I’ve learned something about myself recently. Okay, I may have already known this little tidbit but I’d forgotten and needed to experience it again apparently.
I should not knit the same project repeatedly.
My first Generations was fast and fun, but following it by casting on a second one was pure crazy. A girl needs some diversion, some variety, some little nugget of naughtiness.
I’ve sworn off starting a new project because honestly – I need my second Generations to show the pattern, because well – I sold the green one. Yep, I sold it. People at the farmers market kept asking how much and I tossed out a price based on the amount of hours I spent working on it and it now belongs to another person. The great thing is that Generations now belongs to someone totally knit-worthy. “She gets it.” She gets that it is hand-dyed yarn, she gets that it is local yarn, she likes the softness and the pattern. Really – I’m pretty happy that this non-knitter is going to wear some of my lace.
But – back to that naughtiness. No I haven’t started a new project but I did pull out a UFO and knit one row. That’s it. One row. What project? That would be the Icarus Shawl that I began forever ago in some of my early hand-dyed llama yarn.
There’s not much to show off. A blob of pale blue gray llama – a blob of pale lavender merino. With lace knitting the magic happens in the blocking. What was a blob becomes a thing of beauty with a little help from cold water, pins, wires, a foam mat, and an hour spent on your knees stretching, pinning, and measuring.The large version of Generations is half finished and I expect it will be done in another week to ten days. It is lovely and soft and worth petting. I’m madly in love with this yarn. There is enough yarn in a single skein of Oak Barn Merino to knit 17 repeats of the chart but it I’m expecting to keep this one and will probably only knit 12-14 repeats to keep it a reasonable size for me.
I’m on the final chart of Icarus and the rows are long. They’re nearly mindless and even though I haven’t touched it since last fall the pattern was instantly familiar. I’m planning (as if that ever works) on only knitting one row on Icarus per day – or maybe only one row every other day, therefore keeping the naughtiness down to small nuggets. It’s like good chocolate I tell myself. It can’t hurt you if you only eat one little square of rich dark chocolate every few days. In fact – it’s good for you right?
