Swallowtail Shawls

I've knit two Swallowtail Shawls in a row now, and they seem to be this year's Ballband Washcloths, I can't seem to stop knitting them!

The first one, the white one, I made for our friend's fiance as a wedding gift. The second one is for my sister-in-law Amanda, because the color of the yarn reminded me of her.

I've decided to knit a shawl, for all the woman in the family, one year at a time. I made one for my mother-in-law that reminded me of Gustav Klimt, an artist that she's particularly fond of, a canyon colored lace shawl for my step-mother-in-law, also named Suzanne, since they send us postcards from the Grand Canyon and the surrounding areas all the time, and that yarn reminded me of her, and now, one for Amanda, who's favorite color is purple.

I posted a few of these pictures on Facebook - so Amanda could see the pictures of the shawl, so my knitting friends could see how it turned out, and so I could brag about my friends' beautiful work as a yarn dyer. I got a lot of comments, and compliments, about my weight loss. A lot of people haven't seen me in a while so it came as a bit of a shock I guess - but I've lost about 70 pounds and I'm very pleased with how that turned out as well. I still have about 10-20 left to lose, 10 to get down to a healthy BMI (body mass index) and 20 to be safely in the middle of that 'healthy weight' range - but I think I'll get there soon. The weight is coming off a little slower now, but I'm still losing weight, eating a ton of produce, and working on my physical fitness. The half-marathon I've been training for is next week, and maybe my coaches visor was too tight last week, but she thinks I could do the marathon in December. There's a cut off time of 6 hours though which means you have to maintain a pace of 13 minutes per mile, which is what I'm averaging now. I think I may decide to keep doing 1/2 marathons for now, work on increasing my speed, and train for the marathon next year.

(I'm not wearing make-up in any of these pictures because it was over 100 degrees yesterday. I'm not ready to publish my non-made-up-non-hair-brushed self on Facebook, but I'll share them here with you.)