At last the Double Wedding Ring is finished and on our bed! This has probably been at least 10 years in the making, but there were periods of a year or more when I didn’t work on it. Here’s hoping the next project won’t take so long.

Next up on the quilting hoop is the long marinating quilt with no name.

This was made in the very first round of my Round Robin group – probably about 15 years ago. The group still meets, although the membership has changed slightly over the years. There are three of us who have been in from the beginning and one lady who just joined a couple of years ago. A small, but select group! We no longer do Round Robins, but get together every month or so for tea, dessert (the more decadent, the better) and to share our quilting projects.

I ordered some wool batting from Connecting Threads during their sale and am anxious to try it out. It gets rave reviews from everyone who uses it. Lots of other obligations on my calendar, so it will probably be a couple of weeks before this makes it into the hoop.

In another kind of ending, Rose Window has been frogged. I just wasn’t feeling the love and this yarn is way too gorgeous to be wasted on something I don’t love. I think part of it was the beads. Fire Dance kind of did me in on beads for a while. I knew I wanted to start right in on a circular shawl with this yarn and chose White Snows of Winter. I had been wanting to do this pattern in a white, sparkling yarn, but I’m on a yarn diet and the more I thought about it, this yarn would be perfect. I’m calling my version Aurora Borealis.

This is my first time using the “belly button” cast on. This is a really neat way of starting a circular shawl and you must give it a try! First, you cast on the required number of stitches with a waste yarn – I used fingering for this lace weight project. Knit flat for about an inch, then join into a circle and knit for about another inch. Then you just start knitting with your working yarn. By now you have some stability and that circular start with the lace is a piece of cake! Here is my belly button before surgery.

To remove the belly button, thread the tail of your working yarn through the first row of loops attached to the waste yarn. Then unravel the waste yarn and snug up your circle. Voila! It was my intention to post a photo of the completed surgery, but I am way too tired to attempt this delicate procedure right now. I’ll keep you posted. I’ve read that some knitters tempt fate and wait until they’re almost finished with the project before attempting surgery. That’s just crazy pants in my opinion. What if you goof up and everything unravels? I’d rather do it sooner than later so that if I do blow it, not much work is lost.

Another more successful ending is my Watership Down shawl. The knitting is done; it just needs to be blocked. I’m having second thoughts on doing more Mystery Knit-a-longs. They can be fun, but the end results can be, well, a mystery! You never know if you’re going to like the end result. If I’m going to spend that much money (and the Unique Sheep MKAL’s do tend to be a little pricey), I guess I want a little more of a guarantee that I’m going to love it. The jury is out on this one – I’ll let you know when I block it. In case you followed the link for White Snows, it does say that it’s a mystery knit, but enough people have posted progress pics on Ravelry that I know I love it.

Tomorrow hubby and I celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary. Man, the time has gone by so quickly! Who could have imagined back then where these cute little kids would end up? Thanks hubby for a great 41 years – here’s to 41 more!