As if by magic

By the magic of blocking, I give you the transformation from

The scrunched up ugly duckling

to...

The beautiful swan

The Forest Canopy Shawl

in Opal Magic on 4mm needles

Well, something like that anyway - and to think I never even considered blocking for the first 30 years of my knitting life!

When it came off the needles it was a mere 27" across and 13" top to point - blocking made it grow to 43" wide by 21", which whilst not large by any means, is just what I wanted as it will be used as a glorified scarf rather than a shawl as such - though it can be pressed into action if they don`t soon get the &*££$%? air conditioning sorted at work.

I really enjoyed making it, and can imagine that this won`t be the last time the pattern is used. Knowing how well it works I may just invest in something rather more cheerful (and expensive) next time. I thought the tip for writing each row out on an index card and then punching holes in the top corner, joining them with metal ring binders so you can flip the card just used to the back of the stack as you complete each row, was just brilliant and definitely a trick to use again.

Right, off to wade through my stash and pattern hoard to see what is next ("ahem", whispers the conscience, "have you forgetten Thermal?") Erm, yes conveniently I do seem to have.

It`s nearly done,

I only have two more rows and the cast off to do on the Forest Canopy Shawl (I guess I ought to be knitting instead of writing this) so I will soon have something to show. I haven`t had much chance to knit lately, what with work, the garden, life in general and the fact that I have been preparing an index for the magazine that DH works for for the whole of last year. That has now been completed and I shall be treating myself to an iPod with part of the proceeds and I am now on the lookout for knitting podcasts. I really enjoy BritKnitCast and Lixie Knits It and would love to find some more english ones to enjoy (not that I have anything against american podcasts - it is just that I am happier when I know what they are talking about !)

Since I don`t have any knitting to show, I thought I would let you see this beauty in my back garden, but please don`t tell Dudley (cat) that there is a blackbird nesting in the middle of it - we are having far too many `presents` brought to us as it is, in fact DD has just been on a rescue mission. Dudley brought back an extremely cute and fluffly moorhen chick, which was totally unharmed but slightly bemused and ran round the garden in circles like a clockwork mouse. A plastic pudding basin was quickly popped over the poor little mite, and an old chopping board slid underneath to safely trap the little chap and then DD carried the whole lot up the footpath, and across the playing field to the pond in the hope of reuniting it with it`s family, desperately hoping she wouldn`t meet anyone she knew en route!

Thanks Auntie, but .....

Auntie has very kindly given me this book - the patterns in it are so fine, so intricate and so... well amazing - Henry VIII, in full regalia, Queen Elizabeth, an egyptian man, pilgrim fathers, I could spend ages just looking through it. Auntie bought it for herself when she retired, but has now decided she doesn`t have time to knit anything from it, so gave it to me, which was really nice of her, but.....

If she doesn`t have time and she is retired, why does she think I will be able to make better use of it, when I work full time????