A shawl for Barbie

After many alterations to my original shawl pattern, I finally have a design I am satisfied with. My original design was going to be an homage to King Tut's collar. The yarn had other plans. What came to be is an interchanging pattern between an open lace technique and beaded chevrons. I think my compromise is both feminine and elegant. To showcase the pattern, I knit up a miniature version of it. As you can see, I borrowed my niece's Barbie for a model. For more pictures of the shawl, please see my Flickr album. (There is a link to my album on the right hand side).

The shawl is knit with 100% alpaca wool, made in the USA. The alpaca yarn seen in this picture is from Rich-nes Alpaca Farm. I used 13 yards of alpaca and 39 different colored beads in this miniature version. Thus, I approximate the adult version will use about 700 yards of alpaca, excluding the amount needed for determining the gauge, plus 320 beads. The goal is to have it finished by November 1st.

I don't want to talk about the striped sleeves right now. The ever dwindling ball of brown yarn worries me.

On a completely different subject, I am happy to report that I have finished cutting down the hedges in my backyard! Everything is at least one foot or shorter. Some of it was so dead, I could just lift it out of the ground. I think, all told, it took me a month to complete this ambitious plan of mine. It sure doesn't look pretty right now, but in 2 years time, it should be healthy and bushy. I will never let it get so tall again. (It was taller than my husband! - who is 6 feet tall ... on a good day, as he would say).

Yesterday, I started to divide my hostas that were outgrowing the garden along our walking path. Since we have several bald spots underneath our pin oak tree (thanks to our family of squirrels and Jake), I used the divisions to hide the lack of grass. Unfortunately, there is still more to do. There is also no lack of dead spots in our lawn.

So, today, my gardening plans include dividing more hostas and trimming my Transfer Bush. This is a bush (sorry, I don't know the type of bush it is) I moved from the west side of my house to the east side in the hopes that it would get more sun. The lower branches on it have died back, but I gawked today when I saw how much new growth it had on it. I think it just might be happier in its new spot. One could hope...

Have you seen the Phillies? We won 3 straight games in a row. I'm beside myself. We are no longer the worst team in the National League. It all started with Moyer's great start last week. We've been slowly gaining our confidence back ever since we had that win. I can't wait for tonight's game!