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I had an insanely busy week on call last week (My favourite part was at 6:35 AM this morning, when the nurse called me to tell me that someone's blood sugar was in the normal range. She then told me that I had written an order instructing the nurses to do so - at which time I said "Really? Could you read that order back to me?". She started to read it and then said "Oh. I'm really sorry"...), but I did find the time to book a flight to New York on Rhinebeck weekend. I'm flying into Newark on Thursday October 16th, and returning to Toronto on Tuesday October 21st. The Gambler won't be accompanying me because he will be at a big fencing tournament in Kingston that weekend. So I will totally be up for meeting up with anyone while I am there; I'm planning to go to Rhinebeck on Saturday, possibly Sunday as well. Friday and Monday are fully up for grabs. ************** When I finally got up this morning, I decided that I should swatch for my "Knitting Project That Just So Happens to Coincide With The Olympics, But Should Not In Any Way Be Construed As A Knitting Olympics Project, Because Who Knows What Wrath Might Fall Upon Me Then" project. Of course, a key part of any project that I knit is coming up with a name (because it's all about entertaining the audience here at Purl This.) I finally decided on Tri Tri Again Toscana, since it is being knit out of 2 different colourways of Tri - the name given to Ancient Threads Farms' sock yarn. The first swatch was with 3.75 mm (US 5) Addi Lace needles. Can't say I was feeling the love for these needles with this yarn - the yarn isn't as smooth as some of the more squishy sock yarns, and the needles gripped it a bit more than I liked. The fabric looked OK right off the needles, but I think it would be a bit too loose for my liking post blocking. I have realized that I prefer lace that consists of openwork patterns surrounded by more solid bits, rather than "more air than yarn" type lace. I then swatched using some 3.25mm (US 3) Knitpicks metal needles. The slick metal worked much better with the nonsmooth yarn, and the fabric passed my very scientific "stretch the knitting out to see what it will look like when blocked" test. Theoretically, for the sake of completeness, I should also be swatching with 3.5mm (US 4) mm needles, but a) I don't have any non-interchangeable needles in that size, and I didn't want to have to deal with needle/cable interfaces that might loosen (because that would make me cry), and b) I wanted to get on with my life. I mean really, it's a shawl. I knit until I run out of yarn/get sick of knitting it/reach the size I am happy with. If anything, I should probably be more concerned about how well the red and orange are going to work together (I have decided that if red wine and marinara sauce work well for dinner, they will work well in a shawl -you have your little delusions, I'll have mine) Speaking of shawls, I am deeming this pattern a Stroke Of Brilliance. I have 2 different yet similar colourways of Koigu KPPPPPPPM (Am I the only one who loses track of exactly how many P's match up with each yarn weight?) that might be destined for it.