There and back again

I set off from here:



and before long, I was here:



As soon as I was on the train I cast on for a sock:



All my elaborate plans for knitting pair one, sock one; pair two, sock one; etc went right out of the window. I should have been knitting sock two of this pair:



but I couldn't cope with two colours and a chart on a journey, so I cast on for the "Scent of Lavender" socks from Stephanie van der Linden's book "Around the World in Knitted Socks".

By the time we got to here:



I had got to here:



So I decided it was time for a reward:



By the time I got to my destination:



I'd got as far as this:



However, I suddenly realised that SkipNorth is creeping up on me and I know I'll be expected to show at least one item that I have knitted with the vast amount of yarn I purchased last year.

So I decided I'd better get on with this:



"This" is the Fern Glade Shawl by Dorothy Siemens of Fiddlesticks Knitting, looking just as photogenic as lace normally looks until the magic of blocking. The yarn is "Exquisite", 50% mulberry silk, 50% merino wool, 50g/500m, also from Fiddlesticks (though I bought it at the Knitting and Crochet Guild). It's beautiful to work with and the pattern charts are large and clear. It's quite an interesting knit - sometimes the ground is stocking stitch, sometimes garter; sometimes it's patterned on alternate rows and sometimes on every row.

Here she is spread out a bit so you can see a little of the pattern:



Note the trusty running yarn markers - I've almost run out of the bright red crochet cotton and am reduced to white, which is not going to work too well on any white item I might be knitting. That's certainly a possibility, whereas my knitting a bright red item is probably not.

I started the edging:



Apologies for the wonky (tt) photo.

It's very slow going - the edging is attached by k2tog to the live stitches of the shawl every alternate row. I don't know exactly how many stitches there are but it is a lot. I'm almost finished now and the next picture should be of the shawl in all her (blocked) glory.

There has also been movement on the very complex, very skinny shawl requiring the 6000m of yarn but that will have to wait for another day because if I don't get off here and start knitting the border will never be finished.