Is Winter Over Yet??

Apparently not.

It's cold, grey and miserable. Again. (Or is that still?)

Still, mustn't grumble and all that. The days are slowly (very slowly) getting longer and at some point surely the sun has got to put in an appearance and the temperature has got to start climbing. Or so I was led to believe in grade school geography lessons.

And of course the cold grey miserable weather does have an upside - it's the perfect excuse for DVD box sets and knitting. (I'm working through the first 5 seasons of Hustle.)(I love a good con.)(Well, in fiction.)(Where the con artists only select evil do-ers and unpleasant greedy creeps as marks.)(Clearly I'm against the general practise in the real world where criminals tend to be less principled.)

While learning the art of the con I finished off the Icarus shawl. (Last Sunday in fact -- but gave up waiting for a bit of sun so I could photograph it!)(See above lament.)

I knit it with 2.5 skeins of Posh Yarn Eva 2ply (about 1000 yards) on 4mm needles.

It's 72 inches across with a drop of 36 inches.

Although many people have complained that knitting the stockinette section was boring I actually found it great DVD knitting and it seemed to work up quite quickly.

Today I made a trip to the post office to pick up the yarn I ordered for the Queen Susan. It's gorgeous and I'm hoping to wind up a skein tonight and cast on over the weekend.

I Found It!

I found my next project! I can't wait to cast on.

Hurrah!

I was making my way home from a (frankly) rubbish morning at work. Feeling pretty despondent I uncharacteristically stopped in a the newsagent to see if a trashy magazine might help me feel better. Unfortunately they all seemed to contain Jordan or her latest husband on the cover so I chalked it up to more proof of my rubbish day and turned to leave. (Apologies North American readers but I am not going to explain who Jordan is - you are better off not knowing).

As I was making my way towards the door I caught sight of the latest The Knitter magazine and decided to take a look -- even though I haven't been tempted to buy one in about a year.

I flipped through the pages - and there it was: The Queen Susan!

Beautiful shawl. Tick!

Interesting knitting. Tick!

Will fill many many many many months of knitting. Tick!

Named after me! Tick! (well, sort of - errr - not really, that bit is just a coincidence but it makes me happy)

Of course now I need to order the estimated 6000 (6000!) metres of laceweight. (For you non-knitters out there - most shawls I've made are 1000 metres, some like the Lerwick are over 2000 -- but I've never ever ever tackled something quite this big.)

The Queen Susan is a Shetland shawl pattern that a group of knitters on Ravelry -- co-ordinated by the ever so amazing Fleegle -- recreated from a 100 year old photo. They have published the pattern as a free pattern with a request that you donate to the Shetland Museum.

This little bit of serendipity is further proof that my inspiration was dry because of my blog reading negligence!! I am fairly confident that when I do begin my catch up - I'll find lots more about how the pattern came together on Fleegle's and other blogs.