Not a selfless knitter

I won't bore you with another picture of the ribbing for the sweater--it looks the same just longer. We drove up to my inlaws this weekend, so I had about 6 hours in the car to work on it. I would like to believe that I am getting faster but it could also just be the fact that there were no distractions on the road. (We are not super-chatty during road trips.) The ribbing is about 9 inches long and looking good. I have discovered that the Silky Tweed yarn "catches" on some materials (like my pants) so it does not move along smoothly and I have to tug every couple of inches. I don't appear to have this problem when I wear jeans so I'll have to remember that as I go along. Also, as I have finished the first two balls of yarn, I'm noticing long segments where the yarn is much thinner. When I did the swatch there was some thick/thin sections of yarn but it didn't seem like that big a deal. Thankfully, I'm using a smaller needle (size 4) than the recommended size 6 on the label. When I look at the original swatch, it is much more obvious on the bigger needles where the yarn thins out.

Just for the heck of it, I threw the swatch into the washer and dryer (the label recommends handwashing and drying flat) just to see what happens. The swatch came out much softer but a little warped. I have not washed it again to see if I can reshape it. I figured it would be good to see what would happen if someone accidentally threw it in the washer.

Now the reason for the post title actually refers to the snowdrop shawl. I originally bought the yarn because the colors looked like something my MIL would really like. The LL Helen's Lace comes with very generous yardage so I wanted to go ahead and try to make a shawl. I know many people enjoy the process of knitting and enjoy giving away their handknits without wanting anything in return. I have discovered that I am not one of those people. After all the work on this first lace project, I wanted to make sure that my MIL would exhibit the appropriate level of excitement and care for the shawl. So I asked my hubby if he thought his mom would like it. He said he couldn't be sure and should just ask her. While we were there this weekend, I showed her the main section that was already done and asked her if she liked it since I had made it with her in mind. Her response, "I knew you knit but I had no idea you were this good." That my friends, is definitely the kind of response I wanted to hear. In fact, I think she was a little sad when I told her it wasn't actually done yet so I was taking it back with me. As we were leaving yesterday, she told me to hurry up and finish her shawl. With that kind of motivation (don't want to get on MIL's bad side), I think I can now face picking up the 400+ stitches to start the edging.