Every Tuesday (at least until Monday Night Football starts back up) my girls and I get a little group together to gossip, drink beer, watch sports or other TV, and sometimes even knit. First let me introduce you to the players:

Amber

• Level: Advanced
  
• Current Project: 2-tone handbag (on hold: a second sock)
• Pets: Dog Kaisa
  

Rachel

• Level: Expert
• Current Project: Fingerless gloves (on hold: shawl)
• Pets: Dog Emma

Sarah

• Level: Intermediate
• Current Project: Harry Potter scarf
• Pets: none (although I'm sure she'd love to adopt a pair of sugargliders)

Casey

• Level: Intermediate
• Current Project: Cute Fish mobile thingy (for her sister's baby)
• Pets: Dog Ralphie

Sharon

• Level: Intermediate
  
• Current Project: PSP cozy
• Pets: 2 cats (I haven't met them yet though)

Michelle

• Level: Beginner
• Current Project: Potholder (or possibly a scarf by now)
• Pets: Cat Pokey

And me..
Lauren

• Level: Intermediate
• Current Project: Fishtail lace scarf
• Pets: Snake Ulitakiwa (Uli)

(please no one get offended by my "level" rankings...I defined "intermediate" as anything after rectangles, "advanced" as doing all kinds of cool techniques, and "expert" as being able to tackle almost anything with confidence)

This week we picked an at-home locale and were therefore able to watch episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (click to watch for free!), we were joined by Amber's friend Fiona (a newbie to knitting as well) who will hopefully become a regular, I fixed my missing stitches (apparently expert knitters like to intentionally put little mistakes in their work as evidence that it's handmade- we'll say that's why I have an extra hole as well) , and Amber finished half of her bag which looks awesome so far! (Pardon my photography skills)



And here's the progress so far on my scarf:


It looks beautiful when it's all stretched out so you can see the laciness, and that's how it should look on its own after blocking (in theory anyway.) Here's a close up of the lace:


As a treat to any of my readers out there who might like to try their hand at lace, (note, you should probably first try some potholders before moving on to things with intentional holes!) I'm including the .pdf of my pattern, available free on the interwebs (all kinds of freebies in this post!)
Fishtail Lace Scarf
This pattern is really easy and is good for a first lace project. I'm doing it exactly how they suggest, 41 stitches, Blue Sky Alpaca (I'm using the "Melange" instead of the standard sport weight in color "Relish"), size 4 needles

Lemme know what you think!