Finally!

Today I've finally started the shawl! I've only made about 10 cm yet, but so far I haven't found any mistakes. And I think I have placed the beads rather nicely too (I'm improvising those, they aren't in the pattern). Since it's made of alpaca wool, its a little fuzzy, and the pattern is barely discernable before I've blocked it, but it's looking very nice! Maybe I can wear it to a wedding I'm invited to in august? We'll see if I finish it in time.

On thursday evening I finished my embroidered potpuri bag as well, and it looks very nice as well! I think I began the stitches a little high on the bag, but it's ok. I'm thinking of buying some kind of rose-smelling potpuri and maybe put it in my underwear closet? Or maybe I will give it away to someone. I haven't decided yet. I think I will wait posting any pictures of it here, until I know if it will be a gift or not.

My sister asked me the other day what blocking meant (we are both kind of knitting novices, and I wouldn't have known about it if I haden't just read about it on Ravelry), so I thought I would explain it a bil. When you knit a pattern, very often when you take your finished project off the needles, it sort of rolls together, and lace pattern can be very hard to see. If you then wet your piece and place it on a flat surface, where you can use pins to stretch and shape your piece, then you can make the patterns more visible. When the knit has dried in that position, it will retain that shape until wet again. There is a very nice description of blocking on Dulcinea's Windmill blog.

Now, I'm going to continue knitting my shawl. I love being on vacation!

/ Jenny