"Overgangslivet"

Yet again KE amuses me with one of his words. Last night we were talking over plans for remodeling the house, and it kind of stressed us both out. I don't remember exactly how it came up, but one of us mentioned that we're in a time of transition. KE quickly corrected that to "overgangslivet" -- a life of transition. He was playing on our age (I'm probably perimenopausal), our move, and our general difficulties in adjusting to the demands of adult life.

Meanwhile, I'm off on the Reversible Rib shawl that I'm knitting for my dear friend's 50th birthday. Can't say too much about it, other than that I'm using Rowan Kidsilk Haze for the first time. That yarn well deserves its Ravelry nickname, Cracksilk Haze. It is so incredibly soothing and luxurious to work with. I am not a mohair type of gal by any stretch of the imagination, and yet I find myself trying to imagine mohair projects I could possibly conceive of wearing so that I can use more of this yarn. Very unlike me. I usually shun all hype, but in this case the yarn totally deserves its reputation.

My plan is to knit a ball a week, which will have me finished with the shawl two weeks before the conference in the US that we're going to room together at. I've got 4 sweaters for the NaKniSweMoDo under my belt, and the next is just finishing KE's islender sweater (just needs the top few inches of the body and the arms, plus finishing work), so doing the shawl shouldn't put me off schedule too much. I discovered that knitting it with bamboo needles works much better than with metallic circular, and that it was a good idea to go down a needle size.

I like the fabric the smaller needles and the fluffier yarn creates much better than my first attempt at this shawl, which was with Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud (also laceweight, but much less fluffy). I ended up frogging that when I saw how beautiful the knitting was with the Kidsilk Haze. It will bother me to no end to have those three balls of Alpaca Cloud sitting around. I was even thinking of knitting a Baktus scarf on the tiniest needles I could find. I think the yarn would look nice in garter stitch. I am just so not a stash person. Unused yarn makes me feel guilty.