… on two matters. First: this shawl. I’ve had disturbingly little time to knit the past couple of weeks, and an extra short attention span, so it’s mostly been this grey mindlessness. I had the idea that I’d like to see the textures of the Textured Shawl used in three equal swaths rather than as alternating stripes. And thought that would look nice if it were a little larger and heavier. But I told myself it had to be knitted from stash, which, quantity-wise, meant either my kelly-green Manos (my first choice) or the rest of this grey Kathmandu Chunky. The Manos didn’t want to be wound (silly story) so I went with the grey. And at this point I’m pretty underwhelmed by it. It’s just not the best marriage of stitch pattern and yarn — the yarn looks better in stockinette and garter than in the textured stitch, but I’ve created this sea of the textured stitch. (I’m convinced it would be great in the green Manos.) So I’m debating whether to finish it, rip it back and knit textured stripes, or frog the whole thing. But I’ve come this far! And it’s pretty much moot once it’s bunched around my neck anyway, right? What do you think?
The second matter is more meta, and something I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts on. The other day on Twitter I was bemoaning the lack of words for what we do — something I run into constantly in writing and thinking about and talking about this blog (and the shop, e.g. even the header over there). The two most common lacks are: 1) a word for people who make things out of yarn, and 2) a word for people who make their own clothes. The former should encompass all the yarny pursuits: knitting, crochet, weaving, even spinning and dyeing. The latter should cover both knitting and sewing. So I inadvertently sparked a good discussion on Twitter about, mostly, the first of those. Caitlin Newman Storify’d the gist of the exchange, and there’s more here, here, here, especially here … oy, everywhere. In the course of it, I came to like the word “yarnsmith” as a catch-all for yarny people, and will be trying that out. But still no ideas about the other. Then Caitlin also wrote a thought-provoking blog post about the perception of ‘handmade’. I have no conclusions (nor, apparently, anything very coherent to say) about any of it at the moment! Just would love to discuss it with you all. So please voice your thoughts …
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