Just Like That

Oh my gosh, you guys, I completely forgot to show you the coolest part about my trip to Montana!  So, the morning after my audition I went to the hotel "restaurant" to have breakfast and the very nice waitress lady looked at me for a bit and then said, "You look familiar..." to which I simply responded, "Yes, I was here yesterday, too."  She would have none of that, though.  She continued to ask me if I was a musician and I explained that yes, I am a musician and there were currently a lot of musicians in the hotel because the symphony was having auditions that week for seven different positions and then she just said, "I knew it! That's why you look familiar" and walked away to get my food with no further explanation.  Of course, I thought this behavior a bit odd, but I was tired and coffee-less and to be quite frank, I didn't care enough to be bothered.  It was only when I went to check out of my hotel room that I figured out how she knew me.  As I was waiting to turn in my key I glanced over to a stack of newspapers on the edge of the desk and saw, well...  this:

Dudes, I made it onto the front page of their newspaper!  Right below a $225 million dam and above a spelling bee was me making my embouchure face.  After one day of being in that town, I had already made it onto page 1, just like that.  They sure do know how to recognize a star when they see one!  Naturally I grabbed two of the newspapers and stuffed them into my bag on the way out the door to the airport, where I was once again recognized.  I was sitting at the gate waiting for the boarding to begin and there was a man sitting across from me and I saw him pull out the newspaper and I simply waited.  He opened up the front and glanced at the headlines as one does and then I saw him pause, look up at me, look back down, look up... look back down... and then he went and brought the newspaper to his wife, where he proceeded to point at my picture, and then over at me and then she nodded, I think to confirm that it was, in fact, me on the front of the newspaper.  Of course, that's about as far as my starlight shone, but we all need our 15 minutes of fame, right?

Anyway, on to woolier things.  I promised you some yarn and a shawl, so let's get to it.  The yarn was spun from 4oz of carded Hampshire wool and I loved every minute of it.  It was dyed by Dan at Gnomespun and was part of his Mythic Fiber Club from a couple of months ago.  The colorway was named "The Dagda" after a figure in Irish Mythology.

I spun the fiber long-draw for an incredibly airy and bouncy 2-ply yarn and I couldn't be happier with it.  Seriously, I love this kind of yarn and I have been racking my brain for something to do with it, but for now it sits in waiting.  It's about a worsted-weight and 270 yards and ...all of a sudden just right now as I am typing my mind decided it's going to be mittens.  So I guess that's that.

The yarn was actually finished back in March, so for something a bit more recent I give you Miralda's Triangular Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush.

Yeah, it doesn't look so great unblocked, does it?  This little shawl knit up lightning fast and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I used about a skein and a half of Davidson Domy Heather in the Slate colorway.  I don't think the company has an online presence and the last time I checked, the only place to buy it online was through my Minnesota LYS, The Yarnery.  It's really some nice yarn - not the softest, but not as scratchy as something like Jamieson's and it has great yardage, as well.

It took me less than two weeks to knit this shawl and I have to tell you something about the nupps - they didn't slow me down at all.  Really, they just flew by.  It turns out they're not so hard.

I almost want to knit this shawl again because it was so fast.  The only thing I would change if I were to do it again would be the border along the top.  It's written to begin each row with a k2tog, yo and I think that with that knit two together right on the edge it makes it look a bit sloppy, but maybe that's just my own sloppy knitting style.

In any case, it's a lovely shawl and I have promptly stuck it in a drawer because I have absolutely no idea why I made it.  Sometimes knitting is just like that, you know?