I'm Also Gonna' Need Marshmallows

Rang up friend Brandy today to discuss why men find it so entertaining to build great big fires then sit in lawn chairs and watch them burn. (Hers was torching yesterday; mine today.) No answers found.

To give the husbands credit, they have actually spent most of the last few days getting the campers ready for our First Camping Trip of the season. Too bad we couldn’t go this weekend -- the weather was perfect. Probably rain next weekend.

I have to get my camping shawl finished, though.



This shawl, also known by the name Stora Dimun in the Folk Shawls book, is a project I started sometime between the fall of 1999 and the fall of 2000. This was early in my knitting career, before I REALLY understood what yarn weights meant, so it is WoolEase, even though the pattern calls for sport yarn. I do have gauge -- I really thought then that was the most important thing -- which makes for a very dense fabric. I put it away shortly after I reached the lace pattern part because I was having a lot of trouble keeping yos in order. I hadn’t done much lace back then, and I didn’t know how to handle a pattern repeat across 700 stitches.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, this project popped into my head and became All I Wanted To Work On. I decided to go ahead and finish it, even though I was sorely tempted to rip out and restart it with more appropriate yarn, and wear it around the campsite when the evenings and mornings are chilly. The nice thing about WoolEase is its put-it-in-the-washer-throw-it-in-the-dryer handiness so I won’t feel obsessively careful of it around camp.

Speaking of ease of cleanliness at the campsite, I think next time I go to the Hair Artiste, I’m going to get all chopped up into a Summer Gamin. Right now I’m Spring Mod



and I’m not sure I like it.