Mountain Lace

Now you all know that I am a mountain grrl through and through, so how could I resist when I learned about the Mountain Lace KAL? And I am not a joiner! However, this time I am making an exception, as both lace patterns are exquisite representations of my beloved mountains, even though their designers, Miriam and Susan, live in the Rockies. I have Margene to thank, even though she doesn't know it yet, for this auspicious development - you see, I was so inspired by her post about knitting holes that I had to check out the links, thereby falling in love with the patterns (and on it goes)(In case you didn't already know, it is Margene's birthday on Tuesday, and the full moon, so go by and wish her a howling good birthday).

Best part is that I am living within my stash diet means, so to speak... I already have the perfect yarn for each of these two lovely projects. I will be starting with the Mountain Peaks shawl, for two reasons... I prefer to do larger projects during the cold months, I want to get this done to take to Estes Park in June, and my printer ran out of ink before I could get to buying and downloading the Mountain Stream scarf pattern (yes, I noticed too, that's three reasons, but they are all good ones!).


Here are the yarns I plan to use. The muted green on the top is Garnstudio Silke-Tweed, for Mountain Stream, and was a gift from Beth. It is really a light sport weight but has been whispering "lace" to me ever since it arrived here in my last Better Pal package. My hands will appreciate it that the yarn is a bit bigger, especially since the heathered lavender below it, for Mountain Peaks, is Knitpicks' Alpaca Cloud, a laceweight in baby alpaca. I am quite pleased that both are "mountain colors" and will do the patterns justice.

I even feel self-righteous starting on a big project,as I finished up two others last evening:


My finished Mrs. Beetons


Felted bag before throwing into the washer tomorrow

And DH isn't being neglected either, as I have started on his to-be-felted vest and worked diligently on it at Spinning Saturday this afternoon. It is some pretty mindless and endless stockinette knitting - whole body up to the armholes, so will make the perfect counterpoint to working on lace over the next several weeks... I am in knitting heaven. Thanks to all of you who gave me such great suggestions for "stash utilization". Sallee, I broke down and bought Folk Shawls today, as I couldn't be satisfied with "just one" pattern copied from it, and fell in love with several.... I will be sorting yarns for my ruana!


I am leaving you with this glorious photo of Downieville, freshly dusted with snow yesterday morning; I am SOOO lucky to live and work in the mountains.