When I started knitting this Entrelac scarf, I thought it would so difficult.  I mean, it looks crazy hard, right?  On the surface, you’d think I’d be this great knitter since I have eight years of experience under my belt, but I’m really still a beginner.  Well, advanced beginner.   I am a slow knitter, because I knit a few rows on a project and then don’t pick it up for three weeks.  I just finished knitting a sweater for myself that I started in 2006!  So when I saw this pattern and wanted to knit it, I thought it would be another really difficult thing that I would need lots of help on.  Turns out, once you knit a few (or ten) rows, it’s really not so hard!  I did get lots of help in the beginning from the pattern maker (Thanks, Allison!), but after that, It’s been fairly smooth sailing.  Of course, there’s the odd square I knit where I end up with nine stitches instead of eight, or the weird edge triangle I knitted where I somehow ended up with a dropped stitch at the base, but only noticed after I had finished knitting the section; but I’m less than halfway through and I’m using the pattern only for reference every now and again.  And this is really the most interesting thing I’ve ever knitted.  I LOVE this pattern.  It is so much fun to knit and never gets boring.  The only thing I have to watch out for is zoning out and forgetting to k2tog or ssk.

One other thing:  I am using square (square!) knitting needles for this project.  I didn’t have a size 8 to knit this project, so I was in my local yarn shop and noticed these needles by Kollage, and let me tell you they are SO COOL.  They are supposed to be good for reducing hand fatigue – you don’t have to grip the needles as hard – so if you have  arthritis, they would be good, but I find them great to knit with even without arthritis.  The cable is also super flexible and it never gets up in my face like regular, springy cables do, which is actually the reason I bought them.  The only thing I don’t like is that the finish is wearing off on the tips of the needles, but I suppose that’s only cosmetic.

Pattern: Entrelac scarf pattern by Allison LoCicero
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite, colorway 2011
Needles: square (!), size 8

I have a bowl on my dining table that has very interesting reflections in it.

Leaves in a pinnacle, reaching towards the sun

With a lot of help from the knitting shop, it’s done! The neck band wasn’t as bad as I thought – it went pretty quick. It took longer to dry from blocking than to do the neck- and armbands. As you can see, I decided to knit a little flower for the waist. The pattern calls for threading a thin ribbon through the eyelet holes, but since I messed up the pattern, and there are no holes, the flower will do.

The back has a button closure with a real shell button. Ain’t it fancy?
I bought a onesie to go underneath, in case it fits her before it gets warm. It has cute little pink flowers to match. Aw.

On an optimistic note, I have a new project on the horizon with the below yarn. The yarn came from my grandmother’s stash, and is handmade from West Virginia at Greenbrier Art Colony. Cool. I’m going to be knitting a lace scarf.

So I decided to make bread today. Last time, the dough hardly rose. But this time, lovely, poofy, doubled-in-size dough. Punching the dough down is my favorite part.

Hey, and the loaves rose, too!

Nice crusty bread. White bread on the left, cinnamon swirl on the right. Yum!

Well, it is a pile of lettuce between two buns, but there is also a burger in there, somewhere. This is how my husband eats a burger. There is literally half a head of lettuce on this thing. It was so amazing that I had to take a picture of it to share with you. I mean, that’s a good four inches of lettuce there! I don’t eat that much on a salad!

See? Burger.