Diversion

I've spent less than a month (?) spinning this with the same spindle I used to make my Shetland Shawl. I imagine that this went much more quickly since there is probably less yarn overall (though not too much) and because while spinning is simple to learn, it will take me a life time to master. I can finally spin a consistent lace weight yarn that I'm really pleased with, but I think this is only because I had a year of solid practice.

The next issue is what to do with this? I am trying to decide between something really lacy that will produce a lot of fabric but perhaps conceal the color changes, and something dense that will show the color changes better, but use yarn more quickly. Hummm. Looking at the skein this morning I think I will spin a bit more of the dark red anyway. This should provide ample stalling time for me to decide.

Errata

I decided to knit the Shetland Tea Shawl from A Gathering of Lace, which is in my top 3 all time favorite knitting books EVAR. However, as with many of the projects in the 1st edition of the book, there are problems with the charts. Then, I went to Ravelry last night to see what others came up with while they knitted their versions. One person pointed out that even in the PDFed Errata sheet there are errors! Oye.

I am stalling on Erin since I loathe fair isle knitting, and I have not knitted lace since June! I just wanted an easy project. I have knitted enough lace now that I can deal with it, and "read" the pattern to see if I'm effin it up as I go or not. But, this brings me to my morning praise for the [expensive] book "Heirloom Knitting." I picked up this book years ago for about 50 bucks! My friends, it is worth every piaster! I have knitted zillions of scarves from her motif library now, and never had a single problem with any of her charts. As I look over my Ravelry project page, I see that what I've put up there is a lot of original designs. I didn't realize that. By original, I mean took motifs from that wonderful book and put them together into garments that I truly treasure.

Perhaps I should have gone back to that book for a quick project. It pains me to admit that AG of L pisses me off as much as it inspires me...

Linen Shawl

I made this in 2003. It was the first lace I made properly. Until then I was making yarn-overs wrong, and my lace knitting wasn't very lacy at all. I remember the day I figured it out. We were at the Gamble House in Pasadena, and it was there in the car that I realized lace knitting really was supposed to be lacy.

I finished this shawl as I listened to NPR. George Bush was on the radio to announce that we were beginning the invasion of Iraq.