Oops, I did it again!

I had decided there would be no new self-indulgent projects before we go to Spain. I have a several secret projects that need sewing up and finishing off and one secret project i need to cast on for and finish before we go to Spain. But I gave in to temptation yesterday. There was a good reason though. I woke up with an extremely severe pain across my left shoulder blade yesterday. So painful it was actually hurting when I moved and getting in and out of my comfy chair, bending down etc was difficult. I had a massage in the morning and my wonderful therapist, Jan, tried to release whatever it was that was causing it but didn't have much success and I spent the rest of the day in a lot of pain. my bucket full of painkillers didn't really touch it. So I did very little knitting yesterday. During the day I tried to sew up a garmen and got it halfway done. I need to finish it today, preferably so it can go in teh post before lunchtime. I also finished a small crochet project yesterday - more on that later. but i really did not feel like knitting, mainly because all the knitting I had on teh needle was hurting me too much.

So in the evening I decided I had to start somethign easy, something in garter stitch. I wound up a ball of Ocean Silk 4ply. I actually fancied using Pure Silk 4ply but i haven't dyed any yet. I wasn't quite sure what to do but I fancied an easy shawl. I flicked through my note book as I do have some shawl charts ready that I havne't swatched for yet. I decided I ought to do a triangular shawl and perhaps this could be my the next shawl in the 'Easy Lace' series. There was also a stitch pattern in the Vogue Stitchionary 5 - lace stitches, that I fancied trying and I had been thinking about how it might look in a shawl. So I decided to try it and I love it. then I started thinking about whether I wanted to share and self-publish this pattern or whether i ought to keep it for a submission. I missed the latest Knitty submission deadline as I just didn't get anything done on time although I desperately wanted to submit something.  So I thought I'd plan ahead for once and save this one for the next Knitty deadline in October. I think this shawl might just suit Knitty although you never know. It's fun and a little bit quirky, I think. The only thing is that the next deadline is for the Winter issue but this might suit spring or summer better but we'll see. I've got a sneak peak of it. I'm wondering if the colour is right but I can always over-dye it if I need to.

I worked on this while we watched a film last night and apart from one pattern row in twelve where I need to watch what I'm doing it's pretty straight forward knitting. which means it'll be perfect for the next week too. And i may even finish it before we go to Spain.

Emily left for her scout trip yesterday. They are going on a canal boat on the Llangollen canal. She was very excited and a little bit nervous about it. This is the longest she's been a way on her own - 8 days. Previous longest trip was 5 days. We had a text last night saying she was enjoying it although the drive up to Middlewich took ages. It's very quiet without her.

Luckily we'll have a busy week ahead as it's start of our church's annual Grace Family Bible Week. We go down to church today to set up Simon's parents caravan which Simon and Vanessa are camping in for the week. A caravan might sound post an it is a nice caravan but tiny. In fact, Simon thinks the caravan and awning is smaller than our tent but hopefully it'll be drier if it rains which it usually does during Bible Week. Simon sprained his ankle halfway through last year's Bible Week so we're hoping nothing like that hapens this year.  I'm not camping - I don't do camping and the sake of my back it's better for me to sleep in my own bed. I go down for the day and teh evening every day.

I've finished a crochet project too. A few months ago I decided i fancied a litle bag to put my Bible and note book in. I had some Rowan Amy Butler organic merino/cotton that I didn't know what to do with and I loved the colours so I did a very simple double crochet stripey bag. I finished it off with double crochet around the edings and attached some magnetic poppers. I need to add some buttons to cover the magnetic backings. I wanted to finish it in time for Bible Week and I did. The Amy Butler yarn was gorgeous to work with and i enjoyed the double crochet although I was worried it might get a bit boring but because I only did it every now and then and changed colour frequently it was okay.

talking about crochet. My first crochet design for Inside Crochet is due out very, very soon - early August I think. I was hoping it might come before we go to Spain but I'm not sure it will. My second design for Inside Crochet is due back from my crocheter any day now. Really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

I'd better bite the bullet and get this sewing up finished before Simon wakes up and we need to get on with finishing the preparations for Bible Week. We leave about lunch time. I'll be around this week and will post out parcels as usual. I'll also try to do a few posts during the week.