Thwarted by Summer

I never thought I'd say it, but it's too hot to knit. To knit lace, anyway. I find that my hands get all sweaty and then the fine lace yarn doesn't like to slide along the needles the way it should, and when the movements get too herky-jerky and strained I start to get frustrated and then it's not fun. The whole reason I knit lace is because it's fun. So I have to do my lace knitting while the weather is cool -- usually in the mornings and in the evening. Obviously I'd rather be doing it all hours of the day, but alas.

This means that my progress on the Mystery Shawl is slower than I'd like. I'm not quite half done the third clue yet, but it's looking great. Of course, lace never looks that great until it's blocked, but I have high hopes for this one. At this point, it's getting much bigger than the needles I have it on, so it's looking mostly like a big holey sack, but I've tried to show off a wedge of it so you can see the progress. Trust me, one day you'll be super-impressed, even if it doesn't look like much now.

In the meantime, I am so close to finishing Requiem that I can taste it. And it tastes great. I have a few more hours of handquilting and then I can take it off the frame and sew the binding around the front edge with the sewing machine. After that, I have to sit down on my sofa and handstitch the binding to the back. Ugh, that will be a challenge in this heat. Sitting under a quilt for hours is not exactly appealing. I'll have to brainstorm a solution to this one...