Ready for the next step...

I would like to think I've done a lot of things in knitting;  a lot of things well, I mean.  One thing that has me running scared is "lace".  I LOVE to do lace, and I've finished my daughter's projects with no qualms... as long as I don't have to block them.


Lace takes time, talent, and the right physical environment.  I have most of these: Time (ya, sure), talent (OK, perseverance), and physical environment (high desert SW with the driest of atmospheres=quick, thorough drying in half the time compared to either coast).  What I lack is a space with the right surface.  


When I finished off C's lace Icarus shawl, I pretended that wrapping it up for the postal service and unwrapping it 10 or so days later...well, if there was ANY moisture in there, it would be ruined. Right?  Therefore, no blocking on this side of the Atlantic!  It worked...C did a beautiful job of blocking.

It went from this to this:

Delicious!!


Today I graduate (because it is the month of graduations) to a "blocker."
Any moment now the doorbell will ring, and Emily (a fellow norskophile/knitter) from FedEx will have dropped the box at the front door with this:

And this:

and a few other little toys...


I will anxiously be knitting like a fiend on my lace tunic to have it ready for travel by May 25th.


Also, you can all hold your collective breaths while I work through some instructions in the pattern that don't add up stitch-wise.  I'm forging ahead, but I check daily at Vogue for possible corrections.


See you on the other side!