Indecisive!! Or What!!

Challenging Chart!

I am procrastinating again – well sort of – maybe not really – I am not sure!  I have been working on the Tidal Pools pattern and it almost there.  The charts for the lace are really challenging to write (not so much to knit).  The cockle shell pattern goes from 19 sts to 39 sts and the chart has not been making the grade.  My concentration is not really there this week and I have been making a lot of mistakes!

Dolce Vita scarves at Vogue Knitting Live!

I did start a new project that is a little out of my comfort zone!  I am creating a hat, sort of a “Cossack” styled winter topper.  I am using Dolce Vita from SMC select.  It is a wool loop yarn made for finger crochet.  It was one of the features on the Runway at the Vogue Knitting Live event in Los Angeles last weekend!

Using a crochet hook I am catching the loops up into single crochet to create a very wild hat band.  Crochet is quite out of my comfort zone – I am very awkward with the hook.  Once the band is done I will pick up the stitches and finish the crown with knitting.

One round done! Four more to go - or maybe five!

I want the hat to sit low on the forehead, just above the eyes and then cover the tips of the ears.  If there is enough yarn left over, and this idea works, I will probably make some mittens to match!

I have been working away on Irish.  There is about 1.5 inches left before I can divide for the sleeves.  This is the most boring part of the project and the rounds are very long.  It will go faster and keep me more motivated once I can see the sleeves taking shape!

Irish - not too far away from dividing up for the body and sleeves!

I had to find a longer circular yesterday, the 24 inch needle was starting to feel the stress of too many stitches Yarn Over has quite a lot of body.  My 32 inch circ was in another project – somewhere in my knitting room – now a catch-all for everything!  I wasn’t sure which project or which storage place.  It was quite a search!  I eventually found the needle in my Purple “Wrap”sody, a Merisoft project that I had started last year.  I think that when Irish is finished I will go back and finish off this one as well – I had forgotten how wonderful Merisoft feels!

Purple "Wrap"sody - under construction!

Purple “Wrap”sody is going to be a longer, wrap-style garment, sort of a boyfriend style sweater.  I want to knit it now!  Did you note that it was purple?

I did make a break-through on the chart this morning.  I should have the pattern finished tomorrow morning – barring any more issues with the charts!  I have three projects that I want to finish yesterday and I can’t make up my mind about anything!  Therefore nothing much is really getting accomplished!

Thank heavens that I can still type!  Or maybe I wouldn’t get any blogging done either!  Or maybe it is that I can still blather on about anything and everything, which is easier than making up my mind about anything else!

What is the state of your mind!

Happy Knitting

Lynette

The World is Mine Oyster!

After looking up the meaning and source of my title I am not sure I should use it!  Shakespeare is the source (I should have known) almost everything seems to source back to his work!  And the meaning is a little on the arrogant side – the riches of the world are at my feet and I can pick and choose what I want from them!

Come and Visit the Silk Road of China and the Middle East, Learn about the the patterns of Silk Carpets and translate those elements into Socks!

But as a knitter and/or designer today, the riches of the world are truly at our feet.

Through books and the internet we can view and then examine even more closely what other knitter, designers, and crafts people are creating.  From these sources we can pick and choose elements and then create our own versions of what we see.  Many knitting designers have created whole bodies of work based on ethnic history and fibre design elements that are not their own.  Nancy Bush – has opened our eyes to Estonian Knitting Styles, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts – she brought Eastern Socks to our sock repertoire, and Marianne Isager – has explored African and Japanese design elements in her books, are but a few of the designer names and cultures that they have explored, that spring to mind.

Visit the World through your books!

Yesterday I bought a new Sock Book – Knitting Socks From Around the World, Kari Cornell, editor.  It joins my other sock books, including Silk Road Socks, Ethnic Socks and Stockings and Around the World in Knitted Socks.  You can see the theme developing here and these are only the Sock books.

If I look through my knitting library I can see Japanese knitting books, Scandinavian knitting books, Estonian knitting books, Andean knitting books etc, etc, etc.  If I look beyond my library to the Internet, I can, at the touch of a button, explore other cultures at my leisure.

We have at our reach, thanks to the Internet, the contents of most of the worlds museums.  We can visit the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Smithsonian in Washington and the Louvre in Paris, just by typing a few words into our search engines and flying through the ether to see all the world has to offer!

Fabulous trip!

For knitters in particular, we have sites like Ravelry, and knitting blogs that allow us to connect with other knitters all over the World!  I have chatted on-line with knitters and fibre crafters from the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Chile.  Opportunities, like the Tea-Cozy Competition in Australia and the Vogue Magic of Mohair Design Competition were both brought to my attention by my internet friends!

I know that I want to travel and visit many of the museums and the countries that they are in, but now is not quite the time.  There is no substitution for the real experience of travel, but it has to be when the time is right.  Until then, visiting the museums, or chatting with friends on-line and reading my books will have to do!

Happy Knitting, Reading, Chatting, etc – the world is waiting at our leisure!

Lynette