Sunday morning progress

I finished the beaded shawl tallit Thursday night! Just in time. I hate working to deadlines - the last few weeks working on it haven't been that enjoyable, more pressure to finish x amount than enjoy that what gets done got done. I wore it yesterday during services. I'm not 100% sure what I was expecting, but it was no big deal - no grand spiritual uplisting, nothing special except some compliments - especially when dh said there were 2500 beads on it (I guess I should count them one day and get an accurate number). So now I can be counted to be one of the dozen, or less, women over 20 who wear a tallit at our temple.


I took at look at the Swedish Thora sweater I'm making for my self. I've got more done than I thought. From the top down, I've got the front done to the armholes, and the back about halfway there. Yes, I'm working it flat right now. Yes, it will be seamless. How? Easy, once the back is the same length of the front (next week, 2 weeks, next month?) I'll cast on enough stitches for the 2 underarms, join and continue the body in the round. Pick up the sleeve stitches from the armholes and do the sleeves.

I'm working this sweater using Barbara Walker's Knitting From The Top book - peasant sleeve style. The Thora pattern was written bottom up, but it's more oversized than I want so I'm making it a few inches narrower and working it top down made it easier for me. It's got panels of moss stitch and columns of cables, I just narrowed the moss stitch panels all around to get the width I wanted. At least, in theory, it sounds workable. So I'm going with that until I find it out it won't work.


I'm starting to thread beads to make another crocheted bead rope or 2. Threading the beads takes anywhere from 10 minutes for a random pattern to up to two hours for a specific pattern. Crocheting the rope - about 7 1/2 or 8 inches for a bracelet that fits me comfortably - is about 6 hours. I enjoy making them, but I don't wear them that often.

For dh's snowflake socks, I'm thinking of taking bit&pieces from Nancy Bush's Norwegian and Mamluke socks to get the snowflakes and other designs for his socks. I showed him the designs and he seemed to like them. So that's a good starting point anyway. I'll do them toe up since I don't know how tall to make them and I don't think will be able to decide until the foot's done.

I got 1lb of what looks like Lion Brand Homespun yarn in red and camel for a few scarves for the Red Scarf Project. I have a few pattern ideas in mind - it can't be too textured or complicated because it just won't show in this yarn. I'll probably crochet these because using a large crochet hook gives a nice fabric that's easy to work with but knitting the yarn is hard for me. Maybe I'll try one scarf with size 13 needles or something.