It's been a year and two months since I learned to knit, and I am not a scaredy-cat knitter, either. I keep pushing myself to try more complex projects with ever-wackier stitches all the time. Hardly a day goes by when I don't take a couple (or three) hours to zone out and knit. I have made something for everyone and their dog (literally), but nothing for myself. And that's included four tea cozies, two tank tops, one afghan, a baby blanket, two pairs of baby booties, a baby sweater, ten scarves, three hats, two shawls, six bags, and four DOG SCARVES (to go with the ones I made for their masters) ... and one sweater that I frogged after completing 7/8 of it. That's another story altogether, though.
That's about to change: I signed on for the Spring Shawl Surprise KAL, then got caught up knitting for everyone else. While swatching for the Secret of the Stole ii (which is for Claire), I stopped mid-stitch, right in the middle of the swatch, and thought "WAIT A MINUTE!
MAKE SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF, STUPID!" Yes, I was screaming inside my own head. It was pretty scary. So I decided to get with the program and start the Spring Surprise Shawl in the gorgeous Malabrigo Lace "Geranio" that I'd just received a week earlier in a cute little box from Personal Threads.
Personal Threads is a brick and mortar yarn shop in Omaha, Nebraska. Through the never-ending stream of information gleaned on one of the Ravelry boards, I found out they were having a sale on darn near everything. And they shipped. Best Surprise of the New Year So Far: They are quick shippers. I received an online order acknowledgment in less than half an hour and had the cute little box from them in my hot hands in less than five days, standard shipping. Woo hoo! The store must be huge, because they seem to have everything under the sun, in a dizzying array of colors and in decent quantities. I highly recommend checking them out. I don't know if I'll ever get to Omaha, but if I do, I'm making a beeline for this place. End of personal yarn store endorsement.
Back to the Spring Shawl Surprise: This shawl isn't for the faint of heart, but not impossible, either. It's a challenge. One just has to remember to breathe in, breathe out, and use a lot of lifelines. It has patterning on both sides. There are no 'resting rows', no mindless purling or stockinette to fill a lot of space. No, this is punishing stuff, row after row of YO's combined with k2tbl stuff or p3tbl, among other tricky athletic and acrobatic knitting maneuvers. Eeeek! 138 stitches in width and ultimately 570 rows, the first two clues of 88 rows reveal a beautiful, open, lacy extravaganza with an elaborate lace medallion border knit right into the pattern, mitering up the sides (no picking up and knitting at the end), and a large, rococo medallion just beginning to show a curve in clue 2. This one's for me. For making all those tea cozies, scarves, hats, tops, shawls, headbands, bags, baby gifts, and dog scarves. Oh, I'm still working on things for everyone else: Secret of the Stole ii for Claire, and the Mrs. Darcy Cardigan for Liz top the list. I'm just working this into the lineup, and stopped putting myself last on the list. That's my resolution for 2008.
So there.
That's about to change: I signed on for the Spring Shawl Surprise KAL, then got caught up knitting for everyone else. While swatching for the Secret of the Stole ii (which is for Claire), I stopped mid-stitch, right in the middle of the swatch, and thought "WAIT A MINUTE!
MAKE SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF, STUPID!" Yes, I was screaming inside my own head. It was pretty scary. So I decided to get with the program and start the Spring Surprise Shawl in the gorgeous Malabrigo Lace "Geranio" that I'd just received a week earlier in a cute little box from Personal Threads.Personal Threads is a brick and mortar yarn shop in Omaha, Nebraska. Through the never-ending stream of information gleaned on one of the Ravelry boards, I found out they were having a sale on darn near everything. And they shipped. Best Surprise of the New Year So Far: They are quick shippers. I received an online order acknowledgment in less than half an hour and had the cute little box from them in my hot hands in less than five days, standard shipping. Woo hoo! The store must be huge, because they seem to have everything under the sun, in a dizzying array of colors and in decent quantities. I highly recommend checking them out. I don't know if I'll ever get to Omaha, but if I do, I'm making a beeline for this place. End of personal yarn store endorsement.
Back to the Spring Shawl Surprise: This shawl isn't for the faint of heart, but not impossible, either. It's a challenge. One just has to remember to breathe in, breathe out, and use a lot of lifelines. It has patterning on both sides. There are no 'resting rows', no mindless purling or stockinette to fill a lot of space. No, this is punishing stuff, row after row of YO's combined with k2tbl stuff or p3tbl, among other tricky athletic and acrobatic knitting maneuvers. Eeeek! 138 stitches in width and ultimately 570 rows, the first two clues of 88 rows reveal a beautiful, open, lacy extravaganza with an elaborate lace medallion border knit right into the pattern, mitering up the sides (no picking up and knitting at the end), and a large, rococo medallion just beginning to show a curve in clue 2. This one's for me. For making all those tea cozies, scarves, hats, tops, shawls, headbands, bags, baby gifts, and dog scarves. Oh, I'm still working on things for everyone else: Secret of the Stole ii for Claire, and the Mrs. Darcy Cardigan for Liz top the list. I'm just working this into the lineup, and stopped putting myself last on the list. That's my resolution for 2008.
So there.
Woo-hoo! Shall we sit together and curse at my least favorite stitch, the P2togtbl?
ReplyDeleteGood for you for putting yourself first! For 2008 I made the same resolution, that I would actually knit for ME for once. Oh and choosing malabrigo for your first ME project was smart. Have fun!
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