When last I deigned to be here, I was moaning about not finishing my Hanging Garden Stole....well, voila!
On the first day of my vacation (way back in August), I soaked this baby in the sink, spun it in the washer to get the water out, and blocked it on my living room floor with blocking wires. (I know that using the washer as my spin dryer horrifies some folks, but I put the piece in a "delicates" bag, and watched very carefully.) Though I expected the blocking wires to be a major pain in my rear, they were not, the thing blocked beautifully. It is about 24 inches wide and 84 inches in length. Seeing this confused my husband, who thinks I'm a lunatic anyway, but he wisely refrained from mentioning the knitted piece lying in our living room. You can't tell from this photo, but there are "tiny tim" (4mm x 6mm, tear drops) heliotrope beads on the ends, and druk (round) heliotrope beads throughout. Heliotrope beads are blue with a silvery wash. Very pretty.
You can see the "tiny tims" better here.
And the druks here!
Hanging Garden Stole, Sivia Harding pattern
KP Alpaca Cloud (3 skeins) laceweight in (I think) Tidepool
For more experienced lace knitters this is probably a slide on ice. For me it became a slog. I think it was the laceweight. But I do love the finished product. I ended up using TWO lifelines at a time. Because it was a 40 row repeat, each time I hit rows 20, 30, etc. I added a life line.
I then decided to concentrate on finishing my Ribbi Cardi (another Bonne Marie creation), and started a moebius (yes, another) in Apple Laine for my cousin. Let me tell you about my cousin. She is about 10 years older than me, I was a piss ant kid and she was a teenager. Now she's in her sixties (early, I'm not ancient yet). She takes care of both her mom (my Aunt Monica) and MY mom, her aunt (Monica's sister). All I'll say about this woman is that she is going STRAIGHT to heaven. No questions asked! None. Nada. To take care of two elderlyish ladies is something that leaves me in awe.
None of us siblings live near my mother. We're all about 2 - 3 hours away by car. So, close enough that we can hot foot it home if she needs help, but far enough that we can't drop in for dinner. So this cousin sometimes does things like driving said mother to appointments and things when she can't drive herself. (You know, pupil dilation, sedation etc.) So I started the moebius so I could send her something to thank her. She needs to know that she is appreciated now, and doesn't have to wait for the "big escalator" to the sky.
So I started the moebius on said August vacation. Worked on it for about a week. It made great car knitting because it was round and round and round (and round), and when I wasn't contemplating how I was going to murder my DH and hide the body (his putzing around made us way late for a concert that was about 90 minutes from home, we did make the wine and cheese reception though), I was knitting. Then on my birthday, my second day back at work, I began to feel "yucky", I had to go out of town on business, the next day, and by the end of the week, yoi! I just happened to get an appointment with a PA in the doc's office to look at a mysterious "rash" on my legs (you really don't want to know), and they found that I had a low grade fever. Clearly, I was failing. The reason this is important is because by Saturday night my low grade fever was going up to a full blown fever. I spent a glorious (weatherwise) Sunday, sleeping, and when I dragged my carcass out of bed to make me some tea, I sat down with my moebius, and promptly discovered that I screwed it up. If you've ever knit one of this babies, you'd discover, that while it is a simple knit, it a mess if you drop a stitch. And this is a lacy pattern. (Damn that Viggo Mortenson!) I ended up spending about an hour trying to retrace my steps, and then pulled the whole mess out. This is also a chore with a moebius, by the way. Ten days later I am NEARLY back to where I was. Sometimes I knit fast, sometimes I'm positively glacial. But it's the journey, right?
Anyway, I'm hoping to finish this piece sometime this week/weekend. Then a photo shoot. You've seen it before, and the color is reminiscent of the silk one I did a year ago. I love to knit them, but they take forever. You cast on 181 stitches and you are effectively knitting 360 in each round. Who knew. I am still on second sleeve island on the Ribbi.
One last thing. I'm not watching the conventions with any real attention, or at all really. Kool aid drinkers patting each other on the back have no real attraction for me. I watch O'Reilly occasionally for the "high/low lights", but feh....reruns of the Office are better. However, I was home last Friday when the Palin nomination was announced, and I couldn't help grinning. I had seen the ad from McCain, congratulating Obama on his historic nomination, and all I could think was he (McCain) knew, that less than 24 hours later, he'd be announcing an equally historic nomination. It knocked Obama out of the swooning news cycles. (The other thing I found interesting was that the first comment from the Obama campaign was "She has no experience." Huh? "Pot, kettle, kettle, pot?" That's all you got?)
Anyway, central casting couldn't have come up with a better character than this women. Can you just imagine the conversation? "We need a traditional conservative, female or minority, who doesn't press their views, fights corruption, doesn't stand on ceremony, and is an independent thinker. Portfolio experience more important than specific experience. Maybe this person should have "real life" experiences too." I don't know if it will work out, but it is truly a brilliant strategy. Me? Cynical?
1 comment:
I was warned about knitting lace while watching hockey. I didn't realize Viggo was as equally dangerous.
You? Cynical? Naaaah… I call it realistic.
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