This will be my last post for February, which has been a quiet month anyway, at least in terms of finishing things.
I don't need to finish objects, there are more than enough things in my life as it is. Nonetheless there are quite a few piles here and there, and various ideas floating about that may or may not be beginning to shape themselves into tangible form. The creative fog is itself refreshing, and not limited to any particular medium at this point. I am dreaming of gardens and food, embroidery, sewing, knitting, color, texture form. It will all sort itself out in its own time.
I have managed to finish one thing, a simple scarf sewn up from a navy/blue/black sweater knit. This piece had been languishing in a stack for a long while. I had a sweater made from this fabric when I still lived in Hyde Park, but it has long since been worn to threads. I don't remember my original intentions for the remaining piece, but lately I keep looking at it, thinking "That will make a nice scarf someday" and then putting it aside. Well someday arrived. I honestly don't know why I had been putting this off, perhaps thinking I might have a more interesting idea. But interesting is sometimes overrated. And a scarf in hand is always good.
On the knitting front I've gone from working on one project (Ausma) to having three projects on the needles.
One is a rayon ribbon cardigan, that I love but which is proving to be a slow project. I had started this once before but had trouble keeping the yarn from twisting. I felt like I was spending more time untwisting the yarn than I was knitting. I ripped and began again after pressing all the twisted ribbon I had already knitted back into smooth silky shape.
I figured out that a ball, even a carefully hand wound ball, didn't work for me. Somehow, while knitting, I would twist the yarn even more. I came up with the idea of winding the yarn on a spindle of sort, using an embroidery frame as the spindle. This is tedious and time consuming, and each skein must be wound on the spindle painstakingly. That means the interruptions between knitting each skein becomes tedious. More tedious in fact, because the skeins themselves are twisted and tangled. Each new skein has to be slowly unwound, ironed, and slowly wrapped onto the spindle.
I do not believe the tangling is the manufacturer's fault. This yarn has been packed and unpacked multiple times, and treated non-too-kindly I fear. I take full responsibility even as I mutter under my breath while standing (not) patiently at the ironing table. Although I love the actual knitting, and the pattern is both simple and entertaining, the pressing and winding is far less exciting. It will be some time before this sweater is done, and most of that time will not be knitting time.
The ribbon project is not portable, so I needed something I could tote around with me. Enter socks. I'm not far along yet, but far enough that the sock is stable enough for traveling about. The yarn is a self striping yarn from Urth Yarns called Uneek Sock and I am knitting them on size 1 needles. The skein pictured is enough for one sock.
Feeling in need of more mindless knitting time to balance both the annoyances of ribbon flattening, and the fog of creative dreaming, I also started another fairly straightforward project, an assigned-pooling sweater using BFL fingering yarn from Barker Wool. The pattern is from Barker Wool as well and is called A Murder of Crows. I've just started this as well, so I don't have much to report. I am having fun with it so far. I really need a loose comfy sweater to just throw on all the time around the house and studio and I am hoping this will be the one.
Anyway, I hope the remainder of February is kind, and I will see you in March
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