Skip to main content

Blue's a Finished Product

Yesterday while watching the final two episodes of Mad Men, with a friend, I cast off the last row of Blue.  It seems to take about an hour and one-half.  (BTW, thanks, Nancy for watching the last two episodes a second time for my sake.)  What a satisfying act, putting closure on something started in November 2014.  The blocked size is 61 inches across the longest edge and 30.5 inches down the spine, putting it at almost exactly the same size as my first Ashton.

With all the complaining I did about poor Blue you might think I am not very fond of it, but that is not true.  It seems I was doing so much complaining because I really, really like Blue and perhaps that's the way it is sometimes.  We show affection by pointing out areas of imperfection or where improvements could be made, that if only they were changed things could be perfect.  And Blue is wonderful.  The yarn, Fantastic Knitting's Zephyr Lace, is feathery light; remember the entire skein is only 2 ounces.  When Blue and I went outside today to get a good photo there was a light breeze and as I placed the shawl its tips fluttered in the breeze and would bump into my hand like a butterfly's wing.  Yes, the shawl has me breaking into metaphors.

I showed it to someone who doesn't know knitting or lace work and the beads are so non-intrusive I had to point them out to her.  When she saw them she was amazed at Blue one more time.
It seemed appropriate to give you a look of Blue before it was blocked, a second during the blocking process and then a couple others to find the perfect photo to show it off.

Unblocked, waiting for its bath
All stretched into shape

Hero Shot I sticking to the rough raw wood fence
Hero Shot II draped on my gray couch

In about a month Blue will be going to its new owner so we will be parting ways.  I am going to miss her (note Blue moved from "it" to "her" in only two short paragraphs) but perhaps I can now move on with a clear conscience to other things currently on needles.  Bye, bye, Blue.  Enjoy Jami!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

Gosling's Meme and Knitting

What is a meme, you may first ask? Well Dr. Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, came up with the idea in the late 1970's and stated something like: a meme is to a society what a gene is to a human. Both are an element or unit that can be replicated or passed from one individual to another. During the Internet age memes can be easily shared, replicated or otherwise passed on to another. Recent examples can be found on Gawker . Memes can include piano playing cats, a honey badger, the Call Me Maybe phenomenon and so on. The political campaign in the U.S. helped fuel memes using some of the most unusual statements like, "binders of women" and "you didn't build that." A few memes have staying power but most have a relatively short life span. Gosling's meme related to knitting has been around for some time; so when I again saw another post about him recently, it was time to figure out the origin. Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor born in Onta...

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while.  But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf .  I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you?  It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank.  (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls  If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo.  Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left.  Easy to find, right! ...