A is for April

This month I will be attempting to participate in the Blog a letter a day (excluding Sundays) challenge. This will be quite difficult as I'm travelling a lot in April. April is also Maths Awareness Month which I will endeavour to embody. I will be giving at least three mathematical talks this month as part of my travels so I think I'm set up.

A is for Anew, Afresh, Again.
Today I attacked my work with renewed vigour. Revising my paper and presentation for Paris, again. hopefully this fervency will continue to develop for the month and my work will progress quickly. I also took back up the Secret Garden shawl which languished while I was furiously crocheting the Emergency Shawl. This enterprise left me with a pretty shawl but a sore and swollen hand. One day of planning, 6 days of crocheting, 2 days of blocking and it's ready to pack for tomorrow.

A is also for the Irish words ait and áit meaning 'strange' and 'place' respectively. As in 'Is ait an áit é seo': this is a strange place. It is amazing the difference a fada can make.

Finally, in the mathematical world A is for Abel the mathematician and Abelian groups. More on this when we get to 'c is for commutative' day!

Emergency Shawl

Thanks everyone for the good wishes! This is the shawl that started the Secret Garden adventure. Updates will be on the ravelry page. I'm in the middle of a colour transition so it's not portable knitting at the moment.

In fact the project has been temporarily abandoned until I finish a shawl for a wedding next weekend. I accidentally found the perfect yarn for the dress on Wednesday, the beads that evening and did the resizing calculations that night. The yarn is Malabrigo lace in Emerald Blue. I'm working off a previous crochet shawl, also in Malabrigo Lace. Started a 414 stitch chain yesterday, the rows are long and I'm almost through the first skein already. Hope I did those calculations right!

Into the Secret Garden

As part of the 10 shawls in 2010 challenge I won a spot prize for my southbay shawl, as photographed by Julie of www.halfadreamaway.com and the prize was the making of another shawl. So I've had the Secret Garden pattern and 6skeins of Luxe yarn from the Unique sheep in the Eleanora gradience colourway sitting ready to go.

After practising several cast ons and some gauge swatches with some spare Malabrigo sock I decided to cast on. This will be my first circular shawl and my first project of this size. I'm excited and a little scared. I'm hoping to have it done and blocked my the end of June. This gives me about 3 months. I think I'll need it. The needles were flying along until I reached the Fountain Lace pattern and the first colour transition. Double decreases over stitch markers are not fun and so I'll be knitting mostly marker free. Wish me luck.