Binding off and Casting on, and a small rant

Adamas is done! I'm very happy with how this shawl turned out. It's a gift for a dear friend, and I hope she'll be thrilled to receive it; she likes it, but doesn't yet know it's for her.

Okay, vital stats: 62 inches wide at the top, 31 1/2 inches long down the centerline. I used two hanks (but had a nice-sized ball left over) of Knit Picks Gloss Lace, in the colorway "Raisin".

I'm really glad I went ahead and bought the blocking wires; they made blocking this shawl quick and easy.

♥

Since I finished Adamas yesterday, I gave myself permission to cast on something new...white lace!

The white lace doesn't have a name yet(though I have a few ideas), but it's going to be a diagonally-knit stole, and I already love it. I wish you could feel the yarn through the computer screen; the picture doesn't do justice to its incredible softness. I'm making this stole to wear to next year's West Point Founder's Day ball. No, the lace isn't Army-themed in any way. I just wanted something special to wear, and knitting a stole is simpler and quicker than knitting a ball gown. LOL. I haven't picked a dress, and I'm hoping none of my current dresses will fit by then, because I'm trying to lose weight. The ball is always in April, so I've got 10 months to lose. My ultimate goal is 50 pounds, but I'll settle for what I can get. At this point, I'm just sick of being the size I am. So I'll be happy with every lost pound. Anyway...I'm thinking I might go with burgundy. I was leaning toward navy blue, but so many women wear navy blue. I wore black this year, with a fuschia lace cardigan, but only because that's what I could find in a hurry in my size and for what I was willing to pay. If I lose a bunch of weight, I'll reward myself with a gorgeous dress next year.

♥

And now, I want to air my opinion for a minute. Unless you live under a rock, you've heard in the news about Abby Sunderland, the 16-year-old girl who was attempting to sail solo around the world, but had to be rescued. So many people, especially in the media, have been quick to judge her mom and dad as bad parents. They say that 16 is too young to sail around the world. They say that the parents forced her into it for a tv show. (I don't know if the tv show thing is true, because the only place I've heard about it is in the "news". Time will tell.) They say that the parents are publicity-seekers, who don't care that their little girl's life was in danger.

In our society, a 16-year-old is only considered normal if she is sleeping around, doing drugs, wasting hours of her life playing meaningless video games or buying slutty clothes, and mouthing off to her parents. And her parents are "just doing the best they can".

But find a girl who is independent, competitive, mature, and adventurous, who wants to sail around the world just like her big brother did, and her parents let her? OMG, lock up those parents! They're endangering their little baby girl! (/sarcasm)

And why didn't I hear anything in the news about this amazing girl until she was missing? It reminds me of one of my favorite lines from Apollo 13: "If landing on the moon wasn't exciting enough for them, why should not landing on it be?" The media didn't care about Abby until something went wrong. If she had made it all the way around the world, she would have gotten one or two days of interviews on TV, just like her brother did, and then the next week, nobody but the readers of her blog( http://soloround.blogspot.com/ )would remember her name. If she was after publicity, there were easier ways to get it.

I wish more American teenagers were adventurous like Zac and Abby Sunderland. I'm not saying I'd let my kids sail around the world, but we're not a sailing family, and my kids are still, well, kids. Congratulations to Laurence and Marianne Sunderland for raising strong, independent, adventurous young people. Any "kid" who is able to sail even halfway around the world by herself, shouldn't be called a "kid" anymore.

This is just my opinion, and should be taken as such.