Kiri on knitting!

Only six and a half rows to go! After surmounting various crises* in the middle of last week I am onto the edging and into my last ball of yarn. I think there's enough to make it to the end - it just adds an extra bit of excitement. I can't wait to cast off and block it. At the moment the shawl is bunched onto two bamboo straight needles (I couldn't find bamboo circulars in the correct size and metal circulars are just way too heavy for angora, they slip right out if you let go for a moment). I'm so looking forward to seeing its true size and shape. I'm also looking forward to the next project. I finally have the needles for the Anya sweater. I went into Port Meadow Design last Wednesday before knitting group (I'm much happier with the shop now so I'm giving them a namecheck) and picked up a pair of 3.75mm 35cm bamboo straights and a set of 3.5mm 80cm circulars. I was so happy to find the 3.5s. The pattern calls for 3.75mm needles for the cuffs etc. and 4mm for the body of the sweater. Gauging showed that I needed 3.75mm needles for the body and I was worried that neither of 3.25mm or 3.75mm needles (which are much more common needle sizes in the UK) would be right for the various edgings. Anyway, in addition to the needles, the yarn selection in the shop just keeps on growing. They have Debbie Bliss Cashmerino super chunky and Merino DK in colours other than black and navy blue. On a later visit I bought 2 balls of red and one of yellow for some football related socks which hopefully won't take too long to polish off. I worked out a chart for the intarsia pattern but can't think of any way to knit this in the round. Unless inspiration strikes I think I'll knit them flat, back and forth (at least the instep where the pattern will be), as the most straightforward option.

* Notably first dropping a ketchup laden chip on my cream angora shawl and then going K2tog, yo, k, yo, K2tog instead of k, yo, k, yo, k on the last pattern row of one of my repeats and not being able to work out what had gone wrong until I had tinked back three rows. Both a more or less direct result of knitting whilst drinking I might add. Don't do it kids, it's wrong!