WIP's and a Center Pull Ball

I realized that for all my mention of the Irish Diamond Shawl from Folk Shawls, I hadn't posted a single photo....
So, I have remedied this. However, I must warn you, I am not too far along. This pattern (like most lace patterns) is charted and I am having a REALLY hard time with charting. It doesn't make anything easier for me becase I have to count the tiny squares. I just end up "writing it out" in my head....I think what I am going to do (because this shawl is the same lace pattern for, like, months) is to write out the repeat on an index card and use that instead. I know it is bad to resist the chart, and it probably means that I won't be a "lace knitter", but I am OK with that.
Anyway, I got one photo of the close up on the lace and one with the pattern in the background so that you can know how FABULOUS this will be when finished. I just hope I can actually get it done. I have the class from 4-7 the second Sunday of each month. There is a lot to this shawl, as you can see in the photo, and I am nervous that with Christmas knitting I won't have time to finish it by the final class. I really want it to be done (which I am sure everyone who has ever knit a shawl has said at some point, probably not this soon....) because it looks like it will be oh so warm to snuggle up in this winter! The color in the photos is really true, which is mind-boggling.
*Note: That is a bread bag closer holding my extra yarn until I weave it in. Idea courtesy of a "Knit Bit" on Knitty Gritty.*
Introducing, for the first time in "public" my very first center pull ball. Thanks to my patient husband for assisting me in the very old-fashioned arms-held-out-with-yarn version of a swift. He was patient and kind and oh-so-gentle with my lovely yarn. This is the aforementioned Little Devil from Lisa Souza. The colors are fantastic (much better in person than in the photo,) and I really love the way this stripes...but...
I have decided to rip out all of my progress on the lovely Hedera's. But wait, I have good reasons!

1. I made a mistake and couldn't fix it.
2. I didn't like the way the stripes were competing with the lace pattern.
I have decided to do them in the black yarn I purchased for VJ's socks, that he has since told me he wouldn't wear except around the house. I decided if he was only going to wear them around the house, I would make them in thicker yarn...to keep his feet nice and toasty. I will be winding the black yarn into a ball tonight or tomorrow. Then I can start the new pair of Hedera's!


For now though.....
R.I.P. Little Devil Hedera!
(I hear Taps playing somewhere, don't you?)