Welcome!

I've always tried to be careful about "New Year's Resolutions" but this year I actually tried to come up with some things that seemed important for my life at this time of my life. So here we are at one of the things I really wanted to accomplish - starting a blog.

While knitting and spinning are really my things, I'm also interested in a lot of other things like beading and crocheting and watercolor painting and books and language and different cultures and creativity.

So, I'll post what's going on as it comes. I hope this will be a place to keep contact with friends from all over. I'll be spending some time over the next couple of weeks learning how best to use the tools at my disposal and adding some pics and some other elements but for now...

...To the knitting

Normally I have, like most knitters, multiple projects going on but right now it's a little different. I've only got one, no, make that 2, actually make that 3 projects I'm actively working on. Of course, there are others waiting in the wings but that's another post altogether!

A while back I was in a local yarn shop and was intrigued by a beautiful silk yarn that had already been wound. It was kind of a springy, watercolory sort of colorway. Like this:

Of course, I would have been strong and walked out having seen and appropriately admired this beautiful yarn had it not been for the incredibly skilled and proficient saleslady. I could tell you that she wrestled me to the ground and physically made me take the yarn. I could tell you that she resorted to dipping into my purse when I wasn't looking and forged my signature on the check. If anyone asks, that's exactly what you should tell them happened, they won't suspect a thing. But suffice to say that the yarn ended up in my possession. 650 yards of silky, yummy goodness. The only problem was that I wasn't sure what it wanted to be.

Sometimes you have yarn and you know exactly why you bought it and what you want to do with it. But sometimes it just bewitches it's way into your hands and it sits in the stash bewitching you, teasing you, testing you, but not telling you anything. Some yarn just knows what it wants to be and there's no way of convincing it of anything else. That's the way this yarn was. Big tease.

I started it several different ways but I it wasn't having any of it. Then it finally spoke - it was supposed to be a shawl. Not a lacy shawl but a simple stockinette shawl that highlights the beautiful, subtle colors - the greens and golds and pinks and blues. Like this:


This is a shawl of my own design, the body being a triangular shape and then there being shoulder shaping and 'wings' down the front. I love this design (which I used before with a beautiful alpaca laceweight yarn and a lacy edging) because it stays so easily on the shoulders. This time I don't think I'm going to have enough yarn to do the lacy edging thing so I think what I'm going to do is make a beaded fringe using these beads:

The beads are a bit dear but they have just the right colors to them with the right sheen. I haven't made up my mind about how I'm going to do the fringe - I think I'll wait until I've finished and blocked the shawl so I can really see how it's going to lay. I'm excited about the weight and texture the beads will give to the yarn. We'll have to see how much yarn I've got left when I've finished the body of the shawl. If I have enough, I may try to do some small lacy edging and work the beads into that.

Beads and yarn, ain't nothing better than that!!