Maya's Starsky is definitely coming along. Seeing one thin cotton sweater next to her thick winter coat as her only two cold weather options is starting to light the fire. I've made a few visible errors that I'm unwilling to tink or frog back to, in order to correct. Le sigh...
Being so monogomous to one project is hard! I've been working only on it because the other WIP I have to get done is the Hemlock Ring which for some reason is languishing beside my knitting chair. ? I like the color, I love the pattern... but I don't want to knit on it. I guess I feel great pressure on those lace rounds to get it right and then the following stockinette on 200 plus sts is alternately killing me!
Besides that, you know, I have joined the Halloween Mystery Shawl KAL. Wow! What a ride! I love Halloween lovers!! They're all so passionate! We all have our own ideas and I think we get disappointed when something so cool comes along and then its not as we envisioned. That's life! So much drama! Anyways...I haven't even cast on the dadgum thing yet!! I've bought 4 different sets of beads for it too. :)
What can I say? Give me a pattern with the name Halloween, Dracula, or black lace yarn with beads somewhere in the description and I'm in. Ya, I know, I'm easy.
Anyhoo, speaking of beads....after learning the name and theme was indeed vampires (YES!!) I decided I had to have red beads! I go to the closest Michael's. Apparently, I hit the tail end of a HUGE bead sale and most of the bead inventory is gone, including all but 2 packages of red beads. Hmmmmm. days later..... I Google bead stores in my area... 2 show up close: one near the mall and one up the freeway a bit. I circle the mall for about 15 minutes before realizing: "hey, maybe the store is inside the mall!" Genius that I am, I can't find it inside either. Next day I call said shop. They are in the mall, they're a kiosk. A kiosk? I drive there. I find them. Beaded necklaces people. Ugh. I try the next store which is about ten minutes further up the freeway. Lovely lady with a cute store! About 5 choices of the right size beads for me! Ahhhhhh! I wasn't about to leave empty handed! I bought two tubes of lovely silvery/grey beads in a size smaller then whats called for.

Black yarn and silver beads = awesome Halloween/vampire shawl, right?!

Next day, I'm with my Mom, heading to a fabric store. I tell her about my bead store adventure.

Mom: "Did you go to that bead store thats on B street?" (b street is five minutes from my house)

Me: "What? What bead store on B street?"

Mom: "The one right next to the grocery store!"

Me: .....

Mom: "We'll go by there now, it's on the way"

Me: ?!!!.......

Needless to say there is an awesome bead store very close!! The lady was friendly and the store had an excellent selection, including a great workstation in the back. There weren't too many seed bead size 6/0 options, but there was enough other cool stuff to make up for it. (Oh and also, I may have ordered some red beads as well, just in case those silver ones don't work out from Fire Mountain Gems last night in a desperate fit of red=blood for vampire shawl thinking.)
I bought some Halloween beads and made these:

my first stitch markers.