Friday, January 30, 2004

Zen Knitting…sort of?

The idea for the object of today’s post came from the gracious Stasia.  She suggested creating a little cache-pot into which to put hopes, prayers and dreams as a means to help oneself focus outward on other things besides one’s own problems.  I was taken with the notion and have been mulling it over for a few days. 

Yesterday, not really wanting to work on either the sweater or the poncho, I decided to play around with Stasia’s idea.  I picked up some Sugar ‘n Cream that I had leftover from another project, some US 8 needles (two of a DPN set - the shorter the needle, the better I like it!), unhooked my logic circuit and set about it.

I cast on 20 stitches and worked 60 rows in stockinette.

This picture shows the center part finished with the stitches picked up for one of the sides.  See those purple strings on the sides of the piece?  Those were the markers I used so I would know where to pick up the 20 stitches for the side pieces.





Here the first side has been completed and the stitches picked up for the second side.  I like to leave long tails when I know I’m going to have to sew something up because it makes for fewer ends to work in later.  It can be a problem though, when those ends keep getting tangled with the working yarn :) I spent almost as much time on this final side piece untangling tails as I did actually knitting :)





This is the final piece before seaming.  Because this is stockinette and not garter, the places where the stitches are picked up pucker a little.  This actually worked well for the final piece - at least I like it.  I had been imagining something boxy and what resulted was softer, more flowing lines - much nicer, I think.





I used a backstitch to sew up the sides because it is very firm.  I had slipped each selvedge stitch, so both picking up for the edges and placement of the seam stitches was super easy.





Finally, with a contrast color, I single-crocheted an edging all around the bowl.  I crocheted three stitches together at each corner of the piece to further enhance the bowl shape.





Here, several other balls of various cotton yarns volunteered to pose with the finished item.  The bowl is about 3.5” high and about 6” in diameter.  I realize that it’s somewhat irregular but I find it rather charming anyway.

The Zen part?  Well, the yarn I grabbed (with no idea of where I was going at that point) was leftover from my Monk’s bag adapted from the Monk’s Satchel pattern in Folk Bags.  The movie we happened to be watching while I was working on this thing? The Bulletproof Monk (a very cute film, BTW).  And finally, there was a serious “Be here now” feel to the whole exercise, a real kind of go-with-the-flow feeling where preconceptions are dropped and all that exists is the crafter and the material.  And sometimes it gets difficult to tell the difference between them.

I greatly enjoyed this mini-vacation from my two bigger projects.  It was wonderfully refreshing and curiously fulfilling.  I suspect that there will be many more little containers of various sorts in my future :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

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1. Neat little pot!  I’m sorry you don’t like football.  I watch and knit and depending how interesting the game is, I surf the blogs on my laptop.

   Posted by Chery  on  01/30  at  05:43 PM
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2. Hi Chery!  Well, I used to play in the highschool band and resented the hell out of having to get up and play (in the snow sometimes) for the Thanksgiving day game :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  01/30  at  06:33 PM
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3. This is a cool starting point for felting too.  I was thinking your approach is pretty cool but I’d want something that was a little sturdier.  Maybe felted eh?

   Posted by Stephanie  on  01/30  at  06:46 PM
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4. Hi Stephanie!

   Well, it *is* pretty soft but felting isn’t really my thing :) I’d love to see the results, though, if you (or anyone else) wanted to give it a try!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  01/30  at  11:09 PM
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