This is another of those posts that my friend SSB should skip, presuming she doesn’t want to see what parts of her wedding shawl will look like.

I’ve nearly completed the first chart in the Samhain shawl; would have made further progress tonight, but managed to leave my pattern printout at the bead shop, where I’d gone to find beads for the Knit Happens Hanami knitalong. (That trip was sort of an all-around fail, as the beads that were perfect for the yarn are too tiny for even my tiniest crochet hook, which is .4 mm. I don’t know if I can even get anything smaller than that.)

At any rate, I give you the faux-blocked shawl this far:

I nearly killed the shawl, though, while trying to get this photo series taken; I pinned it to a pillow, and while I was adjusting for “blocking”, many stitches came off the end of the needle! Thank goodness for the stickiness of wool, or I’d have been weeping into a stiff drink right about now, ripping out and starting over.

I love the light and shadow here:

Meanwhile, I also picked up a little something for myself this weekend that’s been nearly a year in the planning, researching, and saving for:

That’s a Trek 7.2 WSD, for those who care about such things. It was the blue that sold me. She glows. I’ll be more deeply in love with her when my arse stops smarting from the unaccustomed exercise.