Knit not in haste

That's me all done on the work front this year as I start my Christmas break proper. Today I'm at home, trying to get ready for an incredibly busy weekend. So far things haven't exactly gone to plan as I had to call an insurer with a query about a policy... After over two and half hours on the phone (they did call me back, I'm glad to say) I think it's all sorted, but oh my goodness am I glad I decided to wait until today to make that call. Quite aside from the problem of spending that amount of time on a personal call at work, cubicle living does not lend itself well to private telephone conversations.

Yesterday was the last meeting for the Coventry knitting group where we exchanged our Secret Santa presents and ate chocolate. My Secret Santa gave me a little book of wisdom by the Yarnharlot called Things I Learned from Knitting, Whether I wanted to or Not. I have yet to do more than dip into it, but on first glance it looks very good.

The chocolate came complete with little proverbs and wisdom... All written in French. Fun was had trying to translate said proverbs before handing them over to the resident native French speaking members who did their best to provide an official translation. Some of them came out a bit strange - I think they lost something in the translation.

With my Christmas knitting finally out of the way (last night Jane asked me when I started this year's Christmas knitting and I admitted to February) I've turned my attention to projects intended for either me or Dave. This years knitting has mostly been for other people and so next year I'm going to aim to redress this a bit, with at least every other project being for either me or himself. Stay tuned to see how I get on!

In the meantime, I've picked up the lace project I originally started back in July but put to one side as I tried to get all the other projects I had on the go finished. With the Christmas knitting done, it is very firmly on the front burner again, alongside smaller and simpler projects for when my brain is fried. Lace requires a lot of mental reserves. It is fiddly, needs to be concentrated on and doesn't do well when you have to keep up your side of a conversation... It certainly is not something I'd take to LARP event and it doesn't do well at the knitting group either.

The lace in question is my second project from Victorian Lace Today with the catchy title of Large Rectangle with Centre Diamond Pattern and with no further ado here it is as of this morning...



I know it doesn't look like much on the needles, but that's lace for you. It will continue to look very ratty until it is finished, washed and blocked out properly. In the meantime, let's see it under a little tension provided by pins and with some contrast behind it...





So far I'm one hundred and eighty rows in, that's the border and seventeen repeats of a ten row pattern. There are thirty six repeats in all. Now I'm working on this one again, it is growing steadily but I'm not in a lace mood every night and sometimes I'm just incapable of working on this due to the concentration needed, hence I expect it to continue to grow slowly. But it is getting there... Which is a good thing.