lace everywhere

I've been busy with three projects lately. the spring forest shawl nears completion; the first side is done with the 2nd leaf border, pattern is in my head, easy knitting now (the one downside is the constant turning for the narrow border). the peacock is quite a different story though! I am not bothered by the pattern itself, it's just not in my head and I have to look at the chart all the time! I finished chart A and B (the photo only shows A), started on C - where the first "eyes" of the peacock are worked. this means that 16 stitches have to be worked into a double yarnover! of course, I watched tv (Bond:)) while doing this - and ended up finishing the row with only 8 increases in each "eye".... mistake ironed out, no problem, and I do like the result - makes for happy knitting!

I am also still looking around for suitable patterns for my hummingbird stole. after I decided to change the shape from more or less triangular to rectangular, I feel quite comfy with this and it makes the decision for a pattern easier as I don't have to work increases into it. at the moment I am thinking about starting with a provisional cast-on in the middle of the back - with small featherlike patterning - and this pattern is going to be elongated, but not widened towards the outer parts. mirror image on the other side - I hope this will work. I spent quite some time with winding skeins into balls the day before yesterday - until my arms nearly dropped off. all set now for a lot of knitting - to show some examples of lace knitting at the demo for our meeting. I looked through my stuff and found to my dismay that I don't have a single finished piece of lace knitting here any more! I think I should really stop giving away my products!

on the "other lace side" I am still putting things together in bobbin lace - end of march isn't all that far away and I better get cracking here! in the process I found two pieces of handwoven material, where I wanted to use the warp threads to add some bobbin lace - got distraced in the process, I assume.....

when I dyed the yarn for the hummingbird project I looked through some of the old gaywool dyes and discovered that some kept better than others. the yellow looked disgusting and I discarded it without trying. because I have a lot of natural white stash, I decided not to risk wasting the colours and finished all the mixtures on some nice and soft lambswool top. as it turned out the wool took the dye better than the silk mix and I found out that I have the perfect hummingbird colours - on wool now! well, the species I chose as inspiration for the challenge is aptly named "woollypants" in german - so why not knit something hummingbirdy in wool, when I have finished the silk project? I guess I could spin it up to use for a baby project I have planned, the colours are cheerful enough and the wool is very soft.