3/6/10 - Today was the first day that I really admitted that spring is finally here. I felt safe in saying that because it was our 4th straight blue sky, lukewarm weather kind of day. I wore a lightweight long-sleeved shirt and, since I was going to knitting group, paired it with my Swallowtail Shawl. All day, I felt calm and at ease because we’re finally starting to really dig our way out from all of the snow. I know we’ll get at least one more snowfall - we always do in Cleveland - but for now, it’s beautiful.

I kept looking at my Swallowtail and remembering that I had some leftover yarn from it that I was planning to turn into a Pretty Thing for myself. When I got home, I pulled it out, popped open the pattern, and began to cast on. I’m not certain this is going to work at all - to start with, I’m a good 60 yards short of what the pattern calls for, so I’m going to have to pare it down quite a bit. But beyond that, this yarn is silky and slippery. I’m not sure what this project will look like at the end or if this is even the right sort of thing for it. I started on my Bryson rosewoods size 4 and after 5 rows popped it off and frogged it. I hate those needles, for some reason, and will happily trade them away. I pulled out my metal interchangeables and decided to go down to a size 2 - I wasn’t happy with how loose everything was on the size 4. That seemed too tiny, so I went up a size to size 3. I’m more comfortable with this - I’m only 5 rows in - but I’m still uncertain. It just looks so darn big right now. I keep looking at other people’s projects and I can tell that the cowl obviously pulls in during the lace panels. I figure I’ll give it a shot and see what comes of it. Worse comes to worse, I rip it out and that’s that. After all, it’s less than 100 yards of yarn, it’s not like it’ll be a huge timesuck.

5/11/10 - I love how this was supposed to be this little one or two-day project for me and it just sat for two months, waiting for me to pick it back up again. After that night when I started it, I just didn’t touch it! Tonight, after watching the backstory of Jacob and The Man in Black, I cast off for it, using every last centimeter of yarn. I did kind of run out 22 stitches from the end, so I had to use another piece of yarn to finish the sewn bind-off. It is a dear, wee little thing, shiny and lovely. Tomorrow it will soak and block, and then I’ll have a very small piece of sea silk to carry about with me.

6/12/10 - Well, it looks fantastic in the photos - but only because of the way I styled it. If you look at the center photo, you can see how too-drapey this yarn is for this project. You can’t see the design AT ALL. If I pull it tightly, it looks AWESOME which is what I was going for. So I think that at some point I will rip this out and knit it flat, putting some pretty buttons up the side of it. That’s what I was going for, it’s what I really wanted it to look at. I just didn’t think it through until it was too late. But since it’s so small, that’s okay - and it makes an awesome headband!