8-1/2 days

Posted on annePosted in Uncategorized

i don’t have any new knitting today. i worked like crazy on the edging for the starlight wrap last night, but i didn’t get it done. what i do have done, i love—it definitely is the right edging.

but.

i might have to rip it out and do it with a smaller needle—it expands a lot more than the rest of the shawl. it is knit perpedicularly to the shawl edge, and i should have known better. this type of edging, combined with whatever it is i do when i work it, usually ends up wavy. i thought maybe it would actually wave enough to look like an intentional flare, but now i i see i was wrong.

i’ll wait and see if i can block it out nicely, and then when i knit the other half of the shawl, i WILL use a smaller needle on that edge and see if i like the difference. i’m also thinking it looks a little heavy at the line where is connects to the shawl edge (just beneath the large stars), and that it might be nicer if i knit a row with holes across the end of the shawl before i start the edging.

it would have been nice if i’d guessed correctly, but it’s all a crapshoot sometimes. experience teaches me a few things at a time only, and i find i still have to guess with some things. and it’s only a couple of evening’s work—not that much to redo.

and who knows—it might even look great when i pin block it. lace is such a mystery until it’s completely finished. now, when i look at the picture here, it doesn’t look like a disaster at all. hmm

(you’re going to feel like you knit every stitch yourself by the time i’m done dissecting this thing for you)

and in other news, i am counting the minutes til i leave for SPA next thursday. yup—i’m taking a break, and leaving town next week for a few days to go to the big knit/spin sleepover in maine. i’m very excited.

i’ve been waiting all year for this. last february, i had a little break form work for about a week and was casting about, looking for something interesting to do. and found out that if i’d just known a week or so earlier, i could have gone to SPA. it looked as if everyone had WAY too much fun. and i vowed that this year i would go.

it’s worked out perfectly that i need a good break right about now, too. my books will be done just before i leave and i will be SO ready. i’m going to drive, which is kinda crazy, but that will allow me to visit my mom on the way there and on the way back. i’ll meet up with monica, and squeeze in with her and monica, jr. for the ride to maine. and someone else who i don’t know yet.

i’m bringing a hat or two for the Ships Project collection box. and my wheel and some fiber. i am already trying to decide which knitting to bring, because (in my mind anyway), the shawl will be done by then. i have to make sure to get to the library and suss out some excellent audiobooks to put on my iPod. i might even remember to bring clean underwear.
ok, i’m way too excited—i need to calm down and draw up a sensible list.

ooh-ooh—speaking of audiobooks, i am reading another good one.

Sweetness in the Belly by camilla gibb

this is the story of ethiopia during the 70s, 80s, and 90s, told by an english woman who was orphaned as a child, when her nomadic parents were murdered while traveling across africa and the middle east. she was subsequently raised at an islamic shrine in morrocco to be a devout muslim. landing in ethipoia as a teenager, she is ostracized as a foreigner, and spends her next years assimilating to her new culture, only to be exiled to england again in her twenties. back in the country of her birth, where she has never actually lived, she must begin to create a new life out of the cultural confusion that has defined her up to this point. told in the first person, we can see fairly quickly that most of the bewilderment is on the part of others, but even so, it has a huge impact on what kind of limits and freedoms she faces.

i’m not done with it yet, but i am fascinated with it. the reader is excellent, adopting a rather cool and impassive style that denies what must be a floodtide of emotions, so that i get the feeling that one crack in the character’s demeanor might cause her to drown in them. my feeling about this has been building throughout the reading so that i can’t wait to hear what happens, and how.

so yeah—i need a few books like this to take along. suggestions welcome.

21 thoughts on “8-1/2 days”

  2. Weird. I just discovered your blog this very night, and now, I read that you’re coming to my state–very near to me, in fact, for the SPA in Portland. Small, small, world! Have you been to Maine before? You will love it while you’re here, and you’ll miss it when you leave.

  3. OK, we are talking tommorrow about how to download (upload?) books ON CD onto an ipod. I want one but know I won’t use it enough for music and free book downloads on the web are pathetic.

    you will LOVE eat, drink, pray by Elizabeth Gilbert. One woman’s transcendant journey and she reads her book herself – AWESOME!

  4. Ripping makes you a stronger knitter, Anne 🙂
    Hopefully, things will work out after you block, if not…RIP IT GOOD!

    Your detailed description is like a tutorial, I too learn from it. I am an eager student, you see…And I am even thinking about making swatches with same amount of stitches and same size needles, but different lace patterns just to see how wide or small those swatches become.

    Audio books! Why didn’t I think of that before! Since I have been knitting, I haven’t read a book and I love(d) to read…

    Have fun at SPA!

  6. Oh I so wanted to attend SPA for the first time this year also– but my plans just fell through the other day – so yes I’m whining 🙂 Have a great time and enjoy the getaway………stomping off like a crushed three year old.

    I love your play by plays. I have such a hard time getting what’s in my head to show on my needles and I’m learning so much just reading your thinking process.

  7. Oh how I wish I too could come to SPA, it sounds fiber-fantastic! I would love meeting other fiber addicts, and learning from them, and hanging out!Enjoy it, you sound like you’ve been working like crazy lately and deserve some r’n r! I think the shawl still looks awesome, but the test will be in the blocking. Downloading books to your ipod is a great idea too! You’re always full of inspiration!

  8. I think the picture shows the edging a little large, but I don’t see it as heavy, because of the three rows of eyelets just above the triangles. It would drive me nuts to rip that much lace.

    What a wonderful thing for you to be able to take a great holiday like that. I’ll likely take time in March when the kids are home from school. I’ll bet you wouldn’t want to trade places with me, eh?

  9. No way – you’re coming to SPA? I’m hoping Ivy and I are going to make it up for the day on Sat. to say hello and do some additions to stash. Hooray!

  12. Have a wonderful time! I have always regretted not getting to SPA when I lived in New England, and now… well…. Utah’s a bit of a haul. Have you read/listened to all the Barbara Kingsolver books? Those are good.

  13. Hmmmmm……I think you might be right on knitting a row of holes before you do the border….. Very cool edge though. And the ends are way cool too… You’re a lucky dog to be taking a road trip…..hope you don’t have to drive so you can have all that knitting time!!!

  15. i have never heard of SPA – too bad, I like non-holiday excuses to get back to New England. That book sounds fascinating, I’ll have to add it to the list.

  16. If you love the reader then you will love her reading of the series of the secret history of the pink carnation… but I will have to look for the one you mentioned.

  17. I’m so sorry you have to rip. 🙁 I know it will make the shawl better in the long run, but ugh! All that work gone.

    The edging is awfully cool. I like how deep and dramatic it is.

  18. hopefully a good blocking will help. I can see where it flares out, and it doesn’t look like a lot, so fingers crossed the blocking miracle will occur! I so love books on tape/cd – I spend so much time in the car, and until I learn to knit and read, they provide me with my literary outlet.

  19. I think the edging looks very promising! I hope it blocks out the way you like. It will be a lovely shawl.

    Have fun at SPA!

    Thanks for the book recommendation. It sounds really interesting.

  20. So juealous that your’e going to SPA. I hope you have a great time. I love how the edging is turning out on the Starlight wrap (my new favorite design of yours). That book sounds engrossing. I’ll have to add it to my list of books to be read.

Comments are closed.