Thank you all so much for the praise and encouragement on my coat!  I really think that I have been able to stick with this project primarily because of all of the feedback and encouragement from the blog and ravelry.

It's been crazy-busy at work this week, although I did find time to knit a few squares for the sleeves of The Coat.

By the end of the week I really needed something new and different, but the rule is "no big new projects until The Coat is finished."   I decided that learning a new technique on something that wasn't really a "project" didn't count, so I finally sat down to teach myself entrelac.  I have this one beautiful skein of Nashua Wooly Stripes that is just perfect for entrelac:



I had tried several times in the past to make sense of the instructions for entrelac in my "Big Book of Knitting,"  but always found them terribly confusing.  This time I had the patience to work through them carefully, and after the  first two rows it all made sense.   It's a lot of fun, really, and I think I am starting to "get" the idea behind that other multi-directional stuff that I have been avoiding.

Since I only have the one skein, I thought I would just make a potholder, but I have fallen in love with these colors and decided that this would make a beautiful pillow, so I found some more of it at one of my favorite ebay stores (toadal) and ordered it.

I got the inspiration for the entrelac pillow idea from Lorena, who has been teaching a class in it at Hanks Yarn and Fiber.  They are using SWTC Karaoke yarn in the class, which is 50% soy silk and 50% wool and much softer than the Wooly Stripes.  On my last trip to Hanks I just had to snag 3 skeins of these little beauties in a color called "Purplexed":