You know that you live in the Deep South when it’s December and most of your WIPs are lace projects; the rest of the United States (except maybe Hawaii) probably stopped knitting lace back in September. But around here, we’re rather funny that way.
Kodama No. 4 is progressing without event (for the full tale of peril and high-stakes adventure, see A Shawl Story); it’s getting too big for the circular needle, which is always a joyful sign. I have 14 days max to finish this, but surprisingly I am not feeling desperate yet (not that I won’t be feeling desperate about 10 days from now). But sufficient to the day is the trouble thereof.
At some point after pursuing knitting as a business, I suddenly realized that all of my projects had become work (ie; for profit) and that all commissions, sample knitting, and swatching had to come to a grinding halt on Saturday night. With that in mind I inaugurated the practice of having a ‘rest’ project for Sundays, either a gift or a personal project. It’s an incredibly productive and yet, well, restful habit and helps this workaholic to get her mind off of deadlines.
I’ve been nibbling away at English Ivy by Kalurah Hudson (which was published alongside my Fenestra Shawl in Sojourn: A Knit Lace Collection earlier this year; they’re next door to each other in the book!) for several months now. With only working on it once a week, the pattern repeat took a little while to memorize but it’s coming along nicely; it’s also a great conversation piece, as quite a few people have asked to look at it and tried to figure out what the motif represents.
Quite a few people have asked if it’s a spider, which is a neat way of looking at it; I like it, whatever it is! It should be ready to gift to its intended recipient by the new year; but probably not before, because…
I’ve picked up another Sunday project.
This is Miramis by Nim Teasdale. This year I’ve been participating peripherally as a knitter in the Indie Design Giftalong on Ravelry; I did not qualify as a participating designer, but it’s been a good opportunity to observe the event culture and see whether it would be a good fit for Red Earth Designs in future years. I’ve been admiring this pattern since it was released and finally snagged it this past week. I’m using a hank of Knit Picks Shadow Lace yarn (now discontinued) in Vineyard Heather; it’s my voice teacher’s favorite color and I think she’ll be getting a lace shawl for Christmas this year! My camera had trouble picking up the richness of the color in the mid-morning light; the picture at the end of this post shows it more accurately.
Twisted stitches aren’t the most common design element in laceweight projects, but Nim knew what she was doing; they add just enough texture and visual interest to the plain body of the shawl, and they make the design stand out from the crowd.
But there were four balls of yarn in the first photo, weren’t there?
This is a for-work project; the pattern will be coming out some time next year. Every time I photograph it the color looks a little different—the hand-dyed color has so much depth and variation. It’s the richest, most lively shade of navy blue I’ve ever used (and I love navy).
Well, as Porky taught us—that’s all, folks! Do excuse me, as I have a lot of knitting to do…
