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On the way home from MDSW, I realised with a start that the following weekend was Mother’s Day and, having just finished and falling in love with my cobbled-together version of Mary-Heather’s Simple Things shawlette, I decided to quickly knit one up for my mum.
I cast on the next day, using the Rumba yarn I’d picked up at MDSW and knit as fast as two demanding toddlers would let me. Big needles (8mm) helped it move along quickly, and I finished it just in time.
Unlike the previous version, I loved this yarn, loved the way the deep raspberry colour melted into the caramel brown. And I kept asking myself if Mum wouldn’t really be perfectly happy with a hastily bought bottle of perfume…? But I was a good daughter and gave it away on the Sunday. Mum was suitably delighted, which softened the blow.
I note, however, that she hasn’t worn it once so far — never mind that the weather has never dipped below 70 since — and if I don’t see it round her neck soon, I may be stealing it back!
I love the way the yarn overs came out using bigger needles. There’s something really graphic about the big stitches, the big holes. It looks to me a little like this scarf has a spine… looks a bit like the skeleton of a dinosaur in the natural history museum. That’s really weird, but I kinda like it!
As I said when I started this blog, I never finish anything, knitting-wise. I have hundreds, thousands… nay, millions of unfinished projects lurking in dark corners of the house, all hoping that the sun will shine on them again one day. It’s just get so excited by trying new things — new stiches, new patterns, new shaping, new yarn — that it’s impossible to resist until I’ve finished whatever I’m currently working on, and I find myself casting on something new — just to see — before the current project is even cool on the needles. And that’s ok, because I don’t knit for the final product — I’m a process knitter. It matters less to me to be that I come away with something at the end than that I just enjoy the knitting. The click-clack of the needles, and feel of the yarn in my hands, the smell of the wool, and the rhythm of the stitches… That’s what it’s about for me.
But when I saw Mary-Heather’s Simple Things shawlette, I wanted it. I wanted it. And that was a strange sensation — and one I didn’t trust. But I realised the project was small enough and quick enough that I might actually have a shot at getting it done before I moved on, like a drifter, to the next shiny thing that caught my eye.
No pattern available yet, but I studied Mary-Heather’s photos and reckoned I could work out at least a good approximation of the pattern. And so I looked through my stash for some decent yarn to try it out with, and cast on.
The funny thing is, I didn’t like the yarn as I was knitting. I wasn’t sure I liked it in the ball, but the more I knit with it, the less I liked it. The colours jarred. And pooled. It felt scratchy. It was too marroon-y, and I didn’t like the yellow or the orange bits. Time and again I thought to myself that I would just rip it all out and start over with another yarn… but I never had one to hand at that moment, so I carried on.
I finished it on the way home from MDSW and here’s the crazy thing about this scarf: as soon as I put it on, I loved the yarn. Loved it! Couldn’t stop looking at it! Then I took it off and looked at it and… I didn’t like it. Put it back on, and loved it… Took it off again, and didn’t like it.
And, I still don’t like it. Until I put it on — and then I love it. I just totally don’t get that.
You might think I’d not been doing anything, but I have — I just haven’t been talking about it much. In fact, I’d rather let the pictures do the talking…
I finally dug my wheel out of the moving boxes. Here’s the result: handspun Merino top from Stony Mountain Fibers…
I’ve also been doing a lot of spinning on the beautiful spindle that Sheila at Journeywheel picked for me. Here’s my first attempt at plying on a spindle…
Here’s the chunky jacket I was designing for my daughter, using Creme Puff yarn from Decadent Fibers, and it was going fantastically when… when… I realised I can’t find the second skein!!! It wasn’t in the moving box I thought it was, and the garage is full to bursting with boxes… it could be in any of them! This has been quite a blow, and I have completely lost my knitting mojo. I just can’t find anything I feel like knitting now…
And here’s the Debbie Bliss baby cardigan I was working on. It’s come out so lovely, and I am really pleased with it.
Really, this cardi should have had an unhappy ending, because my daughter would have surely outgrown it long before I finished it, if it weren’t for the beating she’s taken from her food allergies that stopped her growing for seven months. Getting her diagnosed and managing her condition has been a really difficult experience for her and for me, but the silver lining is that she stayed small enough that this cardi fits her perfectly now! It feels a bit sacriligious to say that though…
