Fishtails

I knitted another swatch last night after supper.  I was going to try some Flemish Block Lace but then I was looking in the index of a lace stitch dictionary and found three "fishy" ones--fish hook lace (meh), fishtail lace panel (getting warmer), and all-over fishtail lace (we have a winner!)--so I grabbed some US#10 needles and cast on a few stitches to try it out.  'Long about the third repeat I somehow lost a stitch and, since it was just a swatch, I made another stitch near an edge and kept going.  That's the reason the upper right part of the swatch looks kind of blank, but I've got more needles (of course I have more needles, sometimes I think I have ALL the needles, until I look for a pair and they're all out waiting around in UFOs [UnFinished Objects] so I have to go on a needle hunt *sigh*).  Today I'm going to take another run at it, this time adding the edge detail I'm thinking about using.  And just so you don't think I think I can remember all I'm doing and trying out, I'm making notes.  I made notes of my ideas and now I'm making notes of my practices. Next I have to figure out how many stitches to cast on for Design #1, wind the yarn into balls, and get going.  They need to be done in... April, yeah, that's right April, so I've got 2 months to knit them up, and we all know that I don't have a lot of stick-to-it-iveness when it comes to knitting projects so this is good training for sticking with one thing from start to finish.  Hmm, maybe I can cast on both projects and knit on them in turns to break up the monotony of project monogamy.  I'll think about it.

January 21--World Map.  From her seat in the plane Maryann watched the setting sun turn the ocean to gold.  She had tried for an aisle seat but this window seat was all that was left.  It was forward of the wing so she'd had a good view of the coastline and the clouds.  She even saw tiny little freighters plying the sea lanes from the southern ocean.  Her book was forgotten when they started flying over islands.  The water turned from deep navy blue to turquoise, light blue, and then white as the coral sand covered islands came into view.  She was mesmerized by the shapes the currents carved into the land.  Once darkness fell it was as if the world below the plane had disappeared.  She watched the horizon to see when the lights of populated islands appeared on the sea like diamonds on black velvet.  On one of the tiniest islands a huge fire lit the night like topaz and rubies.

This is what happens when friends go to Bonaire and I'm knitting fish shapes.  Feels like a yogurt, granola, and blackberries day to me.  Adios!
--Barbara