Knitting on Impulse

Respect the Fibre

Early this morning, I was standing on the patio in my slippers and housecoat, checking the garden for bears and cougars and mopping up the rainy table in preparation for blog photos.  Indoors however, drama was unfolding - my four year old son was flying into the bedroom to find his father, hollering "Emergency, emergency!"  It turned out that a toy zebra had become slightly entangled with a ball of yarn, and he was loathe to attempt the extraction on his own.  I find it heartwarming that he appears to have absorbed a fundamental respect for fibre, including the fact that it must never be subjected to the rude process of yanking.  He does love to collect swatches and scraps - I hope the pressure of societal stereotypes won't ultimately discourage him from learning to knit.

Yellow became a daffodil, taking up most of yesterday with the fiddly finishing tasks:

It is entirely constructed of various forms of silk.  Dyeing has opened up a whole new world of creative control - no longer do I have to scour the Internet for possible matches, and Almost Good Enough colourways.  I love it!

Speaking of dyeing - I do appreciate all the comments on the green scarf, including the ones that prefered the previous iteration!  I'm quite happy with the vertically oriented version, particularly the way it looks draped around a live body.  However, 60 inches still left me with a little less than half of the skein, so you never know what version 2.0 might look like.....

I'm about to start knitting on my first attempt at a Soggy Leaves colourway - more on that later this week.

Deciding

I loved the thought-provoking comments about naming and identity you all left - it is truly a privilege to be granted a window into such a personal topic.  Another vital point was raised as well: having mindfully claimed our own names, do we demonstrate wisdom, restraint, and generosity in the ways we name and identify others? 

Speaking of enlightenment, The Blanket of Great Indecision is one step closer to actualization.  Having sifted through all the thoughtful suggestions, and taken a long hard look at my knitting personality, I came to a couple of conclusions.  Felting - probably not practical (stiff, unwieldy, half the size for twice the labour.)  Modular - great idea in principle, but the odds of me weaving in five thousand ends and actually sewing the blocks together before I developed a deep and abiding loathing of the whole project are vanishingly small.  And I wouldn't have anything resembling a blanket until the blocks were all made and sewn together.

The current forerunner: ripple crochet in Alafoss Lopi (ie. the bulky stuff.)   Something like this (not these colours, they were just what I had lying around):

I even did a little science experiment with the cat (cruelty-free, of course - like my readers, I adore animals, even the couch-clawing ones.)  I figured that since he likes to use his claws so much, I'd give him a little extra erm... practice.  I borrowed a paw and had a good go at the swatch.  (I was rewarded with a look of deep disdain.)

It's a little fuzzier, and I managed to elevate one strand with great effort, though it is easily reparable with a crochet hook.  Overall, quite acceptable - in fact, it occurs to me that I might get my felted blanket after all - doesn't the claw effect qualify as needle felting?

The other advantages of a ripple blanket would be that it could simply live on the couch as it progressed. (Why not, all my other projects do...)  If I wove in the ends as I went along, it would be an attractive functional object long before its actual completion.

Anyone care to poke holes in my logic before I order a pile of Lopi?  (We're all moping about with the flu today - headaches, watery eyes, fever etc. so it is entirely possible I'm not firing on all cylinders.)