Knitting a Graduation Present

My knitty friends on the EZasPi Group cast-on for our latest KAL a couple of weeks ago. This time around you could choose to knit a pi shawl or a sweater, each using teh same mystery clues to the theme "Bugs in Your Garden". It didn't take me any time at all to decide to knit a shawl as that's what I had been anticipating and looking forward to knitting. Deciding what yarn to use for this project, like all my lace projects this spring, has been excruciatingly difficult. I guess that's only fitting, as nothing has come easily this spring--not the dissertation, not the every day life stuff, and not even knitting. I've purchased several skeins, hanks, and cones of lace yarns in fibers from merino wool to baby alpaca, cashmere, and even silk but none of them seemed to fit my shawl projects.

I cast-on twice and knit clue one for this pi shawl and both times I felt the yarn was too fine or the needle size too big. But it was time to celebrate my graduation, so I put the lace projects aside and knit on my jaywalker socks in the few moments I had to spare for knitting. I have learned that in knitting, just as in life, when things aren't working out, the best thing to do is to put it aside and be patient. The solutions usually present themselves in time, and this pi shawl project is no exception. My answer arrived in the form of a graduation gift from Sandy at the Yarn Haven. A few days after Sandy's card arrived in my mailbox I went over and picked out the lace yarn I had been admiring for 2 or 3 weeks, but had refrained from purchasing. With Sandy's gift, I was able to afford the yarn you now see pictured here. Thanks so much Sandy!!!

So, on to the Bugs Shawl. The Yarn is the Merino Lace from Cherry Tree Hill in the Green Mountain Madness colorway. Now Cherry Tree Hill Yarns is located in Vermont, hence Green Mountain is a perfectly fitting name for this yarn handpainted in shades of blues,teal, and greens punctuated with charcoal gray. I didn't like the gray all that much when the yarn was in its enormous 8 oz./2400 yd hank, but once the yarn was wound into a ball I saw the beauty of the dark grays against the blues and greens. To me, the colors look like the waters of the Tennessee River, or the Little River that flows out of the Smoky Mountains, so it's a perfect backdrop for lace bugs. I am using US4 needles to achieve a fairly tight knit since there are large areas of stockinette stitch surround the butterflies, dragonflies, and gnats.

Once armed witht eh perfect yarn for my shawl, I cast-on and knit like crazy to catch up with the others in our KAL. I cast-on Tuesday night and knit through row 8 of clue 2 that night (the top photos). On Wednesday I graduated from dpns to a 24" circular needle and knit to row 4 of clue 3. Then yesterday I knit into the wee hours and made it up to row 18. I took a white pillowcase and my shawl outside this morning and stretched it on 2 circs to take the last several pictures. I'm afraid those will be last distinguishable photos until the end as the shawl will be too big to spread out flat. But hey, my new camera sure does take great close-up photographs!

So I'll end with a photo of the big honking ball of beautiful Tennessee River water yarn. The bugs are constantly in and on and over the water and I can't wait to see this ball shrink as my shawl grows into another major accomplishment in my life that I can treasure forever. Knit on!

Call me Doctor!

It's been a whirlwind week of family, friends, and events surrounding my graduation from the University of Tennessee. It's been 9 long years since I started the PhD program at the College of Nursing. No doubt getting my doctorate has been the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life. Perhaps it is because I had to overcome so much to get to this point that I appreciate this accomplishment more than all the others. This time it wasn't about being the best or the brightest or the most ambitious. It was about being the most persistent, the most tenacious. It was about getting up after every fall, it was about surviving discouragement, and it was about never, ever giving up on myself, no matter how bad things got (and believe, it got really bad). But here I am, grinning like there's no tomorrow with my degree in hand. I worked hard for it and it will be mine forever.
My best friend Donna flew out from Salt Lake City to be with me for the big event. Just before leaving the house to go to the College of Nursing Convocation and the Graduate School Hooding Ceremony we were laughing about how this was my "wedding", my big life event complete with engraved announcements, parties, well-wishes, and yes, presents. I've never been fussed over like this before so it was quite a trip. It was so cool to have my dearest friend on earth there for me!


This last picture shows my doctoral hood in all it's orange and white splendor. I've watched my father don his regalia for University events for as long as I can remember. I wanted to be just like him. Today I am proud to say I followed in my father's footsteps. My hood is Tennessee Orange and White, his is the Crimson and White of the University of Utah, both are the result of great sacrifice and much hard work. It's kind of funny to think that I was born the summer my father finished his dissertation. I worked for both institutions and thought I would get my PhD at Utah too, but that was not in God's plan for my life. Tennessee is my home so it's only fitting that I attended the University of Tennessee and I proudly wear the Orange and White. In the end no one is more proud of my accomplishment than my father. I am so grateful that his health was just good enough for him to attend the College of Nursing Convocation so he could watch Dr. Thomas place my hood. I'm one very lucky girl :-)

Got my Hood!

It was a big day today. I went to the University Bookstore this afternoon and picked up my Doctoral Hood for the graduation exercises on Thursday. I am so excited!!! My best friend Donna arrives tomorrow night and I'm not even close to having the house ready for her. I guess I'll scrub the bathtub tomorrow afternoon as I'm too tired to do it tonight. A quick trip with the vacuum and a shove a bunch of stuff in the back of my closet and that'll have to do. It's a good thing Donna isn't picky :-) I need to put away all the sewing machines and stuff in the den before the party on Saturday, but that can wait until Friday if necessary.

I stopped by Lilly's Bead Box on the way home and picked up a couple of strands of freshwater pearls, about a 4x6" rice pearl in a natural cream color, to whip up something to go with the new yellow linen suit. I need some earrings and a new watch, depending on which ensemble I decide to wear. It's a good thing this stuff assembles fast! I'm too tired to do it now because I opted to spend a couple of hours working in the yard and cleaning up the patio. The patio was a mess and since Mom plans on putting the drinks out there for the party, I *had* to do something. My hand hurts after that sweep/scrub job! I hope I don't a get a blister.

On the knitting front, I tried out the new 2/28 cash/merino/viscose yarn I ordered from Richard. I've knit up to the 12 row section on US 2/3.0mm dpns because this yarn is *very* fine. The tension looks perfect, but I'm not certain I want to knit a big Pi shawl on 3.0mm needles. I'm afraid I'll have to knit more than the complete 96 row section in order to get a shawl that is wide enough, and I'm not all that keen on the idea of knitting 1100+ sts/row for 40 of 50 rows. Nope, not for this particular project. So, I'm headed back to the beginning of the Bugs shawl again and still in need of a better yarn choice. Sandy at Yarn Haven has a gorgeous CTH handpaint laceweight that has about 2300yds for $40 which tempts me, but I'm concerned about a variegated yarn obscuring the little dragonflies and butterflies I'll be knitting into this shawl. I could just go for the natural look and use the KnitPicks Bare I have in the stash. I do want a cream colored shawl, so that would work even though it seems a bit boring. I did knit a swatch out of the bare and it was nice knitting. I guess I'll be postponing this decision for a while longer, since I'm kind of busy right now :-)

Spring Things Shawl

I just stumbled on a nifty new lace shawl pattern from Susan Pierce Lawrence called the "Spring Things Shawl." I really like this one, so of course I purchased it immediately! I'd show you a picture of it, but it's "strictly prohibited" so you'll just have to go look at it yourself. It's a triangle shawl similar in form to Kiri or the Flower Basket Shawl. You can see the details and purchase the downloadable pattern here. Although this pattern is truly "hot off the press" there's already a KAL forming, which I am joining right now!

The shawl is medium sized (30x60") and can be knit with ~550 yds.of a fine mohair (she used 1 ball of Karabella) or one 2 oz. ball of Zephyr according to the pattern. I think you could probably knit this design with a very subtle ombre yarn, but I'm not so sure about a variegated one. I have some white Zephyr that I just purchased that would be wonderful for this shawl. I could really use a white shawl to knock off the chill in church this summer. I don't know why it is that the coldest place on earth seems to be the chapel. I swear they keep that cold so the devil won't try to invade the flock, if you know what I mean ;-D On the other hand, I may have just enough of the pale green Habu Textiles silk mohair that I recently pitched in the frog pond. It would be pretty, but maybe not with nupps. Deciding which yarn to use is half the fun of knitting.

The upper border has nupps in the design, which look cool. I've not knit them before, but I'm armed and ready to learn with my new Addi-Lace needles. If the nupps don't work out, the designer provided an option to use beads instead, or you could just skip the nupps and beads altogether and just leave the center of the leaf-thingies just plain. After all, designs were meant to be tampered with

I'm coming oh so close to being done with the Big D. When I shut off the computer last night, after a 12 hour marathon of writing and revising, I could finally see the end is in sight. I should have most of the work finished tonight and ready to go back to Sandra (my *wonderful* professor) on Monday. As soon as that's off, then I need to rip off a quick manuscript for a journal article to finish an incomplete I've had hanging out for way too long. I'm going to write up the study, so it will be a useful exercise in writing to meet a class requirement. I ordered the graduation announcements from Jostens and mother is making plans for the party we're throwing the Saturday after graduation. I keep reminding her it's the "wedding reception" I never got the opportunity to have (and most likely never will).