Me and My Sister

I've never introduced you all to DSis. You'd know we were sisters if you just saw our faces and talked with us. That's pretty much where the similarities end. I'm the Soccer Mom type (and darn proud of it!) happily settled in Surburbia. My sister, who is nine years my junior, loves non-stop excitement and is the Urban Girl. (She's the one who encouraged me to get my tattoo!) She's a psych nurse and I remember talking with her one night on the phone after she got home where she told me excitedly that she was briefly taken hostage by a patient. (I'd be looking for another job ASAP! For her it was all in a day's work.) For as different as we are, however, we're thick as theives and any time we talk, we're laughing and are totally goofy! She now has an office position, and rarely does a work day go by that we don't email each other at least 100X.

It was funny, she texted me this past Saturday night, saying 'Hi' from her pub-crawl with some friends. I was happily at home, in my jammies, ripping CDs to my laptop, while knitting, kitties sitting with me and I could hear the engines of DH's plane roaring in his den above the Parlour...


DSis has been a long time Detroit Redwings fan, so to celebrate her highschool graduation in '95, we went to 'The Joe Lou' for a Redwings game. (Wow, what a hockey town!) This picture (a picture of a picture, sorry for the crappy quality) is of us right before we left. (I'm the one at the wheel)




Recently, she worked really hard to lose 50 pounds and now she's a tiny size 4. (She's my inspiration!) This picture was taken at The Race for a Cure in 2005. I love this picture! It reminds me of an Audrey Hepburn paparazzi shot. I even had an 8.5X11 print made that she autographed for me and it's hanging in my cubicle at work. I can't tell you how many times someone has stopped to look at the picture, trying to figure out who it is. (I always tell them she's a Victoria's Secret model ;o)




Anyways, the point (and there really is a point) is that last night I cast on for her Christmas present. While texting her during her Saturday evening activities, I subtly asked her if she had something that was knitted lace, would she prefer a scarf or a shawl? She'd like a shawl, hypothetically speaking, of course! (I'm so glad, I've never knit a lace shawl before!)



This design is the Swallowtail Shawl from the fall issue of Interweave Knits. Carolyn was my inspiration. (You must check out her blog - her knitting is gorgeous, and she's only been knitting for a couple years!)

I'm knitting this using Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud (same yarn as my Mum's gray scarf) in Iris, which is a beautiful amethyst color, DSis's favorite, on US#5 circular needles. (I may have to switch to a less slippy needle, like bamboo) What you see in the picture is two hour's worth of work, and with some figuring and writing out of instructions. I was really surprised at how fast it went, much quicker than the scarf. Of course, this gets bigger as I go. The pinned side that's not on the needles is the top, which is the part closest to the model's ponytail.

Note: I wanted to share a podcast I found (and you can still listen over your PC if you don't have an MP3 player): KnitTunes. Maura has created a number of episodes with music conducive to knitting differnt types of projects. I listened to the Lace episode last night while working on DSis's shawl. I highly recommend tuning in!


And here is an update on the Widgeons. The big duck is almost complete, I've done some 'ground' and a little on the little duckie.