Finished Stuff!

At long last, my Opal Flamingo Socks! I finished them on Saturday morning in my hotel room in Washington, D.C. It was too hot to wear these to my cousin's wedding later in the day, plus they would have looked a bit odd with my dress. But I did wear them home yesterday, and a good thing that was, as the airline lost our luggage. (HOW does an airline manage to screw up putting a bag on a direct flight, especialy when said direct flight is not full?) Luckily, it took a mere couple of minutes to determine that our bag was still in D.C. and would be arriving on a later flight. It was delivered to my door first thing this morning, none the worst for wear, and I once again had access to my oh-so-lethal knitting tools. (That would be a pair of scissors, some stitch markers, some larger sized circs, and my chibi needles.) Without those tools, I could not have completed...

...this. You've seen it in progress, and now here it is, drying on my bed. Can you believe, the pattern ends with 4 rows of garter stitch and a bind-off row, and that I only had enough yarn to make it about a third of the way through the third row???? I had hoped to wear this to the wedding, but with more yarn needing to be spun at the last minute, I kind of missed the deadline. I dashed off enough yardage to finish this morning, wove in my ends, and gave it a wash. I was too eager to see the thing made up to bother washing a tiny skein and waiting for it to dry, so the last two rows and bind-off were worked "in the grease." It washed up very nicely, though, and I am thrilled with the shawl. And what a spinning geek I am! Am I waiting for the shawl to dry comepletely so I can WEAR it? Heavens, no. I am waiting for it to dry completely so I can see how much extra weight the edging added to the central triangle. If it's 5 ounces or under, I think my triumphal shouts may well be heard as far away as Kalamazoo. This is the most consistent, finest gauge yarn I have spun yet. A definite entry for the Big E this year!