Operation: "Actual" Lace, completed

I don't have blocked pictures of the Aeolian yet, because I don't have the current ability to take pictures that will do it justice. There are scenic mountain views and a gorgeous dress in my future, so I'm saving myself for those.

That doesn't detract from the fact, however, that I was finally freed from my curse of binding off and got to blocking.

Blocking lace is harder than blocking everything else, apparently. No one informed me. It took me a full viewing of Donald Glover's Weirdo and halfway through Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde, to finish pinning down this thing. If the entertainment had been less entertaining, we would have had a big problem. Well, a bigger problem than that I actually enjoyed Legally Blonde 2.

We'll discuss my taste in stand-up routines and movie sequels later. For now, let us (or at least me) rejoice in the fact that I finished my first "actual" lace project and I love it.

We can also rejoice in the beginnings of my new project, the River Falls Cardigan. The very beginnings of it. I've decided that I can't knit the thing with my mother around, so I've mainly confined this project to my workplace and bedroom. She hasn't even seen the color yet, which could be a good or bad thing. The color is a mite brighter than I was expecting. It's much greener than it looks in the picture. Much greener. Greener than Ireland and I've been there -- Ireland is pretty damn green.

I actually swatched something, for once in my life. I'm really bad about swatching -- I've learned over the years that I usually need to go about two needle sizes down to get the result I want, so I usually don't bother putting more thought into it. The swatch convinced me that to knit a medium size the way the pattern says to, I would need to knit it with size 2 needles. That's not happening, so instead I cast on for a small and hoped. As it turns out, a small knit with a slightly-too big gauge, comes to 19 3/4" across. Way too big for the 17 1/2" small, but just right for a medium. I think it was the green of it, sapping from the luck of the Irish.

We'll see if it holds.