I did it!

Lot's of milestones this week - I finished the knitting on Karis! Here it is "pre-blocking".

And here it is while blocking. Since the shape of this doesn't lend itself to what I think of as a hard, lace-style blocking, I just soaked, spun, and laid it out on a towel, shaping by hand, no pins. Still an immense improvement in the laciness & general drape of the garment. I'm still sewing, so it'll be a day or 3 until I have a true finished object photo for you. Seaming a lace garment is problematic. I didn't like my first results -- two problems. One, the lace zig-zags at the bottom, so the correct line-up of the borders is off-set. (If you make Karis, this will make sense). And, a solid mattress stitch seam shows and doesn't look good. So, I'm actually re-sewing now. Still doing a mattress stitch, but loosely, as if I'm adding an extra, lacy stitch between the two pieces. *I* think it works. I'm not sure if I can get a close enough picture to show you what I mean.

Also this week I finished Digging to America by Anne Tyler. I love Anne Tyler's books, and this one was so good, I did something I'd never done before. I wrote her a letter to thank her. Really. I liked it that much. That said, like all Tyler's work, it's subtle - there's no boom and crash at the end, just quiet hope.

Then, I bought this:

It's the yarn for the Lotus Blossom Tank from Interweave Knits, Summer 06. The pattern calls for a Southwest Trading Company Bamboo yarn, which I found at Knitty Gritty Yarns in Richland yesterday. The yarn is kind of limp (someone else might call it silky - YMMV), and none of the colors really spoke to me. So instead I'm using this Butterfly Super 10 cotton yarn. From Sheep's Clothing, my real yarn store. The color is "powder blue" though I think it has a tinge of greeny greyness which I wouldn't call powder blue. In any case, I like it. I had planned to be starting Am Kamin, but am also signed up for the Amazing Lace (see sidebar). I can't decide whether I'm a tad scared of starting Am Kamin (which is ambitious in many ways, not the least of which is the fact that I have no English instructions), or whether I'm just excited to knit something I can wear this summer. For purposes of face-saving, I'm saying it's the latter. In truth, a bit of both. I'll probably begin both & see where I get.

I'm off to camp for the weekend, so when I get back, there'll be a finished Karis picture, I hope.