Shawl and Butterfly...

... which should totally be a song by Heart....

And for Karen, here's a set of instructions forthe I-Cord Bind Off (scroll to the bottom of the page): http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/FEATfall06TT.html

The ladies in my knitting group use this bind-off all the time, but I'd never bothered to learn it. It looks wonderful on plain knitting as an edging for sweaters or slippers, etc, especially in a contrasting color. But it really looks smashing on felted pieces, and the I-Cord seems to felt at the same ratio as the rest of the piece, which is handy. I will be using it a lot more often now (the learning curve on this one wasn't exactly steep- I have no idea why I'd never searched out the instructions before).

The Snowdrop shawl edging is coming along a lot more quickly than I expected, especially since there are nearly 900 rows involved. I'm about 3/4 of the way around the shawl, and I've passed the dreaded lower point, which was scary because you need to be at a specific row in the repeat when you get to the point. I was only 1 row short, and that was easily fixed by picking up one more stitch and working that row. The next hurdle will be ending on the proper row in the repeat, but I think that can be pretty easily faked if necessary. (Go, Faker! Go!)

The Lace Fever has not abated. I don't know whether to turn on the echo machine and shake my fist at Karen (http://knitgeekery.blogspot.com/ ) Colbert-Style, or give her a great big smooch. I'm not sure which project to start next. I have handspun yarn and beads that were destined for a Ravelympics scarf, which was delayed by actual work (and since I planned way back in August to knit a lace scarf with that yarn, I guess it's not all Karen's fault). I have several other lace-appropriate handspun yarns (including the spindle spun bamboo/glitz 1st Place winner) waiting for inspiration, and lots of commercial yarn in the proper weight (including 3 skeins of Knit Picks Shadow in the Oregon Coast colorway). I have a lovely, huge cone of light brown laceweight brushed mohair, and a ton of wool/camel yarn that I bought on cones years ago. And I have 600 yds of wool/alpaca sportweight yarn which would make a lovely, heavier shawl too. So my options are wide open. I just know that I will not be knitting with cotton on the next one.

And here's an adorable little crocheted butterfly, sent to me by Bunny, who won some yarn in my last contest. You can't tell in the scan, but the butterfly is 3-d. She's adorable and I am going to hang her on my Christmas tree. Thanks Bunny!