Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Decisions, Decisions: A Short Harry Story

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.

16 comments:

Dave said...

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.)

Anonymous said...

I really like the blue!

Anonymous said...

Have to vote for the red. :)

Anonymous said...

Most definitely blue! :) Looking forward to seeing what you do with those charts, too!

lori said...

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.

Lori said...

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.

Anonymous said...

I like the blue best! Thanks for another Harry story.

Anonymous said...

Hi Fleegle and Harry,=)

I vote for blue too.

Anonymous said...

Hi Fleegle and Harry - Just love that blue - the red is lovely too but the blue wins !!

LadyLungDoc said...

I'm liking the blue as well.

Anonymous said...

I vote for the blue, but then I might biased. ;)

Lacefreak said...

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!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm going to have to weigh in for the red. I've seen it knit up and it makes BEAUTIFUL lace.

Lynn said...

Red, of course. Blue = ewwww, chez nous.

Anonymous said...

I definitely prefer the red, but mainly because it's easier to mix/match. Cool that you did that so we can see possibilities!

Experimental Knitter said...

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?