Migraine!

I'm afraid I didn't get much knitting done today (or last night night even) because of the attack of the killer migraine. I knew it was coming on last evening while I was out watering the garden and transplanting petunias into pots. I think the heat and glare got to me after my trip to the Home Depot. My head throbbed all night. It's *so* hard to go to sleep with that roaring pulse in your ear!

I managed to get 2 rows knit on the Bugs shawl yesterday, but I was having a hard time seeing with the dark color of the yarn. So I decided I needed to find a lace project with light colors to work on. I need something that goes with my summer clothes, so I pulled out some pretty butter yellow lace yarn from the Yarn Haven and cast-on for the Alpine Knit Scarf from "Victorian Lace Today" The VLT group finally started a KAL, so I felt especially motivated to chose this shawl for my next project (that and the guilt of having the book for months now and not having knit a single thing from it yet).

The pattern recommends a super fine yarn with 3.5mm needles, but the Yarn Haven Gentle is finer than most laceweight yarns so I cast-on with KnitPicks US 3 (3.0mm) circulars. For once I wish KnitPicks made their size 3 needles 3.25mm like most other manufacturers. Anyway, I knit the 1st 6 rows of garter stitch and am thinking that maybe the 3.5mm needles would be better after all. In lace knitting too tight a gauge is as bad as too loose, maybe worse! Since this will be a very lacy pattern with no significant stockinette areas, it's better to err on the loose side anyway. So here's my dilemma: do I frog and start over with the larger needles and trust that I will like it, or do I grab another ball and swatch (gasp!) to make sure before ripping out the first attempt. The other option is to keep knitting until I get to the lace part with the 3.0mm needles before jumping to the conclusion that it's too tight (I am a loose knitter).Arrrgghhh! I hate these decisions.

So that's all the woe from Lake Woebegon today, but there was joyful news too. I smiled as I watched our friendly mail lady pull up in the driveway this afternoon. Mother was wondering what she was delivering, but *I* knew :-) Yes, indeed, it was a box from Amazon.com containing my 2 Barbara Walker Treasuries! Oh boy, oh joy!!! I've already started to thumb through the 2nd volume, armed with post-it notes to mark the stitches that interest me most. Look out knitty friends, KP original designs are sure to follow!