Flutterby

Saturday night I finished Evelyn A. Clark's Swallowtail Shawl while watching The Ten Commandments for the umpteenth time. The shawl is pictured so freshly blocked that I hadn't yet trimmed the yarn tails. She's beating her wings against the storm door despite intermittent snow showers.



Sunday morning I woke up with a headache and fever; the room, while not spinning, began listing ever more noticeably. I'll spare gentle readers what happened next. Suffice to say the shawl is dressed, but has yet to make her public début.

Swallowtail blocked to pattern measurements, small shoulder shawl size. Before blocking she was decidedly rumpled; after blocking her graceful floral motifs opened up like a butterfly from a chrysalis. I especially like the way the texture of the top edge, nupps, and bind off form a visual counterpoint to the gossamer lace.

   

Blocking also seems to have subdued the strange tensile quality of the Cherry Tree Hill Suri Alpaca while bringing out its soap bubble translucency. I'm tickled that most sets of nupps are different colors.



Today I'm feeling better and starting to plan for the Five Boro Bike Tour. (Sigh. Some years I've managed both the bike tour and MDS&W, but this year they conflict.) As long as I'm home today, I'm going to rummage through my old pix and put together a short guide to the Fiboro, the largest bicycle tour in the U.S.