All things Italian

or the many ways Jenn really is a sucker at heart.

My husband is half Italian and I love him dearly. We fauxed his new office in Behr's Bellagio Faux technique using colors with names like:

Italian Opera
Luxurious Villa
Amalfi Fantasy (still have to look that one up)
Sunset Riviera

We also fauxed the ENTIRE OUTSIDE of our house last year to make it look vaguely Italian Villa-ish.

Sensing a pattern?

So it should come as no surprise that I got sucked into Tuscany by Ms Amy R Singer. Didn't help that Ms T jumped right into the lace fray with me. Romi would be so proud.

Now T and I don't do lace. We dream of doing lace. We own lace needles. Boy do we (okay me) own laceweight yarn - most of it in Rowan Crack a.k.a. Kidsilk Haze and some Crystal Palace Kid Merino. But we don't do lace.

However I got Ms Singer's 'No Sheep for You' through an awards program at work and we both took one look at Tuscany and the simple chart and decided to forge our way through.

I cannot tell you how many times she has had to restart it (because I don't know), but I am currently on trial 4.

Started it once on Addi's 8 (NOT LACE) with the Zephyr and couldn't decipher the two rules posted with the pattern. Said I don't care and forged on and realized I did care and frogged it back.

Please don't ask how I messed it up the second time. I've managed to block that memory. But think dog on lap, TV on and dog intent to eating Mom's lace needle. Tug of war ensued. I lost, dog got crated, Tuscany got frogged. Okay, so I haven't actually blocked it. Give me some time.

Started it in a yarn I could see better just to figure out the pattern with size 6 Lace needles and low and behold I thought I got it. Used my trusty markers to help me remember which way is the purl side (purl goes with purple), which made a huge difference.

So back to the Zephyr (after stealing the lace needles) and OMG what a difference the lace needles make with that yarn. I am no longer cursing it with every K3TOG I come to.

I am now finished with the first pattern repeat. And I just realized (okay about 8 rows back) that on the black I apparently shouldn't read a lace chart and watch TV at the same time (or have the needled attacking puppy on my lap). Those cute little symbols in the last 8 rows of the chart are NOT K3TOG, but the funky slip 1, K2TOG, PSSO stitch.

Sigh. So the black is not right either, but most importantly here, the Peacock Zephyr is. At least for now.

So if you're a designer and want to suck me in good, just give it an Italian name.

I'm sure I'll give it a whirl at least once, if not a time or four.