Last day of classes - first day of blogging

Today is the last day of classes in a school where I teach. Hooray! My students now have to work hard to study for the final exam and I have time to knit. Knitting, knitting and more knitting. I call knitting my yoga (I did not invent the expression, but I like it – so I claim it!). I can knit when I am stressed, bored, happy, anxious, when I need to think and when I just want to watch TV. I can almost do it with my eyes closed... I've knitted since I was 9 (thank you Grandma Nastya), and at this point I can knit pretty much anything. You name it - I've done it, from socks to gloves, from coats to swimming suits. But lately I am knitting lace. Here are couple things I have finished recently

Growing up in Russia, where the knitted shawl was a norm for the days when the temperature outside plummeted below -10 F (-25 C) I always wanted to knit an Orenburg shawl. Real Orenburg shawl, like one on this picture. I am not in Russia anymore, the climate here, in NH is much milder, but I still want to knit a real Orenburg shawl. There is a great book on knitting Orenburg shawls, and there is a lot of info on Internet. As I was looking through the Internet I realized that there is a lot of information about this beautiful traditional craft is Russian but very little in English. Here, in my little blog I hope to translate this information and share it with you, readers.