The Shawl, Still No Fair Isle, & More Eggs

Well on the kniting front all is well. I have about 8 rows left until I get to the midpoint of the shawl and then - hooray - decreasing begins. I've already planned out another shawl with a different color pattern - and unlike what happened when I knit the Clapotis - I'm keeping one for myself this time!

STILL no word from Virtual Yarns. At this point, forget them, I'm ordering from someone else. Either that or I will have to convince the Tudor Roses KAL that I can knit some other fair Isle pattern and still qualify for the KAL as long as I think about the Tudors the whole time I'm knitting. Believe me - it's possible. :) Sometimes I only appear to be existing in the real world while in my head I am pondering history, a world away... :)

We have 8 eggs now. I'm convinced that the Society Finches laid four of them and then abandoned the nest to move into cushy new digs when I put in the other nestbox (you should see it at night, all four of them pile in, with their little heads peeping out at you, so sweet) and then the Gouldians - possibly Minerva - have laid the other four. I think this because of who I see hanging around the nest and because there was a pause of a few days between laying the first four and the second set. I'm also pretty sure that at least two of the first eggs are duds. I candled them and they don't look right. I'm going to give it another three days or so before I remove them because if it is the Gouldians laying then they should be finished by then and have started sitting on the eggs to hatch them - they usually lay 4 - 7 eggs in a clutch and don't start brooding until all the eggs have been laid. There's no point in having them sit on bad eggs that won't hatch so I will have to toss any that are bad. :(