Friday, April 30, 2004

Enlightenment with needles and yarn

Honest to God, I have no idea what’s happening here!  Yesterday I was reading about doing stranded knitting in the round (Hmmm - no purl rows?) and the next thing I knew, there was this:

Circular practice

I feel like I’m channeling Alice Starmore!  Stop me before I strand again!  LOL! 

Really - I was playing with this last night.

Me:  This can’t be me doing this! 

Myria:  (Looking over, observing that it was my hands on the needles and yarn and my drawing that the pattern was being worked from) It’s you.

I can’t tell you how strange and awesome this seems to me.  This wasn’t something I thought I had any interest in doing.  Even if I had been interested I would have told you I severely lacked the necessary dexterity to pull it off.  And yet, watching that pattern come off my needles last night was incredibly exciting.  It’s almost as though the back of my brain had been putting things together without the front of my brain being aware of it.

Pattern close-up

Starting the piece was interesting.  I got 80 stitches cast on and joined on the circular and knitted three rounds plain.  Then I added the pattern color - and promptly forgot how to count.  I must have ripped that first row 6 times before I got it right - but after that things just...I don’t know...sort of flowed.  I felt as though I had finally reached the enlightenment of Zen knitting! 

Oh, and look at this!

Back of the piece

You can actually see the pattern on the back in the strands!  How cool is that?

I have no idea what this piece will become - if anything.  I can see a change I’d like to make in the pattern (the small motifs are too thick on the sides) so I’ll probably just bind it off and work out something else.  I just hope that whoever’s using my hands to knit this stuff doesn’t go away just yet - I’m having too much fun!

Bella sleeve

I’m not neglecting Bella either.  Bella is TV work because there really isn’t anything terribly complicated about it.  The stranding stuff I work on when there isn’t anything around that’s going to haul my attention off of it.  The first sleeve is about halfway done.  But you know, when I picked it up last night, after working on the stranding piece, it didn’t feel like plain old stockinette.  Some of the excitement and awe had rubbed off.  I kept thinking (as I was knitting and purling back and forth): This is the basis for it all.  This is where it starts and, apparently, you can go anywhere from here!

And this morning I keep wondering why it isn’t always like this.  I guess you can’t learn something new every single day, where the light bulb goes off in your head, you feel this incredible rush of comprehension and your whole consciousness yells “I’ve got it!!!”

But wouldn’t it be nice?

Have a great weekend!

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1. I had that experience with “pick up and knit”.  It just all of a sudden clicked! Well, not all of a sudden, I made three button bands incorrectly, but THEN it clicked.  I’m glad you’re having so much fun!!

   Posted by Laura  on  04/30  at  06:00 PM
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2. Laura - Isn’t it terrific when that happens?  It’s like the whole cosmos is smilng on you!  I only got the pick-up-and-knit thing a couple of months ago myself :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  04/30  at  08:59 PM
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3. Isn’t fair isle fun?  I didn’t figure out about picking up stitches until I had done (and messed up) a couple of sweater bands.  :)

   Posted by Gail  on  05/01  at  02:01 AM
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4. Yes, it’s amazing!  For the last four days my mind has been buzzing with colors and patterns!  I’m trying to figure out a small something as a gift for a friend.  It certainly doesn’t have to be Fair Isle, but that’s where my mind keeps going :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  05/01  at  09:05 AM
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5. I can totally see how people get addicted to fair isle!  Even if the pattern repeat is tiny, you can’t stop knitting, ‘cause it’s so cool to see the colours appearing.  H’m… where’s that Estonian mitten I was working on?

   Posted by Krista Jo  on  05/01  at  12:19 PM
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6. Heh - Estonian mittens?  Well, okay - I’m thinking about it but I gon’t think I’ll be ready for that for a while yet :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  05/01  at  04:26 PM
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7. Love your stranded knitting - I’m seriously impressed with how neat the stranding is at the back!

   Posted by Pamela  on  05/02  at  02:38 PM
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8. ::Blush:: Thanks Pam.  I’m not making any serious effort at that so I don’t know why it’s so nice and neat.  But I am very pleased that it’s so all the same :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  05/02  at  05:20 PM
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9. Robbyn, this looks soooooo great!  Please bring it to SnB tonight - I can’t wait to see it in person and hear all about your fair isle adventures.  :-)

   Posted by Caren  on  05/03  at  08:48 AM
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