Still nuthin'

Even though I'm still in the same spot I was last time I posted, I thought I'd drop in here and make note of that.  I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel where the online courses are concerned, the Emperor and I are still watching West Wing, and it's still cold outside.  Knitting is happening only incidentally, although I just signed up for -- you guessed it -- another knitalong.

The Amazing A-- hosts a variety of knitalongs at her shop, mostly led by one of her employees.  They also have a couple of weekly and semi-weekly knitting groups.  Since I live about a thousand miles away now (is it that far?  Let me check ... nope, it's just over eight hundred miles) I don't take part in the knitting groups, and I'm not sure I would even if I still lived there because of ah, personality differences, let's call it that.  A-- doesn't take part in them, either, for the same reason.  Anyway, whenever I get back to 'Way Out West I head over to the shop, A-- puts on a pot of tea, I bring out some biscuits, we both whip out some knitting, and we have a Good Afternoon.

The current knitalong is going to be conducted mostly on Ravelry.  We are making the "Hana Lace Scarf," recently featured in Piecework Magazine.  It's your basic simple lace scarf, with slightly scalloped edges and featuring just a few beads to weigh down the ends.  The magazine suggests knitting with a pure silk noil yarn, and that's what we'll be using.  I just ordered a cone of Ito Kinu laceweight yarn from A--'s shop, in a grass green.  I'll figure out the beads when it gets here, which will probably take a good week because right now, 'Way Out West is buried under a deep blanket of snow and nobody can get around.  Mail isn't going out, let alone being delivered.  A-- can't get to her shop.

The sample in the magazine is knit from a "charcoal" colored silk and uses "silver gray" beads.  It's pretty and subtle.  I'm not sure what color of beads I want to use with my green.  I could use a similar shade of green and be similarly subtle.  I could use copper or brass colored beads for a metallic contrast.  I could use varigated glass beads to look like flowers in grass.  I just looked at the recommended bead website and found some interesting pearl beads.  Oh, who knows?

Well, I'm off to the races again, to hide in my office and try to finish one of my online courses.  Once it's done, I'm more than halfway to the finish line.