Fall Sports do a number on blogging

Truly, they do.
I know it gets old to hear a bazillion excuses for why I don't write for a while.
Well, it also gets annoying living thru all those things that keep me from writing!

I rather left you hanging in Denmark, without intending to do so, in the least. I'm sorry. However, since this is supposedly a knitting blog, and I think I have posted almost Kno Knitting in several weeks, I ought to get cracking.
This bag lives by the door or in my car. It goes everywhere with me.
If only it were possible to knit lace while navigating thru traffic to various games, meets and practices, I would have that shawl done. And if it were possible to watch a truly thrilling game (the third in a given day, perhaps) and knit my lace, I would be farther along.

It's not.

However, please admire the bag-- it's from Meg Swansen's knitting camp (I go to one of the retreats) and it is nice for this particular project. (I carry my oversized chart on one of those magnetic boards and the bag is tall and crisp)

Photos of the lace shawl are a bit less than thrilling at this point in time.

There are, well, I have no idea how many thousand stitches on the circular needle. There is no way I can stretch it out enough to show you just how nice the lace is.

See?

Not exactly illuminating.

However, I am working on it (hoorah)... It amuses me that I am able to work on it during a game (except when the action becomes too enthralling, or- like last Sunday- when the temperature is so obscenely high that I am one large ball of sweat). The reason it amuses me is that I remember when I first started working on lace, how utterly undisturbed I needed to be in order to progress, and avoid errors.

In fact, I remember the first project I did, I needed to highlight each symbol on the chart a different color, to help me keep track of what they were and to visually distinguish them from one another.

Looking back, I am flabbergasted by that. Couldn't I see the right leaning decrease in a slash mark: / or the ssk in a \ ?? I need to remember my early chart experiences when I am teaching others, clearly. There was a time when I did not see the lace in the chart, at all, and I know this is true for many beginning lace knitters.

Thank goodness, no more.
So if you are overwhelmed and a beginning lace knitter, or just chart challenged, let me encourage you to keep trying.

Here is a project I started today. Why? Certainly not because I had nothing else to do.

It is Plisse, a Hanne Falkenberg design which I purchased from Sommerfuglen, in Copenhagen.
It is red, though on my laptop the pictures look more fuchsia. Not sure about on yours.
I tried on the shop model at Sommerfuglen, and fell utterly in love with it.
I had a Danish friend with me (thanks, Bettina!!) who was not only helping me with communication (not actually an issue in most of Denmark-- a huge percentage of the population speaks quite excellent English) but gave me terrific feedback and generally helped me find what I wanted. The shop assistant was also wonderful. A great shop.

And while I did not do any shopping in Paris for clothing, I did gey some great shoes in Copenhagen.

They are so comfy and feel like elvish leather or something hobbit-like somehow-- I love them!

(PS they are actually French, humorously enough.)

PPS I would have shopped in Paris except the entire city was on vacation.