Sometimes, The Dragon Wins

Most of us are familiar with this cartoon (or a variation thereof)--a contented and replete dragon resting against a tree, surrounded by inedible knightly bits. Clearly, the knight did not have a good questing day.

I feel for the poor knight. He invested a lot of time and energy tracking down the dragon, polishing armor, eating cold porridge, and making sure his white horse was spotless--only to end up as lunch.

Like the tragic knight, Harry spent a great deal of time, energy, and Colourmart cash/silk knitting the Bling shawl, only to cringe and scrabble away in horror when the thing was blocked out.

It's not a total failure, but attractive it is not. The only way Harry would show you a picture of it was if I draped it tastefully on a hanger...




... or applied Photoshop filters with a heavy hand. Below is the very first use I ever had for the spheroid and melty filters. Too bad I can't apply these filters to the actual shawl. I think the melty effect is rather charming.






Harry's off sulking now, Red Roxx earbuds firmly in place, tuned into Trance Radio. He can come out and snicker at my Triinu shawl. I ran out of yarn as I approached the edging. Of course, the new skein doesn't match. Perhaps now would be a good time to tune into Trance radio myself...

Insanity and Other Current Knitting

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein, (attributed)
US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

This behavior is exemplified by people who continually push elevator buttons in the hope of getting the elevator's undivided attention. Had you been in my kitchen a few weeks ago, you could have watched while I performed the knitting equivalent with the Blasted Triinu's Shawl.

The pattern calls for casting on 11 stitches. Which I did... over and over and over... because I couldn't get the first row to work out correctly. Turns out you need to cast on 12 stitches, but it took me an hour of Einsteinian insanity before I stopped and actually counted the required stitches for the first row. Jet lag. Um.

For some reason, the pattern doesn't gel for me--big leaves, small leaves, central leaves...



Without the help of this Yahoo group, I probably would have frogged the thing after ten rows. The Yahoo group also has information on ordering the pattern.

I am working it on #4 needles in Handmaiden Seasilk, mostly because I fell in love with the color, but also because I adore the way the stuff feels. My version will be quite a bit larger than the original, which was worked in a mystery laceweight.



In other news, I have finished all but the edging of the Bling shawl and decided I couldn't bear to work a knitted-on edging. I found an integrated edging in an old Burda book and I hope to be finished with it in a week or so. I want be done with this thing already.

And finally, I award a Platinum Star to Cashlana, a cashmere/merino sock yarn from Fleece Artist. This stuff has become my very favorite sock yarn--it is super-soft but still sproingy--an effortless knit. I am not wild about the color selection or the short color runs that result in Morse Code-esque socks, but the quality of the yarn is so fabulous that I can easily overlook (and overdye) this shortcoming.

More Bling!

Harry tossed his finished Bling shawl center at me this morning as he sashayed out of the house for his morning sauna/massage. He instructed me to photograph it (with feeling) and post the pictures and text (with alacrity). Since he is holding my ebony needles hostage, I must obey.

Here's a boring face-on shot of the center:

And a pseudo-arty shot so he can't accuse me of slighting his work...


Apparently, after crawling around the center for an hour or two, Harry is having second thoughts about the Really Wide Border. (Of course he is--he just can't leave well enough alone).

He says he might adapt the border of the Black Window Spider King for his Bling shawl. It's a more interesting knit and is slightly smaller, too. He pointed out that he might run out of yarn if he stuck with the original design and thus, I would have to go around begging for another cone of Colourmart's Japanese Maple cash/silk.

After thinking about it, I have to admit that Harry has a point. We already have the trapezoidal shape worked out and adapting the spectacular border to a triangle shape would provide an opportunity to fool around with the pattern yet again (fun!).

And finally, Harry says he absolutely refuses to endure the boredom of a knitted-on border, so he is in the throes of adapting an Estonian/ Icelandic/German border to suit the contemplated changes.


Does this litany of changes sound familiar? The gods of Shetland Knitting are poking out their eyes with tridents, lightning bolts, and swizzle sticks.

A Knitting Miscellany

A camel ride wasn't my only anniversary gift. I also received this magnificent hand-turned yarn bowl out of which balls (or pink flamingos) cannot leap...


...and a magnificent hand-turning ball winder from Nancy's KnitKnacks. I cannot overstate how fabulously quick and neat this unit turns skeins into shapely yarn cakes.



One of the disadvantages of skeins is that you can't actually do much with them besides admiring and squishing. So I filled a large bag from my stash and turn it over to Roy, who has been graciously exercising his winding arm. It was a rare treat to sit down for an entire afternoon and make little test swatches.

One of the swatches was so entrancing that it has since morphed into a new project I have named the Water Lily shawl. I think the pattern works beautifully with the soft variegation of Cheryl Schaefer's Andrea in the Minnie Pearl colorway.


In the meantime, I finished the center of the International shawl and worked my way up through most of the first border, an Estonian design (a modified #113 from Pitsilised Koekirjad). I was feeling like an especially hot-needle babe, until LaceFreak pointed out that my corners were not where they were supposed to be. I won't show you a picture of the poor shawl, which is currently underwater in the Frog Pond.

And finally, Harry handed me these pictures of his Bling shawl as he pranced out the door for his Swing Dancing class. Bling, Swing, AnnoyING.