The Season to Knit

Nothing interesting has been going on.  One of the seniors at work just left and 3 people at work have talked to me about going for the position. My parents and sister think I should go for it, but I'm really not happy about the idea.  True, higher pay and the experience would look good on a resume, but I really have no desire for the job (it actually gives me some anxiety). I said I would consider it, but it's been two weeks and no one has said anything about interviews so my interest is dwindling even further.

When the weather starts cooling down, my love to knit comes back full force. I got some lace yarn from a penpal recently and decided to brush up my skills with a quick project.  The first pattern I chose did not work out - not entirely sure whether if it was the needles i was using or an issue of gaug, but after 4 attempts and getting no where, I stopped. I'm planning on going back to that pattern but using the recommended yarn instead.  The pattern I'm currently doing is the Easy Lace Stole by Arlene's World of Lace using Knit Picks Shadow lace yarn in Juniper.  It's simpler than the first pattern I chose - a repeat of 4 rows with the right side rows being a repetition of a set of stitches across. Very easy to memorize and easy to figure out which row you need to do if you've forgotten.

What I've knitted so far - started 2 days ago

Close up of pattern

The pattern called for 61 stitches but you could modify it depending on how wide you wanted it. I went with 49 stitches (7 repetitions of the pattern) so it's more of a scarf instead of a stole.  I probably should have gone for smaller needles (I'm using size 6 though it might have looked better with 3 or 4) but we'll see how to looks after I block it. I'm kind of anxious to get this finished, since I know this will look better once it's blocked (the pattern will be more obvious, too).

The most annoying thing was winding the skein into a ball. It took over an hour. Granted, the skein was a little over 400 yards of yarn, but I've forgotten what a pain it was to hand wind. I've been having skeins winded for me at yarn stores so it's been a while since I've done it for myself.

Anybody doing any fun projects?