Monday, June 27, 2005
Another week off . . .
Well, I finished the black shawl all but an edging. I'm still picturing something with beads, but don't know what yet. Suggestions? I've got blue baby wool for that baby cardi,
and have graphed out my grandson's babe magnet pullover, but haven't started either of them yet. Someone (thank you, J & S!) gave me a HUGE tapestry canvas sans tapestry wool mais avec brand new stretcher frame to keep me occupied, one of those incredible yard sale finds and a lovely winter log cabin kind of scene. However, its one of those 5-year long projects, not a 2-weeks-between-classes project. I can stitch pretty quick, but not THAT quick!I've spent more time READING than KNITTING this past week -- must have been due to the rain? Maybe the coming week will be more creative than lazy!
Monday, June 20, 2005
Woo hoo! Time for knitting again!
My exams are finished, and I have two weeks off until classes resume! Yay! So I promptly spent a couple of evenings finishing off my fuschia cable-rib socks, the little black bolero, and the red Smart Superwash child's sweater (with a matching teddy bear ensemble ~ thanks for the encouragement, Tracy!) Always nice to weed down the UFOs in the basket, yes? funny part is, I only seem to weed down the top layers!
So I picked up the latest issue of Creative Knitting one day last week. I wasn't terribly impressed with the first issue I saw of this magazine, but its definately growing on me. I thought the Hugs & Kisses
Ponchette (pages 64/65, July 2005) was too cute for words, as well as a great way to use up some bits and odds of wool in my knitting basket. It only took a couple of hours to knit up the 12 months size in unplanned stripes of different pastels and alternating rows of stocking and reverse stocking stitch. Naturally, I can't simply follow a pattern as is . . . I added a very short fringe on the bottom and a pompom at the point of the hood . . . just because! With a couple of layers gone from the knitting basket, I realized I still had several skeins of fine soft black handspun, and had once envisioned it in some kind of shawl. This same July 2005 issue of Creative Knitting has a nice shawl pattern ("Love" Affair . . . elegant enough for a blushing bride, this timeless shawl is sure to become a cherished heirloom) on pages 56/57, so I knitted a bit of it with my black handspun. I liked the looks of it and the feel of it, so now have about 18 inches from the bottom point knitted. I don't think I want a knitted lace edging on it though, and I'm quite sure I don't have enough handspun to knit the lace edging. I'm picturing crocheted mesh edging? Maybe something with black beads? I'll have to think on that one more.
Now before you shake your heads too many times about this BLACK phase I seem to be going through . . . let me point out that I although I like black, I do wear lots of different colours and my favourite colours are most definately the shades of autumn! As I sit here writing this, I am wearing a positively vibrant CORAL teeshirt with white capris and shocking FUSCHIA Birkenstocks, and you can't get much farther from black than that! (Did I mention Lady Clairol and I have recently brightened up my red hair too?) I do not have a Johnny Cash complex (although I like his music a lot), and I'm not into Gothic. The fact that wool in my knitting basket is black is usually purely coincidental because I tend to choose yarns for how they feel rather than how they look! All that aside, I have (as do my family members) an odd sense of humor, and knitting a bridal shawl in black strikes me as deliciously perverse!
While out walking last Saturday, I came across a closing-out sale, and picked up a few pretty wooden beads to make some more beaded stitch markers (I might be getting proficient enough to actually trade some someday) as well as picked up wool to start my grandson's "babe magnet" pullover. I've also just had a request to knit something for my friend's "on-the-way" great-nephew . . . yay! baby knitting! my absolute favourite task! I think the next two weeks is going to be a little short to get everything done, don't you? And isn't that always the way it is for us creative knitting folks?
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