Palate cleanser

I finished the doily I was knitting the other day, and I think I might love it.

It's #36, Jurginas/Dahlia, from Staltiesėlės by A. Pelakauskienė, which is very difficult to find in print but easy to find scanned on the internet. I blocked my doily a bit more ferociously than the book's sample-knitter blocked hers, so that it's actually hexagonal. After blocking it measures 16" across.

The way the petals begin and curve apart from each other is the most clever thing in the world.

The whole book is great; none of the knitting is very strenuous once you get past the initial rounds of very few stitches, and each doily is interesting, even the ones that are variations on other doilies in the book. Most of them are round-ish but there are a few small square pieces, too. None of them is enormous; they're nice little break projects if you want a change of knitting scenery without a whole lot of commitment. Maybe I will knit more!

…but not yet, since I seem to need my doilies-with-20/2-silk-thread needles for another purpose.

I talked my partner into 20 hours' worth of movie theatre opera dates over a week and a half, and since I can't seem to sit still for hours at a stretch without something fiddly to do, I started some new socks in a pattern that's easy to do by feel. It's travelling broken 2x2 rib that will spiral in opposite directions on opposite feet, and I think the heel flaps will involve zigzags (for knitting during intermissions) and the toes will involve spiralling decreases (for finishing off post-opera). #2 is tomorrow morning; I have my textbuch mit den hauptsächlichsten leitmotiven and my knitting and am ready to rock.