Not posting has a way of feeding on itself.  The more I don’t do it, the bigger a task it seems to be.  So here I am. I last posted over two months ago and now I see this huge monster; this Herculean task.  I start to think of the pictures I have to upload, the items I have finished, the items that are languishing on my needles or the loom, what I’ve been up to and what I’ve been thinking. My head then goes into a tailspin and another day goes by without a post.

I (as you can see) decided that enough was enough.

So to start the catching-up:
Remember the blue dyeing job I did?  Of course not, it was months ago.  Well, here’s a link to refresh your memory (and mine too).  I used that yarn to knit the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl.  Here is a picture of my finished product (click on it to see it bigger):

Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl

It looks so nice and innocent there on the hanger. But it’s smallish.  I got gauge in stockinette, I really did.  But my shawl came out smaller than the designer’s measurements (or it would have, but I added extra rows).  I also used a lot less yarn than she did.  So, I have come to the conclusion that I knit lace on the tight side.    This is not the first time this has happened, but I have been pretty steadfast (or is it stubborn) and always use the size needles indicated in the directions.  Those days might be over!   I am making another (different) shawl right now and I’m using needles one size larger than recommended.  Let’s see what happens when I am finished with that shawl.

I will update over the next week or so (it’s just too overwhelming to try to catch everything up in one post).  But, hey, it feels good to be back!