Green...

Look at our pretty green bathroom!

Paul finished the painting and put all the mirrors and things back in their places last night (except for the painting equipment, all of which is still taking up the kitchen counters). And I love it. It's so much better than the off-white that's everywhere else in the house (except for the master bedroom, which we -- meaning my dad -- immediately painted periwinkle). I'll admit that I was a little nervous that it would come out looking dark, since there aren't any windows in Paul's bathroom, but it actually looks brighter than before. Yea! Now we just have to replace all the blue thingies that we'd had in the bathroom before and (finally!) get new towels.

I was thinking maybe we could hold off on the paint job until May, so it could be my May Project Spectrum assignment. But, as it turns out, Dad and Paul did all the work, so I'm cool with that, too.

And now...in knitting news...I would first like to respond to yesterday's comments. First of all, Ashley, you're a genius. :) Jeanne, you simply must try a top-down. I love it -- because I'm too lazy to sew seams. In fact, I've gone top-down crazy, and I'm going to go out and get myself the top-down calculator CD from KnitPicks so I can make top-downs for everybody. And Heather, keep your fingers crossed, though I doubt if I'll have the sweater done by Monday. I did, however, start the ribbing on Sleeve #1 last night. Not bad at all.

I just talked to Julie and the Sock Princess, who are happily knitting away while I'm stuck at my desk, working my patootie off (I just set up a pretty cool contest at NightsAndWeekends.com, though, and especially if you're a Pink Floyd fan, you might want to check it out). Not that I'm jealous or anything. I really wanted to meet the girls for lunch, but it's just not happenin' today. We are, however, meeting again on Thursday, so that makes me happy. Yea!

And now...I need to knit more lace. Mostly, it's because knitting lace, as I've said before, is like having a crack habit. It's very difficult to quit once you start. But it's also because my sister-in-law is getting married in June, and I absolutely must have a fabulous lace shawl to wear to the wedding. I've noticed that plain strapless dresses are coming out for spring, so I can work with that. Now I just need to come up with a fabulous pattern -- and some yarn in a colorway that won't clash with the bridesmaid dresses (the color of which has still not been revealed to me). (I also need to get some weights and tone up my arms a bit, but we'll not talk about that right now.) I've taken pretty much every single lace book out of the library, and now I need to start choosing. I was thinking about doing Aspen, but I'm afraid that it'll look a little too much like Birch -- and that's no good.

Any suggestions? Has anyone done a gorgeous lace shawl lately that they absolutely love?