Dear Ishbel

As my time with you draws to a close I can't decide whether I feel a little sad that you and I will no longer be sitting down together at night, or in that 30 minutes before I have to do the school run, or whether I'll just be relieved that we'll no longer be having any of those very long conversations we had together... you know, the ones that went back and forth between us, often more back than forward.
I must admit there were times were I distinctly disliked you, but in the end I really came to enjoy you.
And casting off seems a little sad.
But never fear, I feel you will have a friend before long.

And I'm very sorry that I just can't seem to get these photos to do justice to your colour which has much more deepness in the red than the pinkyness that is showing up here.

You were my first adventure into lace and have taught me many things the most important being

• don't attempt lace with children around, even if they have never touched your knitting before something will posses them and they will jump all over it causing major disaster

• don't attempt lace with a migraine or even severe headache or while you're more interested in the show on tv than the knitting

• and finally, count before you do the purl row.

(I won't mention the one that goes, don't think you can squeeze it out if you are a few metres short of the yardage you need or you'll be out dyeing more hoping the colours blend enough not to notice, that one should be bleeding obvious)