Making Progress

spent about 5 hours yesterday and Thursday fixing mistakes in the body of “My Own Private Hilton” shawl, which is my modification of the Cable Edged Shawl with Hilton lace edging on it.  I also realized — after I’d done two pattern repeats, that I should have joined the lace to the body of the shawl with an ssp (slip, slip, purl) instead of a ssk (slip, slip, knit).  I’ll change the pattern to reflect that.  I thought about frogging what I’d done and starting over on the edging, but then decided I just wasn’t that picky.   I’m the only one who knows the pattern was changed.  Other than that one teensy change, I like how it’s turning out.  The yarn I’m using is a Caron Simply Soft in the color “Ocean.”

I also started putting the edging on the Half Circle Shawl, which I’m doing in Lion Brand Heartlands yarn in the color “Yosemite.”  It took a bit of calculating before I worked out how many stitches I needed to have for the edging to come out even.   I’m using Kildare Lace edging on that shawl.  I’m liking how that’s coming out too.

The body of the shawl is worked in stockinette, which curls like crazy.  I’m hoping the lace will be wide enough and heavy enough to uncurl it without me having to block it, but I’ll probably end up blocking it.  I’ve got three finished shawls I need to block here pretty soon as two of them need to be in the mail in September. I’ve also got hats and cowls to make for that package that gets mailed in September, which I haven’t even started yet, but those go quick.

I have two internet radios:  One is on my bedside table with an under-pillow speaker plugged into it.  The other one is on a little night stand with two large drawers that I have set next to my chair in my knitting nook.  I like to listen to music while I knit.  Mostly I listen to SomaFM, which is a listener-supported, commercial free internet radio station out of San Francisco that has 30 different channels of musical genres to choose from.   I also listen to it when I’m on the computer.  You can play it in browser, or on Windows Media Player.  I listen to it through an old version of Winamp, but I’m sure there are other PC apps you can use to stream it.  I also have an app on my phone that I use to stream SomaFM and other favorite internet radio stations.  My favorite SomaFM channels are Deep Space One and Drone Zone.   You might like to nip by and browse through their selections.  You might find a (some) channel(s) you like.

FYI for those who loved Ione’s  Blue Mars internet radio station, I might pass along Echoes of Blue Mars which is a tribute station that plays all the old Blue Mars playlists.  Echoes preserves the three streams, “Blue Mars,”  “Cryosleep” and “Voices From Within” that were a much loved feature of Ione’s station, which was up for almost 13 years, but which he took off the “air” in 2013 because reasons.  The Cryosleep channel is my favorite.