You’ve seen the new Brooklyn Tweed collection, Wool People 3? Highest ratio yet of things I must knit. My favorites include (clockwise from top) the Boardwalk vest by Heide Kirrmeier, the Walpole slouchy seamless cardigan by Hannah Fettig, the Bayard striped beanie by Bristol Ivy, and the rectangular Ferrous wrap by Grace Anna Farrow. But the one that actually made me gasp a tiny bit is Cirilia Rose’s contribution, the Ticking stripe cowl:
Among those of you who saw me publicly admit that I couldn’t knit a simple side-to-side garter-stitch shawl, I doubt many of you have forgotten it. Such humiliation on display. Thankfully, my friend Meg made the perfect suggestion for an alternative: the Lacy Baktus. This might seem counterintuitive but, if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. My problem with the other one wasn’t that it’s difficult (obviously). It was that it required just a tiny amount of paying attention — at the beginning of every fourth row — and it’s harder to pay occasional attention than to pay regular attention. There’s too much opportunity for the mind to wander. Plus, the two-part repeat of the Lacy Baktus (easily memorized) means it’s always easy to figure out where I am in the routine. There’s essentially no chance of losing my place. So even though it’s technically (if just barely) a “harder” pattern, it’s way easier not to screw up. For me, at least.
Anyway, Karla my darling, my goal was to have this done for you by your birthday. As your birthday is Sunday, and I’m not to the midway point yet, I think you’ll see that that’s not going to happen. I’ve now been teasing you with this yarn and the promise of a shawl for a full six months. I’m making no promises about when it will finally materialize, but at this point at least I’m convinced that it will. And according to everyone at knit night last night, it’s gorgeous. I promise not to fringe it up.
Maybe you thought I was joking. Or maybe you’ve understood that my ’70s fiber fixation is more than just a crush. But honestly, if you’re gonna make a funky, pinkish-tan, garter-stitch shawl that’s too granny for grandma, it’s gonna need some fringe. Some very serious fringe.
This amuses me greatly, but I may need to make another one in an unmistakably sophisticated yarn — a nice dark tweed or something. Then it can be haute.
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I’ve been thinking of tampering with that Applewood garter triangle, maybe putting a different edge treatment on the long side. Fringe keeps catching my eye lately, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of that until gazing upon this charming ($296!) Jess Brown shawl. But that could happen.
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Honestly, I would love nothing more than to knit sweaters. Piles and piles and piles and piles of sweaters. There’s just one small problem: attention deficit disorder. Besides which, the fundamental joy of knitting for me is that it’s the opposite of my day job, which is virtual and very, very drawn out. I like being able to make a physical thing in a short span of time. And that is why, dear friends, this sweater still has no sleeves. I’ve taken time away from it to do two other things — Nichole’s mitts and Mom’s kerchief — and last weekend all I wanted to do was make something for myself that I could start and finish within the space of the weekend. Et voilà, a perfectly simple garter-stitch triangle of my very own.
This one is Malabrigo Twist in Applewood, increased from 3 stitches to 108, on US15 needles.
This is so weird. On Friday, Bob and I took a ferry ride and had a little picnic. It was our 10th wedding anniversary and we were revisiting the site where we said our I Do’s.
It was a beautiful day — only slightly less beautiful than our wedding day, which was a miraculously clear and blue and warm and dry moment in the midst of torrential rain. It was a very casual wedding — about 30 friends and family members at a picnic site on Angel Island. I did all the food and flowers (with assistance from a few loved ones, of course) and my dress was just a little sleeveless white cotton shift I got at The Gap. When the park bathroom turned out to be full of Girl Scouts and mud, a couple of people held up a tablecloth at the far end of the picnic site so I could change into my dress behind it. To fend off the bay breeze, I had brought an ivory pashmina sort of thing, which I’d ordered from the late lamented Martha By Mail catalog, but I wound up not needing it.
At some point on our outing on Friday, the thought entered my mind that if we were doing this now, I’d have knitted myself a shawl. But what would it have looked like? I’m not really a lace shawl kind of girl, but it also wouldn’t be the chunky tobacco-colored number I’ve been knitting for myself this weekend either. No, it would be something exactly in between.
So then I’m sitting on my couch on Sunday night attempting to catch up with the Internet, and what should pop up at the Purl Bee but this new pattern, the Whisper Wrap, designed by Whitney Van Nes. It’s just what I would have wanted.
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It has never occurred to me to wonder what it would look like if Ray Eames had designed knitwear, but I’m pretty sure this is it. “Handepande” took Gudrun Johnston’s lace shawl pattern, Flukra, knitted it in a heavier (albeit just fingering) weight yarn and replaced the scalloped edges with garter stitch. The denser fabric and clean border really show off that graphic stitch pattern, the result being a shawl that is simultaneously cozier and more modern. I want it.
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Photo by handepande
