Saturday, May 05, 2007

Patience is a Virtue (Who am I kidding?)







I have to give you guys a lot of credit. If you want to watch speed knitting you are looking in the wrong blog. Because of my woeful inability to focus my attention on one task and finish it, you are forced to witness progress in tiny bites over multiple shawls. It's only gotten worse with menopause (or as we like to refer to it in my family, mean-o pause). With the demise of most of my hormones I find that I just run off and do whatever I want to whenever I want to. My inner-childish whispers in my head, "Bored with knitting Spider Queen? Well what the heck, lets knock off a row of the Wedding Ring Shawl!" and off we go "Wheee!" the roller coaster of lace knitting, that's me, and you all get to come along for the ride.
See above. I've finished 4 repeats of Spider Queen and have 1 and a third pattern repeats to go to finish the center. I am not doing the original border or edge so I can't really call it a "true" Spider Queen" after that. What will she do? you ask. Hell if I know. I will likely just take the border from another shawl pattern and modify it for Spider Queen. I've been looking at the border for the Unst Shawl and the one for the Christening Robe, both in Sharon Miller's, "Heirloom Knitting" book. I think I will deep-six the idea of having an actual "crown" in the border. I just haven't found one I like. I am up to row 142 of Boundary Waters Shawl's border (it goes to 171) and it's looking pretty nice with only one error that I fixed. I don't know about all of you, but I almost never have 100% error-free knitting. I usually have one or two Homer Simpson "good enough" fixes in them and only really sharp-eyed knitters can find them. Most people just enjoy the eye candy. And lastly, I'm up to row 20 of WRS. Not as nice stitch definition as misslacefayes because of my choice in yarn but still pretty nice by my standards. I have some nice cashmere/silk from ColourMartUK that I want to try and I know I will get nice clear stitches with that.
Speaking of ColourMartUK, they now have their own store/shop outside of their store on E-Bay which you can go to by clicking the hyperlink. I have to confess that I have purchased yet more laceweight yarn on that site even though I'm sure I will likely die before knitting all the stuff up that I already have.
In order to feel a little less like I'm hoarding, I have de-stashed a lot of my non lace related yarn (I used to do a lot of cable knitting) by giving it away to new knitters in my family. It's really good yarn since I have always bought nice yarn and there is no guilt at all when you give it away because you know they will love it and use it. I've seen several sweaters and scarves walking around in my ex-yarn and they look darned good! On top of that, I have high hopes to give away even more yarn as two more co-workers at my job have expressed a desire to either learn to knit or to have help to re-start knitting. For actual newbie's I usually bring nice yarn and some of my own circular needles to teach them. I don't have them buy anything at first because if they hate it, then they haven't wasted any money. Also, it's easier to "quality control" the yarn if you bring something you would use. Once they have knit with "good", it's much more difficult for them to justify buying cheap yarn. I have nothing against yarn that is inexpensive vs cheap. Cheap yarn feels bad in the hands and knits up worse. It creates a negative learning experience to knit with bad yarn. Inexpensive yarn may still be quite nice but cost-effective. In any case, I think something she can knit on a US 8 or US 9 is in order and Voila! you have an instant de-stash opportunity. I think I will stop now while I can still kid myself that I'm being virtuous. Good Night and Good Knitting!

11 comments:

Pinneguri said...

It's not for your knitting we are here (at least, not I ;/), but your stories. I just love the way you write.
This time I picked up this line for some extra thoughts:
even though I'm sure I will likely die before knitting all the stuff up that I already have.

Well, a little bit because your laceknitting is beautiful. Also :)

Lacefreak said...

Dear blaggdama,

Thank you visiting and reading this blog of mine. I enjoy writing it and love hearing from everyone who is checking in on my progress. My sister-in-law has told me that she likes to read my blog "Because it sounds just like the way you talk." It's nice for me whenever someone comments and I'm glad if some of what I post gives you something to think about. Happy Knitting!

Anonymous said...

I'm working on my first project with cobweb weight yarn (or I think it's cobweb - Yarn Place "Graceful" 2400yds/100gm) and messed up a couple times in the beginning. If I was working with thicker yarn I would have tried to do nice fixes, but instead did what you call "Homer Simpson" fixes. It makes me feel better about it that someone (YOU) more accomplished than I in this lace stuff does the same thing. I am quite positive no one else will ever see the mistakes because they're mind-boggled by the whole finished project.

fleegle said...

Random knitting means that we get to see lots of different eye candy. so keep it up!

I like the idea of the Unst border for the Spider Queen. What will you call it? You can't have the name Spider King, so perhaps Spider Emperor or Spider Maharajah? Or, you could jump ship altogether and call it Jane's Shawl :)

fleegle said...

Hi Jane--

The dyelot on the black Gentle is 238/3. I will let you know later this week if there are more knots in this ball. Thanks so much!

What's with their web site, anyway?

Lacefreak said...

Dear Megan A.

Yes, I do think your yarn would qualify as "cobweb weight" yarn and I think you and Homer Simpson will become very very good friends! I know he's one of my best friends LOL! I also feel if anyone is annoying enough to point out errors in your knitting that you must already know about, that they are people to avoid in the future. As for my knitting, thank you for the praise but if you want to see really impressive knitting you should check out Laritza, missalicefaye and fleegle (see side bar). They really make the needles sing! They take it to another level in my humble opinion. It's always nice to strive for perfection if that's your thing. If I ever made a perfect Shetland Lace gossamer shawl I'd be very proud, but it's not essential to my well-being :-) Just knitting the lace is enough for me. The ranks of lace knitters may not be vast, but we are a determined lot! Welcome and Good Knitting!

Lacefreak said...

Dear fleegle,

I'm all about bringing the pretty whenever I can :-) Glad my being somewhat random in my approach is not too off-putting. As for re-naming the shawl, I'm not sure yet. Perhaps "Spider Mutant"? Yeah. That has a nice ring to it! Yarn Place has your dye-lot (check your blog messages) Let me know how you want to handle it!

fleegle said...

I do love Spider Mutant. It has a more interesting ring than Spider Variation!

Can you find out how much she will charge for shipping to Japan? Please thank her and yourself for all this trouble!

Lacefreak said...

Dear fleegle,

Got your E-mail and I'm glad to hear that you are not running into more knots so far. I will cross my fingers (though it's hard to knit that way) and hope you will not need more yarn. Never Fear, If you do, you know now it can be arranged. Yarn Place is keeping track of your progress!

missalicefaye said...

I'm with Fleegle--I like seeing bits of lots of different things. But then, I'm always ordering the sampler platters in restaurants, too. :)

Lacefreak said...

Dear missalicefaye,

Happy to provide you with a little something to look at then! A buffet of lace for all!