It’s summer, and a knitter’s thoughts turn to lace. Well, mine do.

I went through a gigantic lace knitting jag a couple of years ago and kind of got it out of my system. Because I’m not a Victorian society lady, I don’t really need the 25 lace shawls I’ve accumulated. But I find that every year when hot weather rolls around, I suddenly feel compelled to knit some lace! Go figure.

The Tangled Web, where I teach, is featuring an Olympics Knit-Along next month. The Gold Medal Project is the Summer Flies Shawl, a free pattern that has a million projects on Ravelry. So I thought I’d knock out a sample to make sure it could be completed in 10 days (the length of the Olympics).

Cast on with #7 needles and Ella Rae Lace Merino. Done and done (in 3 days!):

Obligatory Japanese Maple Tree shot

Prettiness!

I like these semi-circular shawls (like Citron, too). They’re fun to knit, though I don’t especially love the way they wrap. They work better as big scarves than actual shawls.

So I finished the store project and thought, Now what? I poked around Ravelry (what is more fun than that?!) and found the Meandering Vine Shawl, by one of my favorite designers, Susanna IC.

(Not very impressive looking. Will take another picture post-blocking beautification.)

Cast on with #10 needles and a double strand of Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace in my favorite “color”, beloved charcoal grey. This is a rectangle; I’m just going to knit until my yarn runs out. I have a feeling it won’t be long enough for a wrap, so I may graft the ends together and make it a multiple-wrap cowl.

What’s on your needles this summer?