A few weeks ago,I emailed Harry to see what he's been up to this winter.
He told me that he spent the winter knitting hats for everyone.
After he found most of his efforts adorning cabbages in the garden, he stormed off to the bathroom in a snit.
Not feeling very sociable after the hat debacle, he spent the rest of the winter making extensive renovations to his web. Although most of his concepts clearly missed the point of webness, he felt the creative flair would make up for the lack of practicality.
He could scarf some fly snacks from everyone else's boring, utilitarian webs while they were off slaving in the workshop.
After complimenting him on his originality, I suggested he cruise the laptop thoughtfully left under the table for something more, um, traditional.
His little heart is now set on completing Sharon Miller's Unst shawl for this year's exhibition, but he was having trouble deciding what yarn and color would work best with this exquisite design.
We hooked up a video conference and he did a virtual crawl through my stash.
Most of my puny pile received eight thumbs down, but he did like the the Dark Ruby Gentle from Yarn Place.
"Rich color," he said thoughtfully. "Goes well with my complexion. A bit too warm-colored for Unst, perhaps."
Harry dug deeper into the pile, falling fast asleep inside a skein of alpaca silk.
After an hour of snoozing, he resumed his perusal.
"I kind of like that Zephyr in Marine Blue," he said, "But the yarn is way too heavy for the Unst shawl."
"However, this Grignasco Merino/Silk is the perfect weight and it's almost as soft as spider silk, so do you think you could maybe get it dyed Marine Blue for me?"
We did some bickering that involved mosquito removal and web dispersal before my arrival, to which he agreed with rather good grace for a spider (that is to say, a bit snarfy).
Harry's yarn arrived the other day, and the blue is just stunningly gorgeous.
Still undecided, Harry did some Unst Photoshopping and emailed me two pictures:
Harry asked me to post his pictures and see if his eagle-eyed audience might weigh in with their opinions.
In the meantime, he's now busy designing another Shetland shawl. Here's a snip of the center:
And a bit of a border:
He's still fooling with it, but we'll both keep you posted.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Decisions, Decisions: A Short Harry Story
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16 comments:
Blue, definitely. (And what a gorgeous blue it is!) Because blue would indeed go better with Harry's eyes. Or facets, or whatever spiders have instead of eyes.)
I really like the blue!
Have to vote for the red. :)
Most definitely blue! :) Looking forward to seeing what you do with those charts, too!
Harry's been a busy boy. Glad to hear he's had a productive winter. His web designs are quite something. So, about the shawl colors. You just knew it'd be me with the dissenting opinion, didn't you? The blue IS totally gorgeous. But. It's very, er, blue, which is, in fact, the point of a blue yarn, but a bit distracting from the actual knitted bits. I was too busy thinking, "Wow. It's blue," to pay much attention to the pattern. On the other hand, the ruby is a bit 'cinnamony,' but doesn't distract from the knitting as much. That's a big shawl, and I just think the blue might over-power, well, everything in it's path. But it will be easier for us to pick up on covert ops.
Hmmm, I love red shawls as a rule (and red shoes too!) but for the Unst I'd have to say the blue catches my interest. Looking forward to seeing it take shape, whatever color Harry picks.
I like the blue best! Thanks for another Harry story.
Hi Fleegle and Harry,=)
I vote for blue too.
Hi Fleegle and Harry - Just love that blue - the red is lovely too but the blue wins !!
I'm liking the blue as well.
I vote for the blue, but then I might biased. ;)
Both colors look great but the blue really did stand out when Harry photo-shopped it. Maybe he can use the red with the shawl he's designing!
Wow, I'm going to have to weigh in for the red. I've seen it knit up and it makes BEAUTIFUL lace.
Red, of course. Blue = ewwww, chez nous.
I definitely prefer the red, but mainly because it's easier to mix/match. Cool that you did that so we can see possibilities!
I'm going to be contrary here and ask, why not a color you can where with everything, Harry? Going to all that trouble to make that Unst shawl, won't you want to wear it with pride all the time? I know I would. Of course, I've made shawls in banana ice, cinnamon, and deep teal, so who am I to talk?
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