Tired eyes, tiny needles

This week, I am forced to face it.

I'm aging.

With some trepidation, about 10 days ago I cast on for the Icarus Shawl from Interweave. I've never made a shawl before and I've never knit with lace weight yarn before, so this is all new territory.

Right away, I made a bit of a mistake. I bought a beautiful new pair of circular needles, Addi Turbos in size 2. For those of you not familiar, they are nickel plated, resulting in a shiny silver finish.

My yarn is JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool/Silk, in colorway... (drumroll please) Steel.

And so, I'm knitting with lace weight yarn that happens to be the same color as the needles, and I discover a new problem, a problem that had kind of been lurking around for a little while... my ability to focus close up. I am now relegated to that group of people who stand around squinting and holding the object close, then far away, then in the middle, then under the light. Yup. That's me now.

At first I really blamed the yarn color/needle combination, but on Friday night I went out to dinner with my husband to a very dimly lit restaurant. And I found I was struggling to read the menu. Great.

Mouse wearing shawl, by Natasha Fadeeva

Over dinner, I confessed this new turn of events to my husband, and he asked what could be done. "I think bifocals," I said. He made a face. We laughed ruefully. But he did remember that they do make bifocal contact lenses now, so hey, that might eventually be the way to go. We shall see. I am pleased to note that in spite of my inability to focus, the lace shawl is coming along well -- if I bound off now a mouse would have a lovely garment.

In other news, I committed to making my very first pair of socks. I realize now that I'm setting myself up for disaster - one project on size 2 needles, the other on size 1.5! Yeesh! But the Mystery 220 Ravelry group decided to do a non-mystery sock KAL this summer, and since I've never knit socks before, this seemed like a good opportunity to start. Unfortunately I haven't actually started yet, because I don't actually have size 1.5 needles yet. Shopping trip tomorrow should remedy this.

And so, may be the summer of 2016 be a summer of firsts. First socks, first lace shawl, first time I'm trying to make two projects at once. I'll continue to report on my progress. Huzzah!