In Which I Start "the Beast"

     The Beast referred to in the title is a shawl, Venomous Tentacula by Jennifer Dassau. It is all garter stitch, with cool holes in it made by binding off and then casting on in the next row. Very cool looking. My friend Kim was knitting this shawl and finished it a few days ago. She wrote about it in her blog, Ridiculous Knits.


   Being a fan of garter stitch myself, I thought I'd give it a try. Now, Kim had some problems with it, eventually getting the hang of the trickier parts. I sort of challenged her about it, saying I could do it. Of course, I had trouble too. I frogged it three times, and had to tink it more than once. But eventually, I got the hang of it too. It is a fun knit! I took a photo of my progress as of yesterday afternoon:

    See what I mean? It is cool looking. That's what appealed to me. I ended up staying up pretty late last night, knitting. I couldn't seem to put it down! Here is a photo I just took a little while ago, after working on it again this morning:

    See how much progress I've made? I'm really excited about it. Of course, I still have to finish the baby blanket, I got bored picking up stitches on the fourth side. I also made significant progress in the pentagram shawl I am crocheting. It seems that this particular shawl is addicting. It's done sideways. The first photo shows the knitting needle at the top, and in the second, it's on the right side, so the top of the shawl is at the top of the photo.


   Hopefully later today, Hubs will get my lilacs planted. I will take photos of that so you can see them in the ground. Miss Kim smells so pretty! I smelled her blooms when I watered her yesterday. I am so glad it's Spring!