"Surf" in progress

Here we are in January, dealing with Globull Warming in Texas! It didn't get above freezing today, and it's not likely to tomorrow either. We'll have to bring the cats into the garage again tonight. It amazes me that even Al Gore still believes the drivel that he's been preaching the past few years. Then again, maybe he knows it's bull, and is afraid to admit it. Anyway, I'm wearing a wool sweater today, and I'm warm enough, though my feet are freezing. I need to work some duplicate stitch on the bottoms of my wool socks, so that I can wear them again; they're a little threadbare. And I need to make myself some more wool socks. This is crazy, how cold it is here.

♥

Since I can't do anything about the weather, I'm thinking warm thoughts with my knitting. This is my latest project: Surf. It's a rectangular shawl, or stole. I was inspired by the stitch pattern, and decided to pair it with Caron Spa yarn, which is a silky bamboo blend. The color is called "Ocean Spray", so it's perfect for an ocean-inspired project. I love beaches. I love relaxing in a lounge chair, listening to waves crashing against the shore. This project lets me imagine that I'm there, and it's summer...instead of here, in the winter.

I'm knitting this stole lengthwise, so each row is very long; 336 stitches, except for the yarnover rows, which involve adding 14 loops for every 10 stitches! Of course, I drop all of those extra loops in the next row, but still, that's a lot of loops! I do intend to post the pattern on my pattern blog, since it's a very simple design. I've only done 6 repeats of the lace pattern so far, and I need to do a total of 16-20 repeats, so it'll be a few weeks. This stole is a gift for a very dear friend of mine, someone who sent me a whole boxful of Christmas gifts, with the full knowledge that I couldn't afford to send her anything. ☺ I hope she's not reading my blog right now; that would totally spoil the surprise. ☺ And then, as soon as I finish this one, I need to start another surprise project for my other dear friend who sent me a boxful of Christmas gifts....