Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.
|
|
| Like The Queen Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content. |
|
2 Comments:
Time out - yes, I can completely understand. I have a few projects there, myself, waiting for the day that I can stand the thought of working on them once again.
It's so nice to see you back here. I've been following you on Spark People as I continue to work the plan - or attempt to. Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Sunday, March 21, 2010 When good knitting goes badAhh - that cashmere shawl. Yes. Well. Poor thing. That was one of the knitting projects that gave me trouble and I've put it in time out. First off, I couldn't find the chart and didn't feel like figuring out the pattern. Second, I forgot how to join the lace edging to the shawl body. The final cut came when I realized that people who live in houses heated with wood should not knit white cashmere. Not in winter, anyway. Poor thing, it began to grow so dingy I couldn't tell if it was grey or if the winter light bouncing off the snow outside the window was just making it look that way. I expect my knitting to get a little dirty and I expect white knitting to get a little more dirty but I didn't want to ruin this lovely project just so I could knit through the worst winter we've had in years. I believe we'll be talking about The Great Snow around here till ... well, till the next one. Let us hope that is not for a good while. It was odd how much I dreaded this year's snow and ice and snow and more ice and more snow. Normally I really HEART snow and an excuse to stay home from work and cozy up in my favorite knitting spot but this winter hit me hard. At first I was puzzled about why I was so cranky but in retrospect I realize it was because of a health situation that kiboshed me the end of January and left me shaken. I am okay now but for a long time, certainly throughout February, I felt on very shaky ground. Anyway I am positive that is why I had such a difficult time finding a project that clicked. I'll pick up the cashmere when I'm done with this present shawl, which, btw, is being knit in Prism Yarn's mohair and now that I'm looking for it, I can't find the ball band. It came in a big 900 yard skein so I knew I could get a shawl out of it. It's nice to knit with, though of course, no mohair is nice to tink back and in lace knitting one tends to do a good deal of that. Both these shawls have enormously long borders and finishing them is going to take hours of knitting that seems to progress not at all - but then one day I'll look down and see I'm almost done and feel a little wistful. The great pleasure of knitting shawls is that you never have to worry about fit - a shawl doesn't have to fit too closely and of course - it's a shawl - it is not intended to show off curves or hide lumps. A shawl is intended to put you in a new mental space - half way between still wearing your pajamas and ready for the prom. What is new though, is this book.  Wow! Who would have thought there was that much to know about a single stitch! I am staggered. I bought this for the library (after securing the promise to check it out from all my knitting friends) but I see I shall have to own my own copy. This is the Barbara Walker of Brioche stitches. A warning - to enter into this realm you will need to learn a new language and new chart symbols. I suspect the learning curve will be fairly steep at the beginning, but it is chock full of photos, written descriptions, good definitions and chart explanations. For those intrepid enough to start the journey I believe the treasure of knitting knowledge achieved will be worth the effort.Even if you are not tempted to start the journey I advise you to stop by knit shop or book store and have a look. There really is a lot to see. And now - it is breakfast time at TheCastle and the daffodils are singing to me to come out and admire. posted by Bess | 8:22 AM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||
40
