I’ve got a finished object! Well, I have had it really, but I haven’t gotten home until after dark regularly this week. Last evening was scheduled to be more of the same, but I ended up spending most of the day at work not feeling well, so I canceled evening plans, went home, took photos of the shawl, then crawled in bed to sleep for an hour and a half. Then I went to bed early, and do feel much improved this morning. It’s official, we’ve moved into the season where I always think I am getting sick if I just am not getting enough rest. Taking time to rest generally cures it, and I can continue on. Good thing too, this is not the season to be ill, there’s always too much that must get done.

This weekend was packed full. Tonight we have Miss Butterfly’s winter concert which I am looking forward to so much! I missed the fall concert because I was at the conference. Her choir teacher has come to really appreciate her and use her as an example for the altos. She harmonizes beautifully, and sings out, and seems to really enjoy singing. When she began the school year, she didn’t particularly care for her choir teacher, and she wanted to quit choir. I didn’t let her, and I am really glad she stuck it out. She likes her teacher now, and next year she’s got a great chance of getting into show choir since she’s made a name for herself in class. She didn’t even try out this year! Mostly because she didn’t like the teacher.

Then tomorrow was our annual holiday bike ride, where we dress up our bikes in bike lights, and ride around looking at holiday lights on homes. Sometimes we even stop and carol at various homes. It’s such a great time! Except….it’s going to be -7F. Which is what they call around here “dangerously cold.” And, while I’ve ridden my bike right down to -11F, it’s certainly not for everyone, and encouraging a group to ride in that kind of weather sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. So it’s been changed to a party. Indoors. And, quite frankly, Mr. Ink and I have a full day of gift purchasing that needs to happen, so we doubt we’ll even get there. Then, there’s the birthday party of a friend of mine. He was born on Christmas day, so we are celebrating early this year, and with sushi, which I rarely get to eat since Mr. Ink does not like it. A full weekend, yes, but a good one I think.

In any case, I finished the Martinmas shawl. It’s quite wonderful. The blue, again, is Miss Marja’s handspun and the olive green is mad tosh.

It really turned out lovely! And honestly? The shape is fantastic. Those higher ends lay very nicely around the neck and make the shawl stay put perfectly. I’ve not had to readjust at all. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

I wanted to zoom in a bit on the handspun, as it really is lovely and tonal, and looks so nice with the olive green! This is definitely a shawl for my keep pile. Despite the fact that my give away pile has been recently decimated.

I had been worried about the amount of yarn I had for the blue, the first repeat had taken up so much yarn! But, as is the case when working from the outside in, the yarn use goes down so dramatically. I had no trouble achieving the 6 pattern repeats. Not much to spare, but not worrisome either. Just the way I like it. I’ve got a ton of the olive green left! I think I’ll ball it up and save it for heels and toes on  socks for Mr. Ink.

Technically my month of self imposed knitting exclusively is up on Saturday. I miss my wheel a bit, but have really enjoyed creating some lovely items as well. I’ve been hard at work on the lintilla shawl I have on the needles, and the only other thing on the needles is Mr. Ink’s wollmeise socks. Since we are traveling after Christmas, and I don’t think I’ll bring my wheel, it’ll be another opportunity to get some knitting done. Plus, I scheduled myself off for a full 11 days! And my first day back is a half day! This is mostly because Miss Butterfly is off for so long this year. One week from today I’ll be on a nice long vacation. I’ll have none of that terribly boring post Christmas at work feelings, where I can’t figure out what to do because no one is in the office at all. It’s going to be great!