It’s a good day today. After weeks of it being just really, really cold (for here), we’re having a really mild day. In fact, it’s warm enough that our rosebush is being tricked into blooming.

A pretty flower to distract you from the fact that I’m still just working on the same two projects.

I don’t have tons of updates to give. It’s the same bunch of projects. I’m working on the Frost Flowers Stole, which is moving along nicely. I’m working on the third and final repeat of the chart that makes up the bulk of the stole. Then all I will have left is the last chart and a million stitches to graft and it will be done.

And check it out, it actually looks like a rectangle!

I’m also working on (the beginning of) the foot of the second Roosimine sock. It’s going along nicely.

This sock is not really that pink. Seriously.

Other than that, I’m not working on anything new. I have a lot of projects on the needles to work on (my Celestarium Shawl, my Echeveria socks) but I really want to finish the Roosimine and the Frost Flowers first. I just want them DONE so I can have them. I have lots of projects I want to start, but I don’t really have that “I must start it now!” Start-itis feeling. I guess I have Finish-itis.

My Finish-itis also led me to finally pull something out I cast off ages ago and block it.

I swear this is not that obnoxious of a pink. It’s not pink at all. It’s red. Apparently today my camera did not want to take true pictures of reds.

This is a close up of the Margaret Dashwood Shawl from the Summer 2012 issue of Jane Austen Knits. You only get a close up because the whole thing is about 10 feet long and I’m not tall enough to get a picture of it all. I knit it out of Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino in a lovely red (despite what the picture shows, I swear it’s tones of reds and purples) that I had initially bought to make a baby sweater for my nephew. (It was going to become the Garter Stitch Baby Kimono that I ended up knitting out of Knitpicks Stroll Tonal). What I realized is that even though people apparantly machine wash Koigu all the time, it is not actually superwash. I just didn’t want to risk it or give a new mother a handwash only baby item. So the yarn became something for me! Which is fine because Koigu is just gorgeous yarn.

I love this shawl so much I’ve been wearing it unblocked. And I actually like how it looks unblocked, even though I’m usually a stickler for blocking lace. I think the fact that it’s garter stitch and kind of homey-looking makes the unblocked lace not bother me so much. So, I’m not blocking the lace out within an inch of its life like I normally do.

But there is a reason I decided I needed to actually get off my butt and block it. Remember that cool thing I said happened at knitting group last month but I didn’t want to say what it was at the time? Well, Merilyn, the owner of FoxyKnits is in my knitting guild and my Wednesday night knitting group. She sells Koigu. Lots of Koigu. (I actually bought the Koigu for the shawl from her). And she likes my shawl so much that she wants to use it as a sample in her booth at Stitches West!

I’m probably more excited about that than I should be, but it’s really cool to me that someone likes my knitting enough to think that putting a sample of it in their booth will sell yarn. So, if you end up at Stitches West, you can see my shawl in the FoxyKnits booth. Go say hi to it!