An Autumn Kiri

Hi everyone...I think I have two readers...maybe I am talking to myself here, but I do enjoy a chance to write, though I haven't had much opportunity to truly write. I am always posting "on the fly" and I am doing that again tonight. I'm pretty beat. It was first day of school for hubby, a special ed teacher and the first day of school ever for my son who is almost 4. I am homeschooling and beginning with a preschool curriculum. I do not believe in pushing children before they are ready, but he really is chomping at the bit to learn. We had a whole hour one on one teaching time today. I was amazed. He called me "Mommy Teacher" and at the end of our session said "I love you Mommy Teacher." That is a gem I will carry with me to remind me on the hard days. If that were not enough, when he was getting ready to go to bed he came to see me at the computer and said, "Thank you to teaching me today Mommy." He is already looking forward to tomorrow. :o) I don't know about the rest of you, but in the middle of tragedies like our country is experiencing now, I need little spots of joy like this to carry me through.

On to knitting...I am working with the Alpaca Cloud Autumn. This yarn is really incredible! The pictures do NOT do it justice and I have seen this on other people's blogs as well. It photographs really red and flat. I tried taking some red tones out but that only helped a little. The yarn is aptly named. It is a heather yarn with hints of gold and brown and orange mixed in with the rust. I am hoping "third time is a charm" will apply to this yarn. I had originally planned to use it to make a smoke ring and it turned out that it really needed the fingering weight for that. So I ordered JoLene Treace's Elizabeth scarf pattern and tried it in the Cloud. Knitpicks did knit it in Cloud but I didn't like how it was turning out, although I might try it later in a size 2 needle. So, I was wandering through knitting blogs and happened onto Kat's blog (creativepopoffs dot blogspot dot com) and saw that she was doing Kiri (see www dot alltangledup dot com) in the Cloud. It looked nice so I started it (see photo below). The photo doesn't do it justice. I really like it and now I am feeling a bit anxious. I only have the one skein and a shawl would really take about 3. I knew I wouldn't have enough for a shawl but was thinking a triangular scarf...now I am concerned it won't be enough for that and am debating whether or not I should order more, which would be a different dye lot or ?

And I love the Kiri pattern because I like organic patterns. I would like to use the lace leaf in Kiri or the lace leaf that was in the Shetland Garden Faroese shawl and design a Faroese styled shawl with that pattern for myself. I still can't afford to get Myrna Stahman's shawl book or the Gathering of Lace and can't get at the library. I don't feel confident enough in my understanding of these things to forge along blindly, so I am having to wait patiently. I know my time will come and I have 17 boxes of stash to work through...but they aren't lace shawls! LOL Most of the stash is mish mash or half finished projects which is why I started this blog in the first place...finish those UFOs!!! Okay, I got my little self lecture out of my system...I think it's time for bed! LOL