Don't you just love bank holiday weekends? It's been a week of late nights for me, and much as I enjoy going out, it's been glorious to spend three days relaxing at home.

Sorry for not pinning the shawl out for these photos, but the light was a bit hit-and-miss today, and I had to grab the opportunity as soon as it presented itself!

So this is where I am with the melon shawl from VLT. After several days ignoring it, hoping it would miraculously grow in width and length, I took my head out of the sand, made some basic yardage calculations, added a few more repeats to the centre panel, and then - gulp - cut the yarn and started on the border.

But the combination of garter stitch and sea silk was too clumsy, so after only a few repeats I ripped the border out, and replaced it with the smaller Vandyke edging. This border is used in quite a few of the patterns in VLT, knits up quickly, looks pretty and so far I am very, very pleased with it.

The Vandyke is a 12-row repeat, rather than the original 8-row border, so some adjustment had to be made on the corner. It does actually look better when pinned out, so I'm trusting in the miracle of blocking. What I don't like, in fact what I really, really DISlike is the final repeat which doesn't get tied by the melon stitch. I don't understand why the pattern specifies this, but I think it looks kinda ugly.

Also raining on my parade is the fact that with a smaller border, I'm going to have quite a lot of yarn left. So, I'm in half a mind to undo the edging and add another column of faggoting to make the shawl wider. But then, I'm not sure it wouldn't spoil the pattern. Oh, what to do, what to do?

It was another fab I Knit London meet this week, this time at the Albert public house in Victoria. I was surprised by how many turned up despite the incessant rain. There was also a strong US contingent, and there was a lot of laughing at the end of the evening with some healthy debate on the different merits of UK and US telly. [As an aside, I've just finished season 3 of the Gilmore Girls on DVD, and am SO unhappy about Jess and Rory splitting up *sob*, I actually don't want to watch season 4!] A few days before, I'd cast on Tahoe in DB's Cathay, as an antidote to all this lace, and the mindless stocking stitch makes it the perfect project for pub knitting.

Following an unfortunate incident on our splendid public transport [ha], the Hedera socks have bitten the dust - just as I had memorised the pattern too! I'd only got as far as the end of the first cuff, so there is still the majority of the skein left for some other project, but for now, it goes into stash. Which leaves time for a new sock project. Oh wait, I ALREADY HAVE two on the needles. [I could have done with a sock at the cinema the other night - the new Bourne film, the beautiful locations, action scenes, the car chases, visually it's all fabulous, but even for the standards of the genre, there was no story at all. Really. At all. ]

Talking of IKL, the boys are throwing a party next Sunday at the Vauxhall Griffin to celebrate the shop's first anniversary and it sounds like fun, hope to see you there.

Last weekend I went to the Innocent Village Fête in Regent's Park. It was an absolutely scorching day, beautiful blue skies, not a cloud in sight, the first fine weekend after three months of rain. There was an impressive array of food, not the usual dodgy hot dog stands, but delicious foods from all over the world, with a strong emphasis on ethical and eco-friendly sources. There was music, maypole dancing and craft stalls. I love people-watching and it was wonderful to see everyone happy, relaxed and friendly (so not what I'm used to in London), never better demonstrated than at the 21st centrury barn dance, where complete strangers - young and old - danced with each other for hours. I was itching to take part myself, but um, perhaps next year. A very pleasant day was rounded off with tapas and sangria at Jamon Jamon.

I have tried to attend a group once a week. In the past month, I've been to Angelknits twice [albeit the first time I had no knitting with me!]. I haven't been to the group for many, many months and it was nice to catch up with the regulars. During the summer, the New Rose Inn is a great place to knit, since the windows are large and there is lots of natural light till late. And of course, this week saw another great I Knit London meet at the Bricklayers' Arms.

On the knitting front, well, there's been some good and some bad. At my last visit to Angelknits, I made another mistake on the Forest Canopy Shawl. At home, in exasperation and with two glasses of wine behind me, I ripped it off the the needles, pinned it and my earlier attempt, took photos of both these wretched pieces with my phone [sorry], and since then they have both been lying on the floor. I'm not sure whether I'm going to attempt the FCP again; in any event, I still have almost three skeins of the beautiful Sophia cashmere to knit a shawl for a friend.

Speaking of Posh Yarns, last weekend, one of their pink packages arrived containing two skeins of Eva in Dryad. *sigh* This picture doesn't come close to reflecting the colour of this gorgeous yarn, but it is Just. Beautiful. Ideally, I would have used this for the melon pattern shawl.

Ah, the melon shawl, well, I've finished the centre panel which, with a few extra repeats, measures about 48" long. This has taken one skein of the sea silk, and on this basis, the second skein should easily cover a few more repeats and the border. But I'm at a standstill, agonising over whether I should increase the length or the width.

With no FCP to take on the road, I've reverted to socks for on-the-go knitting. I've been using Sundara's Blue Grape Hyacinth to knit Hedera. It's taken a while for me to get into this pattern, and to be honest, there have been many times I thought it might go the same way as the FCP, but this week I really looked at the pattern, and the yarnovers et al in relation to the centre stitch and something clicked, and now I'm just speeding along. Pictures to follow at some point.

It's been a dreadful week both at work and at home. 1) Some lunatic abused me in the street, and then called the police when I confronted him! 2) Since July, I've taken up running again, and this week I really noticed some benefits, so imagine my dismay to learn that I AM PUTTING ON WEIGHT [and yes, I understand about building muscle, but according to the various means of measurement, I am obese, you'd think I would lose a pound or two first]. 3) More importantly, I have managed to fall out with a number of people close to my heart; my companion, my best friend, my sister and my parents, each one on different issues. It's been a lonely week.