Half a Pi

Or half a Pi border, anyway. I'm now down to two circulars instead of three, and have finished a row or two over half the border. I keep nervously weighing the yarn cone and checking my yarn-use calculations, and it looks like I should have just a little over enough.

This yarn is a mohair blend, with both polyester and acrylic in the blend. My washed swatch didn't shrink at all. Because of the acrylic, I don't think it is going to block out the way lace knitting usually does. But because I washed my swatch and knew that in advance, I don't really mind.

This shawl is probably going to live either on the loveseat where I knit, or on the chair by the computer. What I want it to do is be quick to put on and take off and be warm.

I will probably wash it, just out of curiousity. But most likely all it will do it bloom a little and obscure the lace pattern a bit more.


We've been having snow this weekend, and I've already raked the roof a second time.

There was snow all over the sweet Annie (Artemisia annua) in the garden, and I was surprised to find that the snow seemed to have brought the smell out. (That's the weedy-looking stuff bending over in the left-hand picture.) I love the smell of sweet Annie, but it's pretty strong for me when it's fresh. Usually I cut some after it has been weathered for half the winter. I gave some seeds to a friend of mine, and one year she cut a dry stalk, painted it gold, and stuck it in a pot of sand like a Christmas tree. And it still smelled good.

We have another lake-effect snow warning for tonight and tomorrow. As long as the power stays on, so we have water, I don't mind snow until I've been shovelling it out of the driveway for days in a row.