Bowling Fumes

I'm pretty excited & still slightly high on bowling fumes.  My son is one of a team of three Virginia State High School Scratch Division bowling champions.  The tournament was last weekend & it was a Very intense day of bowling.  My son's team, the Richmond team, and the second place team from Tidewater fought each other for the lead all day.  The championship win came down to the last throw of the last ball of the last game.  Talk about tense!  I think I ground my teeth down to nubs.  The tension wasn't helped by the fact that the bowling alley's equipment kept malfunctioning which caused long pauses in the bowling.  All those pauses can really mess with a bowler's bowling mojo but the kids handled it well.  I was extremely proud of their professionalism and awesome sportsmanship attitude.  Congratulations Richmond, VA!

There's Zack receiving his Championship trophy and scholarship awards certificate.  I cropped his teammates out of the picture because I failed to get their permission to post their photos & I think it's rude to post names or pics of other people's kids without permission.

On to knitting news....

Even though I finished the shawl in early December, I'm still high on yarn fumes from the Starry Night project.

The photo is pretty lousy.  For one thing, I can not fathom what possessed me to recover my mannequin in that weird gray fabric.  Yes I can, it was on clearance & I was being cheap.  Stupid move!  Nothing shows up well against that gray.

But the shawl itself is Gorgeous!  The moment it was unpinned from the blocking mats, it became my favorite knitted piece.  Ever!  I've worn it so many times, I've already had to wash it!

Again, a really horrible photo, but it shows how I use it as a scarf instead of a shawl.  The colors aren't showing up very well, but the yarn is a tonal blue that ranges from favorite faded blue jeans to an almost black blue and it's got just the tiniest bit of silver sparkle added for interest.  And it's soft!  So cuddly soft!  The shawl's softness is partially why I've had to wash it already - I find myself stroking & petting it every time I wear it.  Honestly, I was a little surprised by the softness of the finished product.  The yarn itself, while not uncomfortable in the least to knit with, didn't have that "pet me" feel to it.  Maybe because it was lace weight which sort of never feels pettable.  Just not enough width to the yarn to pet I guess.  I was also a little worried that the Stellina (what makes it sparkle) would be scratchy, but it's not.  You can't even feel the Stellina.  But during blocking, the yarn bloomed just a teeny tiny bit and Poof!  A gorgeous, pettable shawl was born.

 The yarn is Night Sky and it came from a fellow Etsian, Swift Fiber Studio.  Tamsin, the shop owner was a delight to work with & quick to answer questions, so if you are in the market, please check out her shop.

Currently, I'm working on a chevron scarf using self striping sock yarn.

I really like the way the stripes are working out.  I'd be finished by now but I keep having to tink row repeats.  For the life of me, I can not remember to purl two together at the end of the purl rows.  This is definitely one item who's price will not be based on an actual hourly rate!

I may have to pause the chevron scarf today & go knit myself a new sweater, hat & mittens.  So far, it's been an extremely mild winter.  We've only had a few nights were the temperature has dipped below freezing but the cold arctic air is swooping down towards us and tomorrow we are supposed to see 13 degrees.  Brrr!  I think 13 degrees is definitely new sweater worthy!  Now, if I only had some yarn....

I do believe I need to grow my stash pile!

Off to find the yarn catalog....