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www.inthebeginningfabrics.com
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I got an email yesterday that said, “WHERE’S THE DOG?” It turns out that after saying that “Wednesdays Are UFO and Dog Days,” I went on and on about the UFO (the Icarus Shawl) and forgot the dog entirely.
But that’s OK. Because, if I had remembered, I would have picked just one of these photos to post, but now, with the UFO out of the way, I can post all three. Here we go:
I like these pictures for two reasons. First, of course, is the dog. Good dog! Second, is that these home-owners seem to have the same approach to house projects as we do. Good intentions and all…take care of the pets first…and maybe forget to finish the paint job. Oh well.
Wednesdays Are UFO and Dog Days
Finishing this actually went a lot faster than I thought it would, which just goes to show that procrastination makes everything seem a little worse than it really is. I wish realizing that meant I would give up procrastination once and for all, but somehow I doubt that’s going to happen.
Anyway! I washed the Icarus shawl and blocked it. (I tried my blocking wires again, and this 2nd attempt went perfectly.) Two-out-of-two cats left the shawl alone while it was blocking. Amazing!
I have done it again in terms of making something much bigger than it was supposed to be. Finished dimensions as given in the instructions: 72″ x 36″. My shawl: 101″ x 49″. This would explain the extra skein of yarn I had to buy at the end. Doesn’t really explain how it got so off-track in the first place, but I’m guessing that “gauge” and “yarn substitution” might have had something to do with it. But nevermind.
Here’s a detail:
Casual disarray:
Nicely folded:
Project Details: Pattern is “Icarus Shawl,” designed by Miriam Felton, published in Interweave Knits, Summer 2006. The pattern is also available in “The Best of Interweave Knits.” Yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, color is Black Purl. I used size 4 needles (up one size from the pattern recommendation) and 6 skeins of yarn. And made a really huge shawl.
What’s Next? I don’t know! This was the last of my knitting UFOs, and now I can make anything. That’s so exciting to contemplate, I can hardly believe it. I’m going to spend some time looking through my books and magazines, considering the possibilities. It’s like the knitting world is wide open.
I was walking past Goodwill the other day, when this little voice in my head said, “Hey! You should go check out the knick-knack aisle.”
I’ve talked about Goodwill’s knick-knack aisle before (when I found my ceramic koala). Usually, it is equal parts fascinating and horrifying, and the way it affects me totally depends on my mood.
I was in a receptive frame of mind the other day — willing to consider the cat nesting dolls made in China — and passing benignly over the pair of kissing angels — and fighting the urge to group all of the Paint-Your-Own-Pottery puppies together in a charming tableau.
It was when I was reluctantly talking myself out of the puppy-arranging that I saw it. A small handmade bust, only 5-1/2″ high. It looked so delicate and dignified and beautiful. Like the koala, I wondered what its story was. How did it come to be at Goodwill with a $2.99 sticker on its shoulder?
I’ll probably never know. But now it’s a small piece of loveliness in my studio/home office/sewing room. It radiates calm and, for that reason alone, seems quite extraordinary to me.
Wednesdays Are UFO and Dog Days
If ever a project could almost be expected to crash and burn (or burn and crash…or melt and crash) it would be something named after Icarus, the boy with wax wings, who flew too close to the sun.
Which is just my roundabout way of saying that — in the past week — I had a problem with my Icarus Shawl and I was afraid the whole thing would come crashing to a halt.
The problem is in plain sight in this picture.
It’s that ball of yarn. It’s the last of five, and it’s not enough to finish the shawl. When I bought this yarn over a year-and-a-half ago, I was positive that I had enough. In fact, I figured I’d have maybe a half-skein left over. But I was wrong. As I contemplated the nearly-two-charts that I still had to knit, and my inadequate ball of yarn, I considered my options. I knew I wasn’t going to find the same dye lot of the yarn, but I wasn’t even sure that this colorway was still in production. I toyed with the idea of changing to a different color for the last three or four inches of the edging pattern. Like an orange/red blend. The Icarus Shawl…on fire!
But before committing to any extreme measures, I decided to hike up the hill to my local yarn store and see if they possibly still had Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in “Black Purl.” They did! And it looked indistinguishable from the lot I’d been using. I bought a skein, with the hope that any differences in the dye would not be noticeable, due to the variable nature of the coloration in the first place.
Just like that, I was back on track. Disaster (in the form of an orange-edged purple shawl) averted!
I was as happy as this orange-red dog.
