Dog's Breakfast

I was wondering what to blog about, when Maria, the youngest and most dainty of the feline vermin, suggested* that I tell about the corner of my shawl, since my blog, after all, is supposed to be a knitting blog. It is just that I so seldom have anything interesting knitted to chat about. This shawl corner will no doubt produce quite a bit of schadenfreude out there in knitter land. I made the center panel of one design in Victorian Lace Today and am adding the border of another. The reason for this is….. I love leaf designs, and the shawl with the most beautiful leaf design had a lovely border that was knitted at the same time as the center panel. I usually take three or four tries to get any new lace pattern going, and if I were working the center panel and the border all at the same time, it would be bound to be a failure, as I would have to get it right the first time. Impossible! It would surely be more of a dog’s breakfast than this corner. I was fairly satisfied with the center panel, and the border only had several areas of “stream of conscious knitting” where I simply could not get the number of stitches to come out right and so improvised. Then, while I grasped the concept of doing the corner, I failed a bit in the execution. I am hoping that the other three corners will be better, and that when I am dancing the night away (hah!), this corner will be inconspicuous.

On a happier note, I figured out how to take close up pictures with my new camera. I tried for years to do it with the old one, and I just never seemed to be able to get it. One morning, shortly before that camera’s demise, I was taking pictures of crocuses (croci?) in my yard, and a family strolled by. The father asked, “Are you using your macro?” “No, I don’t know how,” I sadly replied. “Let me show you,” he said, and he did. With the new camera, the instruction booklet was naturally of no help, but using what he had shown me on the old one, I finally had success.

*Maria often channels suggestions through her mother Rachael. These suggestions usually have to do with ways in which I can make my darling Rachael happier. Or ways in which I can deal effectively with Michael, showing him that Maria is the boss. Her suggestions are often quite witty and practical. As now.