Despite the evidence of the past few months, there is still knitting going on at my house. And it is not all cupcakes. Anymore.
I knit a LOT of cupcakes, and ipod cozies, and cowls leading up to the craft fair in June. And I like knitting like that - small, satisfying projects - but it got a bit wearing. And now that I've got a new job starting in August (Did I mention that I found one? I'll give details in another post.), I'm not going to knit like that again. I just won't have time. I have re-opened my etsy shop, but just for a little while, until what I have is gone.
Once I was able to knit for myself again, I ignored anything that had been on the needles previously and hit Ravelry HARD looking for interesting patterns. I decided I may want to try my hand at a lace shawl. No, I've never worn a shawl in my whole life, but I don't see what that's got to do with it. I really want to make Laminaria, with this lovely bit of stash. It's a little, well, intimidating, so I did a little bit of practice:
This is the Go Fly a Kite shawl, in miniature. I had a teeny skein of baby alpaca from a local alpaca farm, and I figured I would try a triangular shawl, stopping whenever I ran out of yarn. I didn't quite stop the pattern soon enough to do the whole border (which was going to be really pretty, I could just tell), but I like how it came out anyway.
It's not particularly practical. The best way I could figure to wear it was around my neck, which looks a little Wild West to me. But, again, that's completely beside the point of knitting lace. The vibe I get from lace knitting is: impractical, but fascinating and lovely bordering on magical.
Also, it is IMPOSSIBLE to stop taking pictures of a lace project.
I did pick up my long-neglected Bubble pullover once I had gotten the shiny-new-project thing out of my system. (What, did you think I was going to start the bigger lace shawl at that point? Entirely too consistent.) It's decidedly less interesting than lace. It is an unphotogenic blue blob, growing slowly, slowly.
Which explains why I couldn't stay completely faithful to it. I have good excuse, though: charity knitting. The Slater Mill Knitting Guild is making the Great American Afghan, with different members doing different squares. My square was called Play Yard:
Those BOBBLES, oh. my. god. But the rest of it was very fun to do. :)
Now I just need to figure out what to bring camping in a couple of weeks . . . sigh, I missed selfish knitting!
|