I had not planned a new project for any time soon - in fact, I haven’t been planning a new project at all.  Not a big one any way…  But you know how the Universe sometimes feels personally challenged about these things :)

I am currently reading Terry Pratchett’s The Fifth Elephant in which there is a character called Lady Margolatta.  She is a vampire.  And I got to thinking that a lace shawl in a batwing style would be a perfect piece to name after her.

However, my mind currently being like a steel sieve, I couldn’t see myself coming up with anything soon, so I passed the idea on to…

There’s a Yahoo group to which I subscribe called MMarioKKnits.  Basically it’s a lace knitter’s group and a testing ground for the lace designs of the group leader.  Many of them are based on various fantasy works such as Pratchett’s Discworld or MacCaffery’s tales of Pern.  Intriguing and imaginative doesn’t even begin to describe it and the talent and energy of the designer are really quite astounding.

If you’re interested in lace shawls, you may want to check out this group :)

I didn’t really expect anything at all when I mentioned, in group, that I like the idea of a Lady Margolatta shawl.  I was therefore astonished to find in my email the next morning, a .pdf from Mmario containing charts and instructions, not only for a batwing shawl, but for a circular shawl and a cape.

And so, despite not having planned to start another largish project until after the holidays, I succumbed…

This looks to be a really simple pattern (good!) and shouldn’t be too difficult to execute - even for me :)  There is even a border of eyelet chevrons that’s knitted on as you go along…

The yarn is Knitpicks Gloss (70% merino/30% silk) and I’m liking it a lot.  It seems a little tiny bit thicker than usual lace weight, but that’s all to the good where my fumble-fingered self is concerned.  It has lovely body and a gorgeous sheen to it and I’m not finding it the least bit touchy to work with - YAY!

I keep telling myself that I’m going to set this aside until later because, really, I hadn’t meant to start it in the first place.  But I keep working on it, a few rows at a time, because it’s fun, because I love the yarn and, well, just because, I guess :)

I have come down with a major cold/sinus infection and coupled with chemo side effects, am moderately miserable and will be so for the next couple of days.  So unfortunately, Chatters is cancelled for Saturday night.  I doubt I’ll be able to even stay awake that long.

No worries folks.  This isn’t anything serious, just annoying.  Mostly I’m sleeping , when I can, and when I’m not sleeping, I’m either reading or meandering along the rows of the Lady Margolatta :)

Have a great weekend everybody!