The diamond rows are all done. Next up: inserting a lifeline, and knitting the flowers at the top of the shawl. But I’ve changed my mind. The more I think about it, the more I want the first row of flowers to line up with the last row of diamonds. It’d just be nicer, don’t you think?

You know what this means, though, don’t you?

Yup. Time to redo the flower charts. Again.

The lifeline will go in this afternoon. I need to get those charts reworked this morning, too, so that I have something to knit the rest of the day. As it is, I’m all caught up on this one project, and surprisingly, it’s still the only thing I have on the needles. I know. Amazing.

On the book front, I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Sharon Miller’s Heirloom Knitting for ages now. This book must be the definitive work on knitting Shetland lace. It’s a fairly large book, both in format and in the number of pages: 304 of them. Most of the photos are in black and white, but most of the knitting was done with white yarn, so I can’t see that it matters. There’s a bit about history of the technique in that region, blocking, design. And charts. Lots and lots of lovely Shetland motifs are charted out and just waiting to be used in shawl designs. When I first found this book, I couldn’t find a place that sold it for less than full retail. The £30 price tag usually converted to at least $60 here in the U.S., often quite a bit more. Ouch. When I saw the book on Amazon a couple weeks ago for only $43, I scooped it up. Evidently, so did a lot of other people, as they’re out of stock again. The book arrived on Saturday. Or was it Friday? I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. It’s here, and that’s what counts. It’s incredible. The ideas for future shawls are racing… I still owe my dear friend Karen a purple rectangular shawl, and I have a strong feeling that at least some of the motifs will come from this book.