Blocking

This past Tuesday I met Cara at Wildfiber in Santa Monica. Will tell you more about it next entry, pictures included!

So I'm semi-blocking this, not fully stretching it to size (I wish Debbie Bliss would show some schematics), but just pinning the edges and spraying them down so they don't curl. Shoulders are ready for my now-favorite three-needle bind-off, and back stitches were left live for the collar. I'm thinking round mother-of-pearl buttons, although they may be too fiddly for little fingers. Perhaps more playful buttons? I'm going to toss the finished jacket in the dryer once it's all put together, though. For some reason my stitches got kind of loose (especially around the smocking) and I need to tighten them up. Almost done! I'm looking forward to the Summer of Lace now!

How about some Weight Watchers cards circa 1974?

Reading: Finished Michael Crichton's State of Fear ahead of the Salt book. It was more or less a neutral take on the environmentalism/global warming issue, and I definitely learned a lot from this book. I've read almost all his fiction, and aside from being a compelling writer he also bases things on fact. State of Fear made me more aware of the issue surrounding global warming, and I definitely recommend this. Still reading Salt, and I've been paging through Eric J. Horst's How To Climb 5.12, but that's just supplemental reading.