Knit Sisters

(With apologies to Dorothy Allison)

1.  Rumpelstiltskin is coming along very, very nicely.

The pattern repeats seem to go quite quickly, especially since, unlike Handsome, the stitch count on each row stays the same.  Amazing what a difference that makes–when you’re not increasing out the wazoo every other row.  (To say nothing of that ruffle.)  I am now up to sixteen repeats out of thirty-nine.

2.  I have strep throat.  (Just thought I’d throw that in there.)

3.  I purchased a basket at Tuesday Morning the other day, thinking to use it for a knitting basket.

Doesn’t that look nice and almost gift-basket-like?  Like I actually planned what to put in there instead of just toodling around my apartment picking up random knitting and spinning supplies and dropping them in?  I can only put it down to the innate loveliness of knitting and spinning supplies–certainly not any special skill or forethought on my part.

4.  (Yeah, I know I’m over my limit of three things now, but what the hell.)  I wore the Handsome Triangle yesterday while I was out and about (to the doctor’s office, where I was diagnosed with, well–see #2, above) and got several compliments on it.  It was just the thing for wearing while feeling under the weather:  warm, soft, cuddly, beautiful.

(I figure I need to get some enjoyment out of it before it becomes Mother’s.  Also, when you put that much work into something, you’d darn well better wear it with pride.)

5.  Lawyers call a divorce, a “dissolution.”  Isn’t that just the tidiest, most antiseptic way of putting it?  I just can’t seem to stop myself from dwelling on this word, with its relation to both “dissolute,” a word with which I never much wanted to be associated, and “dissolve.”  Somehow both seem sadly appropriate.

6.  Life goes on, no matter how much your throat hurts or how much you feel you might simply dissolve into a quivering puddle on the floor.

On Friday night, whilst I was at her house playing a game, Mother announced to me that I really needed to get to work on that new shawl, because she and I are both going to need a pretty shawl to wear to the wedding.  

(See, I was working on the pink baby blanket at the time.  Admittedly, this is a hard project to justify, seeing as how I am neither pregnant myself nor do I know anyone with a new baby girl who is near and dear enough to me to merit a baby blanket with an intrinsic value of $400.  In fact, the only person who is near and dear enough to me to receive such a baby gift actually recently gave birth to a baby boy.  But I digress.)

“Oh?” I said.  “How do you figure that?”

“Well,” she said, “I figure it’s going to be pretty chilly out there on that headland, and summer in the San Francisco area isn’t that warm at the best of times.  And a pretty shawl will look ever so much more elegant than a jacket.  If we don’t have something pretty to wrap up in, we’ll have to have jackets to wear!”

Certainly a fate worse than death. 

Then, she went on and on about how beautiful Rumpelstiltskin was looking, and how it was ephemeral and gossamer-light and gorgeous.

“You’ll have to wear that one, though,” she said.  “Because as beautiful as it is, if I wore it I’d look like I was the same color as the shawl.”  (Our mother is convinced that she cannot wear light-colored neutrals.)

Huh. 

I believe this is an elaborate scheme on Mother’s part to cabbage onto the Handsome Triangle shawl.  It’s obvious to me that she wants it.  If I let her wear it at the wedding, my goose will be cooked.  I’ll never wear that shawl again.

Nevertheless, the challenge has been issued. 

The gauntlet has been thrown down.

Can I finish Rumpelstiltskin in time to wear it to Ellen’s wedding?  Like the dutiful and obedient daughter that I am, I have been working on it.

I am into the second ball of yarn and into the 11th pattern repeat.  Of thirty-nine.  And then there’s the elaborate edging.

Place your bets, ladies and gents!  Can I finish this shawl in time?  Given my notorious propensity for laying aside a project in the middle to pursue something new?  Well, I’ll just have to be diligent about this one.

After all, I wouldn’t want to have to wear a (gasp) jacket to my only sister’s wedding.

P.S.  OK, I have snuck in a few more squares on the baby blanket.  It’s just so portable! 

Sorry, Mom!  Happy Mother’s Day anyway!

Here’s what I decided:

To knit this shawl,

out of my silver and gold laceweight mohair.

Here is my progress thus far:

Two and half repeats finished.  Out of thirty-two.  Plus the rather complex edging.  I think that’s a pretty good start, don’t you?  I can already tell that this shawl is going to be a gossamer, cobwebby froth, as feminine in its own way as the Handsome Triangle.

The book calls this shawl a rather uninspired “Diamonds and Triangles,” but I believe that I will dub my version “Rumpelstiltskin,” in honor of transformation, spinning, beautiful maidens, little men dancing around fires in the forest, and most of all, this line:  “The Devil told you that!”

I myself have been waiting patiently for an opportunity to use that line in everyday life.

In other news, Harvey and I took a look at some of the real estate around town last week.  We’re in the market for a smallish, affordable, 2-bedroom house that we can both feel comfortable in.  Such houses are hard to find.  We looked at a couple of places that were absolute dumps, one of which was astoundingly overpriced, even for this inflated (well, for this area) real estate market.  Then we looked at a couple that were OK, but just way too much house for me.  I don’t fancy spending all my time doing upkeep and yardwork.  The one little house that we both liked and seemed like a good possibility would need to have the bathroom completely gutted, and possibly the kitchen as well.  But the size and price is right, and the location is really nice–within walking distance of school, church, library, downtown, and Grandma & Grandpa.  And a fenced backyard for Mr. Puppy.  I have an appointment tomorrow to see another little place that’s for sale by owner, so we’ll see what that looks like.

Moving on takes patience, courage, intestinal fortitude, and deep breathing techniques.

But you know what I always say?

“The Devil told you that!  The Devil told you that!”

I finished the Handsome Triangle shawl late last week, and stayed up late on Friday night blocking her.

I stretched this baby mercilessly–to a total of 104 inches across the top, without the ruffle.  It’s a good thing my apartment has carpet, that’s all I can say.  And that I really don’t have that much furniture residing on that carpet.

(If you’re wondering why this second shot looks so different color-wise, it’s because I sometimes turn my camera to the “nighttime” setting in lowish light situations.  Actually, Handsome’s true color is nearer to the first picture.)

Here I am wearing her.  (Photo courtesy of my dear boy, Harvey.)

And wrapped up in ruffly femininity.

I wore her to church on Sunday morning and garnered several compliments, some of which I admittedly fished for a bit.  But someone did say that they couldn’t believe I had made this myself.

That’s what a knitter likes to hear! 

And what complicated, gorgeous project did I start next?  Why, a dishcloth, of course.  Made of hemp yarn from Elann.  Somewhere I read that hemp is supposed to have natural anti-bacterial properties.  Seems like a match made in heaven for a dishcloth, doncha think?

Well.  I am, at length, finished with the seemingly endless last rows of the bell ruffle which completes my Handsome Triangle shawl.

Here they are all bunched up on my circular needle.

Now begins the seemingly even-more-endless bindoff the of the bell ruffle which will truly complete my Handsome Triangle shawl!

I have finished binding off exactly 12 repeats of the ruffle, which means I have bound off a total of 360 stitches.  Only 2225 more to go!

Let the games begin!  Er, continue.

On Saturday I went with a group from church down to Kansas City’s beautifully restored Union Station

to see an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls that is currently on display there.

For obvious reasons, we were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibit or even carry in our cameras, so here on the blog we will have to content ourselves with photos of the wonderful facade of Union Station itself, plus a few indoor photos such as this,

which I admittedly took more for the novelty value of having a son named Harvey myself than for any more erudite or aesthetic reason.

I also took a couple photos of this rather cheesy little intro display, because that was about the only thing Dead Sea Scrolls-related that we were allowed to photograph.

In that little cave were a few fake-looking scroll jars.

I guess you’ll just have to use your imagination about the rest of the exhibit.  Take my word for it, though, if you’re anywhere within striking distance of Kansas City, it’s definitely worth the trip. 

I took the Handsome Triangle shawl on the bus to work on.

I’m really, really close to the end of this thing.  It’s now taking about an hour (more or less) to get across one row.  At this point, I have one row left, plus the bindoff.  However, depending on how much yarn I have left,

(and you can see here that my cone of yarn is getting muy smaller) I may go ahead and do two more rows of the ruffle, making the final total of stitches (drum roll, please) 2580.  I don’t know, though.  I have a nightmarish vision of getting to within, oh, maybe about 30 stitches of the end of the last row and running out of yarn, necessitating tinking back over nearly two rows of 2500 stitches each. 

That would be bad.

I started the ruffle on the Handsome Triangle shawl yesterday, and got just a few rows accomplished.

Here’s a little detail:

The specs: 

A total of 86 x 6 = 516 + 5 = 520 stitches around the bottom edge. 

Then, as with all ruffles, you increase like a demon over the next 24 rows, ending with a grand total of 86 x 28 = 2408 + 5 = 2413 stitches.

Excuse me while I go lie down a little while.

The faithful and astute among you, dear readers, have no doubt noticed my absence, once again, from the blog for a week.  Once again I left my dear sister holding the blog bag.  Thanks, Ellen, for holding down the fort.  Time Out of Mind is looking magnificent indeed.

I will not bore you all with the details of my family travails and crises.  Suffice it to say that it has been a hard, hard winter, capping off a hard year.  Let us hope that spring will bring us all fresh promise and happiness.

And, moving on, my progress on the Handsome Triangle shawl.

I really am almost done with it!  I have only one full pattern repeat to finish, and then the somewhat daunting task of knitting the ruffle, involving as it does an exponential rate of increase and ever-lengthening rows.  But not that many rows!  There is light at the end of this particular lacy tunnel.

                                         A detail.

Of course, these photos, like the shawl itself at this point, reveal only a hint of the shawl’s true personality–just a promise of what is to come.  That will only be achieved by a proper and ruthless blocking.  Hard, but necessary.  Sort of the knitting equivalent of tough love. 

I think there’s a metaphor there somewhere:  about living along, following the pattern as best you can, and having faith that someday, at some time, you’ll be able to do the hard but necessary work of unfurling your life.  Stretching it ruthlessly out to reveal its true beauty.  Trusting that what you’ve been working at, at times so laboriously and with little joy, will pay off in the end.  Hoping that the people who love and support you will be moved to remark upon its loveliness–hoping that you yourself will be able to wear it with pride and say, “I made it myself.”

I can’t wait.

Since writing about the Handsome Triangle shawl last week, I’ve been inspired to actually pull it out and work on it.  Progress is being made, although it may be difficult to see in these photos.

                             A whole-shawl shot, with cat butt on the right.  (Boots enjoys sitting on the back of the couch like this–just lurking in a totally cat-like way.)

                                         A detail of the lace pattern.

                                 Another detail–showing how the lace flows out of the increases along the side.

I’m really enjoying working on this shawl.  It’s one of those patterns that looks a lot more complex than it really is.  It’s actually just four pattern rows, and they’re pretty easy to memorize, so although the charts look a bit daunting, the knitting itself is simple.  Minimal effort with maximum payoff.

                                 “Speaking of minimal effort, can’t you take me out for another walk?  Maybe if I look really, really sad?”

                                      “No?  Well, then I’m outta here, human.  Triangulate that.”

Although I haven’t been actively working on the Handsome Triangle shawl for a week or so, I have been thinking about it a good deal.  Especially thinking about how much fun it will be to wear it and how flirty, coy, and feminine that ruffled edging will be. 

Actually, I don’t think that many people who know me well would describe me as flirty or coy or even that feminine in the traditional sense.  Yet I find myself drawn to these ultra-feminine shawls–in fact, I also own the pattern for the “Flirty Ruffles Shawl” from Fiddlesticks Knitting and a large cone of Zephyr wool/silk with which to make it.

Who among us hasn’t fallen in love with a project that just doesn’t really fit the public image we’ve created for ourselves?  It’s part of the magic of knitting–the ability to create a new persona for myself with yarn, skill, and my own two hands.  To create the persona while creating the cloth–to craft a new self and be able to literally try it on for size.  To give myself the gift of living, for a little while, a different kind of life as a different kind of woman:  the kind of woman who wears ruffles, who flirts outrageously, who is unabashedly selfish, who can make strange men fall in love with her on sight.

It’s a lot to expect from a ruffled shawl, I know.  Some day, when the shawl is done, I’ll let you know how that woman is doing.