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I have a bunch of things in progress, but no good finished photos yet. My Egeblad blanket has been keeping me warm, but I need to get some good photos in sunlight to really show it off. It's very lightweight and full of lacy holes, but it's SO warm. I can feel it heating up on my legs like something alive.

I have nearly finished my first Baby Surprise Jacket (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-surprise-jacket on Ravelry) from Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitting Workshop". It's a crazy garter stitch jacket that has two seams, one on the top of each arm. It's only missing buttons because I am still hunting for the perfect set.

I'm busily knitting Alita http://www.yarnover.net/patterns/doilies/kunststrik/alita.html in dark green heather Cascade 220.



I am the happy owner of all three volumes of Christine Duchrow's Knitted Lace Patterns. Volume III contains the pattern for Egeblad, although it isn't called that in the book. I originally found the pattern I used on Ravelry and it linked to a free download online. That was a happy accident because her books are all in German. I just spent part of the evening printing German-English knitting vocabulary lists and using Babelfish to translate the pattern from her book. Let's just say Babelfish isn't really designed to translate knitting terminology. The term for scalloped border came out as "the serrated conclusion."

Once I could figure out her instructions, I converted her early 20th century charts into modern symbols. Then I compared my translated chart to the chart for my Egeblad blanket and noted only one error and one change. The modern version had single yarn overs instead of doubles, which is good for a blanket because the holes are smaller.

It was a great learning exercise and it helped to do a translation where I was able to check my work. I'm not used to working from charts and her books are reprints of pamphlets. The pamphlets show a handful of similar doilies that can be knitted from a single chart, or by mixing, matching or omitting parts of charts to make them smaller or larger. Each whole "pamphlet" is maybe five pages with minimal notes and no line-by-line instructions at all. It's good practice for when I try knitting a Niebling pattern, because those are all German and charted too.

Last but not least, I have new yarn! Mom and I went to my first Shepherd's Market yesterday. I was well behaved and managed to get out with one hank of hand-dyed sport weight and some soap. We watched a very educational felting demonstration and I plan to try that sometime soon. I need to be frugal for a little while, but I think I found a good source of colored merino roving samplers for future use.

So this yarn.. it's destined to be another Baby Surprise Jacket. I wanted something unisex and slightly lighter than worsted, with enough colors to be interesting, but not overwhelming. Look how beautiful!