Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Calmly Plodding

It's Ash Wednesday 2006. Overnight my knitting queue rearranged itself (quietly, without fuss) from Olympic feat to Lenten devotion.

I'm still plodding along on DH's cabled vest. The original design concept was close-fitting, but after consideration, He Who Makes Big Eyes at Me decided more ease would be nice. Soooo... the front is wider and has less shaping (the photo shows progress to the split for the V-neck)...

Front has more ease

and the full-fashioned back is (gasp) going to the frog pond. Clearly the work of the devil duckie.

Back to the frog pond

This photo captures the subtle ombré effect of Cashsoft 4-Ply. On the whole, I'd prefer more uniform color – a heather or tweed or solid solid.

Two pairs of socks are in the Lenten queue. One pair is a shamefully late holiday gift, now birthday present (eek) – more on this, er, tomorrow. The other pair is for my Sockapaloooza pal, who seems to like crazy socks. I can do crazy, hehehe.

A need for quite a few prayer shawls is looming in the near future. I plan to stay far, far away from the latest dispute [ETA: link updated] (scroll down to "girlcott") over who invented what in shawl ministry land – surely prayer and prayer shawls have been around a long, long, long time. Instead I'll use two Evelyn Clark patterns: Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style and Romantic Moments lace wrap. My excellent SP6 pal, Rainy at Will Pillage for Yarn, sent me some lovely Handpaintedyarn.com Lace in black ombré that is perfect for Shetland Triangle. And there's some Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in colorway Blackberry languishing in stash that would do well as Romantic Moments.

There's seven weeks in Lent. I should note I don't necessarily intend to start and finish everything named here – cable vest, two pairs of socks, two shawls – during the season. Some are already in progress and I fully expect others will continue after Easter, plus other projects are sure to rear their pretty heads. Instead of raw production, the aim is mindful creation; being observant, that is, to participate in a tradition and also to see into it keenly.

3 comments:

Will Pillage For Yarn said...

I love prayer shawls. I love the idea of them, the idea of knitting your prayers, love and goodwill into the very fabric of something that will fly off your needles and go to someone else. I'm not a super religious person but I think that something like this transcends religious lines - it is something that anyone of any creed can appreciate. I think you're right, they've been around for as long as there has been prayer. The blanket clasped around a sick baby, the prairie shawl clutched close on a cold night, all of them worn with the prayers and love of the maker.

I've mostly been ignoring the whole kerfuffle too, but I like that you're making some *other* patterns. I think that makes them special. I did the LB Homespun standard shawl for my sister in law two years ago (and admit I was praying for it to be done near the end) and it was lovely. One for my mom is on my to do list this year. As she gets sicker and sicker, the more I want to do one for her.

dragon knitter said...

where did you get that devil duckie? i have 6 sitting on my bookshelf! i work for oriental trading company, lol.

i like prayer shawls, but i have a hard time working on them. it's hard for me to keep that many good thoughts going in a row (lol). i tend to do squares and send them on for someone else to assemble into blankets to wrap those people in the love.

traveling knitter said...

The Devil duckies are tricky aren't they? :) Good luck on your Lenten "Olympics" :)