Rabbit in Headlights

I'm currently working the 12th of the 13 pattern repeats for the centre section of the Clapotis. I may even get to start decreasing this evening.

I spent yesterday in a great tizzy of rapidly-changing decisions about that wedding shawl idea. The Japanese silk is out -- I can't handle it. The first decision was to lower my sights from the Princess Shawl to the Unst Bridal Shawl and to knit it in Sharon Miller's own merino wool. Then I got to wondering whether the whole project isn't a bit ridiculous. I am also worried about needle size and colour. Gladys Amedro, my cicerone in the world of fine lace knitting, never uses a needle smaller than 3 mm. The 2.25 mm Sharon Miller recommends for these fancy projects definately feels small, and to me uncomfortable. And the white-on-white effect -- white yarn on pale grey metallic needles -- is certainly part of the problem. There's no fun in knitting if it's no fun.

But then this morning I got a wonderful email from my cyberfriend Janis. We met (so to speak) over a Christening shawl, and it was she who introduced me (so to speak) to Queer Joe. She makes some interesting suggestions about both yarn and needles, and my spirits have revived. I said yesterday that I wasn't interested in trying cotton. which is what SM used. But Janis recommends a cotton yarn, and I think I have a little twist of something somewhere that Sharon herself sent me. Perhaps the next thing to do is to find it and to (choke) make another swatch perhaps using 3mm needles just to see what happens.

My sister recommended the Knitting Doctor's blog (http://mousepotato.typepad.com); I have added her to my list of favourites, although slightly annoyed at her yes-I-am-a-doctor-and-I-knit tone. She's not Perri Klass. Queer Joe doesn't have a headline saying Yes-I-am-a-software-consultant-and-I-knit. But once you're past that, the content is pretty interesting.

Non-knit

I have planted lettuce and rocket in a trough on the doorstep and they have come up! Less than a week. The lettuce is a loose-leaf red-leaved one which should be pretty as well as edible. I'll take a picture as soon as there is anything to see.