pattern in the "Socks In The City" booklet. For the contrasting colour, I used a stripey Kroy sock yarn with oranges, greys, browns and blacks. I think the dots look like little pumpkins. I guess I could take the yarn for the second sock on my car trips and get it done, too.

I taught the second and last lace class today. I did some troubleshooting and demonstrated a wet blocking technique. Now I'm gearing up for my Selbu Rose classes October 30 and November 13. There's already one person signed up!

Scooter is with us this weekend. He arrived with the amazing news that he got 93% on his Grade IX Conservatory Piano exam he took in August. Holy cow! I am SO proud. Even though I'm 'only' his step-mother, I like to think there's a lot to Nurture vs. Nature. This is such an exciting year for him with cross-country, swimming and track at school, touring some university campuses, deciding what to take in uni and applying in December and January. Then the wait to hear where he'll be accepted. His dad and I don't really care where Scooter gets in as long as he's happy going there. I'd be THRILLED if he went to Western (what I call 'the centre of all learning in the universe') but really, wherever he wants to go is fine.