Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
I Should Never Buy Yarn Again
I can just hear my husband pumping his fist in the air and yelling for joy. (Yarny friends, never fear, I am only using the word "should") But, I do have A LOT of yarn. While it's not a S.A.B.L.E (stash acquired beyond life expectancy), it is a stash that should last me SEVERAL SEVERAL years. And now I feel guilty when I buy new yarn, unless a knitting bunny decides at that moment to pop out of my head fully formed and practically grabs the yarn for me. I know, that's silly. Yarn at yarn stores are LONELY. But so is yarn left in a dresser not lovingly knit up on needles and MADE into something. I feel bad for my stash. It needs to be knitted. KNIT ME!
But then there's that siren...SILK. And the grand mistress siren of them all...Handmaiden Sea Silk. Her call is poignant and loud...not to mention persistent. But LOOK at the abundance of riches: My Stash (Stash on Flickr-for non rav folks).
Knitting Bunny knitted and I hate it. I don't like how it turned out. And I am thoroughly disgusted with it. A mature designer would let a small sigh escape her lips and start all over. But the impetuous designer I am tosses it in the corner and considers it a bad job...which may languish or not. I am pouting.
So I started something new, something cute and relaxing with no brains behind it because I didn't have to exercise any braincells. I found the cute plaything while reading my Curly Haired forum at Ravelry, Dream Swatch Head Wrap. I am a big fan of Wendy Bernard. She's built like me (ahem, slender) and she designs sweaters to fit herself. IF (big if) I ever knit a sweater for myself, it would probably be one of hers (okay, this is cute too--oh and I am still lusting after that birdy one from Ysolda). Anyhoo--I am enchanted with this headwrap.
I have all this hair now (it's nearly to my waist) and it needs some reigning in and the scrunchies I have been using aren't as cute.
I dug out a ball of plain icy blue bamboo and acrylic blend I bought a few years back. And went to town this morning during a jag of sleeplessness.
It kept my mind off disaster and of course (OF COURSE) it helped grow a new bunny. I am wondering now what this stitch pattern would look like if the loops were crossed individually. A wrap would be cute and I am thinking finer yarn...a bit more delicate...or shiny or...I don't know...it's newly born and the eyes aren't open yet.
(Oh I also learned something valuable this week. If you are feeling down, quite inexplicably down: GET THEE SOME CHOCOLATE. There's a great chance it'll make you feel completely better.)
I know I have promised you a lace surgery video. Bad Birdy. Well, actually bad Jamey. In order to get the right angle for you to see the surgery we had to shot it upside down. And Jamey needs to edit the video so it'll be right side up. Jamey has been so busy--he hasn't had a spare moment. So not really his fault. Just how things happen.
But very soon I shall have another lace video for you, but this time I am kicking it up a notch. This will indeed EXTREME lace surgery...with actual cutting involved.
Yikes. I know.
This is the patient.
I stopped knitting this September 2007, after discovering that I snagged and broke a stitch. NEVER wear rings when you are knitting and showing off your lace work!!! LEARN FROM ME!!!
I knotted up the two broken ends so ti wouldn't completely unravel. And when i felt up to it...I would SOMEHOW fix it. And so I put it away. Why finish it when it could all fall apart? The knot is NOT very secure. The alpaca I used is slippery when knotted.
I took it out recently, after all I have grown a lot in skill these two years, to see if I could fix it. Well I can't splice it...the ends are too short and the yarn I am not sure it would hold up to it and it did unravel a teeny bit so I would have to rework the ends. And I CERTAINLY can not live with a knot. No one would see it but me...but DUDE I would know!
I will NOT frog it! Two feet of lace? No way will I frog all that work...that's beyond me. So...
this is where I will graft a new knitted tip. I shall cut and unravel and redo!!
Not today because I had to leave for a BBQ two minutes ago. But tomorrow or the next day and I shall have a video for the cutting and unraveling and place onto a needle or holder. Then at some later point I will show you how I graft the new tip (after I knit the tip). I am doing it in two steps so far apart, to basically pace myself. Otherwise the stress of it all might be the end of me.
After spending the weekend (and most of the week) wrestling and chasing various knitting bunnies: I finally had a break through! Relief! I can now attribute most (if not some) of my ferociously bad mood this week to the naughty, difficult Knitting Bunnies. I think what helped the break through was the spontaneous mitosis of a knitting bunny. One shawl design that's been percolating in my brain for upwards of 5 years became two shawls. Somehow this just let the dams burst forth and helped the other design that was giving me fits smooth out and play nice.
So two shawls were born this weekend: one will remain secret and will be featured in a special event I am planning with a yarny friend of mine. The other: not sure if it'll be totally secret (this is the Thistle/Scottish themed shawl)... We shall see.
I took better pictures of the Helen's Lace this morning.
I am all hot and ready to swatch, but I have some detangling ahead of me.
See that bit of yarn barf behind the cake? A while back the kids got into my stash and played with my lace...Mic used THIS yarn my favourite yarn to make a spider web. So before I swatch I need to untangle. Which, really isn't a horrible thing...I enjoy this sort of thing. It's sort of zen for me; calming and centering.
While I was re-taking pictures of the Helen's Lace, I figured it would be a good idea to take a picture of some green malabrigo lace I kept forgetting to record for my stash on Ravelry. So I bring out this bag from my stash dresser:
Jamey just about had a mini-stroke. "What is all THAT?! Where did THAT come from." LOL. Slowly slowly, piece my piece, through out the months and years. Hee hee. But I do have a lot of yarn...which is why I have been trying to slow up my yarn purchases. But it's so hard when I see pretty pretty softy yarn!
He also didn't think my idea of keeping a duffle bag near my yarn dresser was particularly brilliant. (My thought was in an emergency and we need to leave the house and maybe not come back...I would need something to carry my yarn in) He thinks my priorities are messed up.
Yeah, I am totally going to have to make one for myself now. It's fun to wear (I took 50 pictures hee hee). My full photoset is here. BUT, I can't make it right now. First, the knitting bunnies must be appeased.
I am not sure if I am going to send these current bunnies off to get published or if I'll self publish. If I send it off--well mum's the word and NO pictures. Prolly just me bitching about the process. ;-)
Before I took all those lovely pictures, I nailed down some design ideas. And one shawl became two shawls. These will be full sized (not the teeny, shoulder shawl I just finished), but I do intend to make some smaller ones--prolly a lot more. They are better suited to the Texas climate. Anyhoo, two big shawls. One will be Scotland themed using this yarn:
Helen's Lace by Lorna's Laces in Gray's Corner.
The other shawl will be rose themed using this:
Cashwool by Baruffa in Pale Pink.
(I really ought to retake the yarns picture...a bit blah don't ya think?)
I'll most likely start the Scottish one first since the yarn is all set to go, wound up and excited. This is also the first proper yarn I bought...also the most expensive and special to me. And the Scottish design as been in my head for YEARS.
My mom thought I should add some celtic cables as well...that's an idea...
Well it's blocking. I don't consider it totally completely done until I can get nice pictures of the finished object (on Ravelry it shows 100%, but still shows "in progress")
It took me nearly two years to finish. Sigh. It's such a little shawl, too. But, I got seriously distracted quite a few times. Hee.
I didn't alter the basic pattern, just added beads. (Full on description when I get finished pics)
Alas it isn't for me. But I'll prolly make a Swallowtail for myself--I am itching to start another lace shawl-wonder if I'll be able to make it within a month. Part of me wants to just start now (I want to use some spare Claudia's Hand Painted Silk-from my Crayzee Scarf), then my guilty conscience is poking me. DESIGN!! You said that these two (the Adamas and this one) were your practise...now GET TO WORK!
If the light is good tomorrow and I feel up to pictures, I'll take some snazzy pictures of the scarf. (Not promising anything--this week's been rough.)
