**Grignasco Merinosilk #327 – pale pink – size 6/0 crystal beads – silver lined – size 4 circs**

Words escape me on my feelings for this project. Well, that’s not entirely true – those who know me know I have no shortage of words. Here are a few:

Overwhelming – I have never done lace before or knitted with beads. I started this project at least twenty times – then frogged – then started – over and over – thinking about it, it was probably closer to forty or fifty false-starts. I always finish a project once I start it, so I knew there was no backing out. I was sick for two weeks in the midst of it and that really put me behind. Mom had surgery – more slowing down. Last week, life slowed down and I kicked it into gear and finished it today .

Luxurious – The feel of this fiber combined with the lace aspect, then throw in there the beautiful design and the beads and it’s just heaven to touch.

Accomplishment – I thought knitting socks was hard to learn – until I met lace. Lace tried to kick my butt. I’m glad I completed it and will be even more thrilled once I block it. This has by far been my hardest knitting challenge, but………….in hindsight, I made it harder than it needed to be. I overthink things and that really made it harder on this one.

THANKS!! – There are lots of thanks to go around here. First and foremost, clearly this wouldn’t have come to fruition without the beautiful pattern. To DK (and Mr. K), I thank you for that. Look what you’ve created – another lace knitter in the world. I thank Maria for dragging me into this (oops – I mean encouraging me). I thank my family who has watched me color-coding my patterns with colored pencils at a birthday party so I could try to catch up to the deadline, who have realized that I won’t always answer the phone because I cannot be distracted while knitting lace, and who have oo’d and ah’d – even the three most important men in my life, who really probably don’t care about my lace 🙂

To DK – I’ll be back for your next creation – thanks!