If the shoe fits - well, it doesn't

As often happens briefly before starting your holiday, everything seems to go wrong. You try too hard or concentrate on doing all the wrong things. Panic sets in and you just lose the plot. - And please don't tell me it never happens to you, I'm stressed enough as it is.

We had an early start for the summer sales period. I've been watching these shoes for several weeks now but last week I noticed the price had gone down by 30 %. Still, I couldn't quite decide whether to buy them or not, because the style is a bit funny: basically they're rather heavy and bulky, yet the ankle strap is both short and thin. I got this brilliant (yeah, right) idea of crocheting a small flower, cutting the strap and attach the flower in the middle so that it would give at least some extra flexibility to the whole construction. We'll see. At least I've got two different yarns which match to the shoes - not perfectly but well enough. And once again, the crocheted shawl underneath is quite a beast. It's made of Pure Silk / Debbie Bliss which I have only a few hanks of. The pattern should be much much wider but if I follow the pattern, I run out of yarn somewhere after 10 centimetres. Therefore, I keep modifying it, ripping the whole construction apart and starting all over over again. Needless to say, it's based on a Japanese pattern. Beautiful, but oh so frustrating.



Earlier this spring I bought a pair of blue shoes from the same manufacturer, and had some India / Lana Grossa to match them with. I should have plenty of that ribbon yarn, and the plan was to knit some sort of short-sleeved thingy first, and whatever amount of yarn would be left over, would turn into a shawl. Just a slight hitch, or several: I've been busy with other projects and just haven't had the time to even start this jacket (or whatever it was going to be). That's why I haven't been able to figure out the amount of remaining yarn, which means that I won't have a soft, airy and blue summer scarf to wrap around me when I go on summer holiday. I had this idea of stretched and crossed stitches but when trying it out, it was just too heavy. Needle recommendation was 9-10 mm, and while 9 was too tight, 10 was just on the verge, and 11 should have been ok.


Funnily enough, next time I went to Phildar's shop here in Brussels, a pair of 11 mm needles caught my eye. As well as 16 mm oars - those 18 mm monsters I'd bought earlier. Now that the size is right, the material isn't. They're made of wood and although basically smooth, India is just a fine and silky ribbon that it gets caught all the time.

I refuse to give up. A couple of weeks ago I found this huge crocheting hook in Cologne. It's 20 mm thick, made of plastic and does a perfect job. If I want some sort of shawl to wear *this* summer and not the next, some urgent action is needed. Well, the fishnet pattern isn't especially pretty but I just hope that the fringes will become the actual focal point.


Cross stitching isn't progressing as fast as one would hope. Here's some proof of advance, though.


Luckily it's not all doom and gloom over here. Finally I can show a photo of this - just gave it as a farewell present to an ex-colleague. It's made of Isager's Alpaca and I haven't had the opportunity to have it weighed yet but it felt just fabulous, light and airy (if I may say so).


And last but not least, the second parcel from my SP10 arrived - thank you, Secret Pal!