All the Cool Kids are Doing it

Happy Mother's Day!  Here's a quick update:  I had no idea how many of us are closet shawl-wanters!  Your outpouring of support for my shawl saga is absolutely rocking my world.  Thank you thank you thank you, intrepid shawl makers who have joined me on my maiden quest!  For those on the fence, let me enable encourage you to participate this way:  Send me photos of your progress (and carnage of your frogging, if need be), and I will post them so everyone can share successes!  There is no deadline, no trophy for finishing first (except for my undying respect), and no pressure of any sort.  And though I'm a rank amateur, we have Maria's experienced hand for guidance, should things turn dodgy.
 

Here's my progress so far.  I have to admit a degree of surprise:  there is a certain "potato chip" quality to this project.  Way more compelling than I would have imagined.  It doesn't hurt that I really love working with handspun yarn - just an added bonus.

If you are hesitating, come on in!  The water's fine!
 

Knit Along, Little Dogie

Maria and I met at Sock Camp this year.  While she is a legitimate knitting phenomenon (check out the little lace number she's sporting below - I actually heard Anne Hanson  tell somebody it was the prettiest thing she had ever seen in that colorway), she's also an outstanding and lovely lady.  Mom to five (5) children, wife to one extremely lucky fella, and now, friend to me.  We were separated at birth by seven years, sharing a birthday, mutual dislike of garter stitch, and a healthy regard for the well-made margarita.

When Maria found out that I have never knit a shawl, it was flatly more than she could abide.  She told me that she was going to make it her personal mission to cause me to become a shawl knitter.  When the mother of five children tells you how something is going to be, the safest course is to just shut up and nod.  As the youngest of five children, I learned this early and well:  Don't struggle - it'll only hurt more.

So it came as NO surprise to me when this morning Maria called and asked me if I was ready to start our "Teach Mary to Knit a Shawl For Pity's Sake Knitalong".  I was.  Somebody told me that this pattern was a good bet for somebody new to shawls, and marginal at lace.  What do I know?  I downloaded a copy and submitted it to my daughter for approval.  I already knew that the yarn would be the handspun I made for her last year, and that it had to be "the triangle kind, otherwise it's not really a shawl".

Lindsay wants me to make a shawl almost as badly as Maria does, so I know when resistance is futile.

So, who among you, Gentle Readers, will take up the call?  Join me in my march toward Shawl Knitterhood?  Or my prayer for the sweet release of death, whichever?  Come on - I'll bet it hardly will hurt at all.  Maria is making one too, except she had to add beads to hers to level the playing field.  Good sport, that Maria.  At the end, we'll either all have shawls, or more respect for them.  What could possibly go wrong?  Join us, Do!
 

Doing Nothing

Still searching for my Muse, I followed your advice, Gentle Readers.  When nothing is happening, then that's what you should be doing: Nothing.

I mellowed out and spun some more, not in my usual style, but as loose and relaxed as I possibly could make it.  My three plies wanted to become worsted-weight, so that's what I let them do:

I'm happier with it than I expected, considering how uncomfortable it was to spin that loosely.  Nice lesson in letting go of control, that.

After that, I felt I could take another crack at the Garter Stitch, seen here under the not-vigilant guard of the sleeping MacTarnahan:

Garter stitch is also not easy for me.  Something about the way the stitches present seems like exactly too much work for my fingers.  Not like stockinette, where the stitches are just a little more inviting to the needle.  I do dig the uncurliness of the fabric, though, which is an extremely welcome change from stockinette. 

I chose garter stich for the bottom of my cardigan because I just could not face another bout of 2 x 2 rib.  It's not that I couldn't suck it up and deliver the 2 x 2; especially now that I have the killer cast-on  for it in my bag of tricks.  No, the problem is that there is no corresponding tubular bind off for 2 x 2, and I have my heart set on matching trim edges for this beastie.  So garter it is.  And in spite of my petulant little attitude, I have to say that in this painted yarn, garter stitch is really beautiful:

Get a load of those sweet little color pebbles, will ya?  Totally worth doing.  Would be nice if I had remembered that garter takes twice as long as other stitches when I issued the decree to myself, though.  Mean Designer.

Tomorrow I'm on a plane to Sunnyvale, CA, where I get to play with the sassy knitters of Purlescence Yarns .   Drop by if you're in the neighborhood, and see what sort of trouble we get up to!