not just a frilly plaything

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we are gaining ground! readers have sent claudia $227++++ (4 undisclosed gifts), and the matching gift is up to $140! thank you everybody! remember sunday is the last day of the knitspot $10 challenge and giveaway. the prize here is a chance for two lucky people to win a hank of Briar Rose handpainted sock yarn!

    here is a simple rundown of the $10 challenge (which you can read more about here):

  • go to claudia’s blog and give any amount to her ride for MS by sunday, june 25th
  • write and tell me that you gave (i do NOT need to know the amount, but if you do tell me, i’ll keep a total tally and show it off). if you gave before this week, write and tell me—you are also eligible!
  • i will send claudia $10 for each knitspot reader that gives any amount to her MS ride
  • your name will go into the knitspot hat to win some Briar Rose “Grandma’s Blessing sock” yarn, and, if you give $10 or more, into the hat for claudia’s prize patrol

how cool is that??

last month i went to get measured for new glasses. each year, for the past few years, i have needed a new prescription for my bifocals, as i seem to be getting old and blind (seriously, i can’t even cook any more without them . . .).
i used to be far-sighted and now i can’t see distance very well. sigh.
oh well, them’s the breaks! all the better to touch yarn with, my dear . . .
i have also been really struggling with seeing details on the computer—i do a lot of typesetting and über-detailed work, so it has become an increasing problem that i tried, unsuccessfully, to remedy with reading glasses. this year, my eyes have been so bad that i am actually throwing my neck out of whack by hunching and squinting at the screen. this past week i even had trouble seeing the letters on the keyboard.
glasses are expensive, but i finally dug deep and got myself a second pair of specs specifically for working at the computer.
and then i waited for them to be ready. i waited some more. it took one week for the bifocals and six weeks for these midrange glasses, but FINALLY, yesterday evening, i picked them up

whoa—i can’t believe how may little tiny things i can see with these!! (including that my desk needs dusting, but that, i can ignore.)

i feel like i’m in the typesetting IMAX theatre!!
(well, there should be; why do mountain climbers get all the glory?)
and if i lean all the way back in my chair, i can still see everything!

ok, i know that’s not going to make knitting history, but wow. i just had to share!

hmm, now what would make knitting history? probably not anything going on around here, but i’ll show you anyway.

the skirt is progressing, but i suddenly started to panic about the shawl, so skirt has been relegated to whatever i can get done while having my coffee in the morning before work (about an hour a day).

i’m liking it fairly well, and it really isn’t all that far from being done! whoopee! then i can take it on a bike ride and prove all of you right about the fact that i should not make a knitted skirt! (i never listen to anyone—just ask my mother . . .)

so in the evenings, i have been trying to rock that wing-of-the-moth shawl, because a) it is getting frightfully close to july and being halfway through the knitter’s world cup, and b) my friend is getting married soon after the KWC ends—like two days after!
i can’t NOT make that KWC deadline, see?? plus? i have to mail it to another state.
so, over the past two or three nights, i got the main body of the shawl done

now as you can see from this picture of the original shawl, there are three tiers, or changes of lace pattern. i finished the center one, which you can only see a bit of in this photo

i am now ready to begin the tier where those twin leaf panels run vertically toward the edge. this tier is bigger, but i know from experience, that this pattern goes quickly—something about it makes me knit it faster, i dunno why!
and it’s exciting! okay, that is maybe a little weird, but really and truly, i am excited! my heart is racing a little, even.

maybe it’s because the shawl is also at the stage where it has become a bit of a plaything. if i get a little bored while i’m knitting, i can hold it up to the light like a kaleidoscope

and look through it to see the room a little differently (i can even do this without my glasses and have fun!). or i can spread it out flat, but upside-down for a view of the backside

i love that angle! i can do this on the floor because we don’t have pets, but you might not want to try that with a cat around . . . jus’ sayin’ . . .

or i can just pile all of this lovely fluffy stuff up and mush my hands or face right into the
middle of it

this is about the time the shawl talks back and says,
“you—hey—get offa me!
whaddaya think; i’m just a plaything for you!
get outta town . . . you want me to drop something on ya—like a stitch you’ll never find til after you bind off?
go get ya jollies somewhere else, ya hear me?

yeah, definitely NOT the delicate little flower it appears on the outside, though, one of the pleasures of knitting with mohair is its weightlessness, which makes it nice for a shawl because they can get so heavy after a while. this though, is light as air. just as i hope the bride will feel when she walks down the aisle!

3 thoughts on “not just a frilly plaything

  1. You gonna let that little shawl talk to ya like that? You brought her into this world, you can take her out (literally). Let ‘er know who’s boss! 🙂

  2. Woah, and here I thought you were almost done with the shawl! The edging is lovely, I can see why it’s more appealing than the body pattern.

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