Where'd this past week go???

I can't believe it's been more than a week since I last posted. I do know why it's been that long; I just can't believe it's actually been that long. It's been very hot here for the past week or more. Temperatures of 40ºC have been the norm (that's in the 100's F for the rest of you). The heat wave that's been hitting a large part of the country hit us, too. Up here in my bedroom, where the computer resides, it gets very warm as we don't have a functioning air conditioner. It's simply been too hot to be up here for any length of time. And so, I haven't posted.

That doesn't mean I've been doing nothing. Quite the contrary.

Compare this picture to the one in my last post and you'll see I've made pretty good progress on the copper Icarus (from IK Summer 2006, using Jaggerspun Zephyr). I've done all the repeats required for chart one and am two rows into chart two. I'm really pleased with how it's knitting up. It looks "solid" (for lack of a better word), but in actuality, it's light and silky and the yarn has a nice sheen to it. I wasn't sure I'd like it knit up, but I do. I'd like to get my hands on more of this yarn.

Then, last week, in order to escape the heat for a short while, John and I made a trip to the library. Guess which section I headed straight for (the first two guesses don't count). I was prepared to be disappointed.... again. But I wasn't. I came home with three knitting books. One was Barbara G. Walkers "Mosaic Knits", which I flipped through, read a bit of, and then put aside. The other two books, though... Well, see for yourself.

"Stahman's Shawls and Scarves" and "Shawls and Scarves" from Knitter's magazine. I want them both. I've been wanting Myrna Stahman's book for a while now, but didn't want to order it without being able to look through it. Now, I really want it. Already I've designed my own Seaman's scarf, using the guidelines in Myrna's book.

I also started a shawl from the "Shawls and Scarves" book, but frogged it when I realized it called to slip the first stitch purlwise, with yarn in front. Did I catch that the first time? Nope, of course not. I read that about 30 rows in. So I frogged it. I really want to get the Icarus off the needles before I start another shawl. This book has some really nice patterns in it. The pictures are a little dated, but shawls don't really go out of style, do they?

Speaking of shawls, John asked me one day what I was working on and when I told him it was a shawl, he asked how many shawls I could wear? I told him.. one... at a time. Right now, I have four shawls...the clapotis, the Flower Basket shawl, the Meadow Blossoms shawl and the Kiri Shawl. Icarus will be #5. Do you think that's too many? I'm really enjoying the process of knitting them.