Charting patterns and Chez Panisse

I have now charted out 17 of the Barbara Walker patterns and transferred them to .PDF form. I’m using the font from Knitter’s Magazine, which I recommend as being both easy to use and printing clearly (no need to resort to Excel, you can just use Word). Check it out, and if you see any obvious typos, tell me. (It’s amazing how much clearer the pattern becomes when you’ve charted it, isn’t it?)

So I now have 17 patterns from the Walker treasuries and probably a similar number from Sharon Miller’s book. I still need another 30-odd patterns to finish this entrelac sampler shawl. Not sure where I’ll get them from ““ I may take more patterns from the Walker treasuries, I may make some up myself. I’m slowly starting to understand how lace works ““ it seems to be an experiential thing ““ so by the time I finish, I expect I’ll be able to make my own patterns.

I’ve bought a spare set of metal circular knitting needles, which I plan to tuck into my luggage just in case my carryon pair gets confiscated. I’m also going to travel with my bamboo circulars in my pocket, just in case the metal needles get confiscated ““ I’ll be on the plane for 18 hours + a 4-hour layover in London, and that’s just too long to go without knitting. Color me paranoid, but I intend to knit (and nothing is going to stop me).

B. and I are going to Chez Panisse (Alice Waters’ legendary restaurant in Berkeley) tonight to celebrate our one-year anniversary. Technically our anniversary isn’t until the 28^th, but as I’ll be in Ghana at the time, we’re celebrating a few days early. I can’t wait ““ the food at Chez Panisse is excellent (or was the last time I was there, several years ago) and it’ll be nice to celebrate our first anniversary. Hard to imagine that a year ago, we didn’t even know each other. It feels like it’s been a lot longer.