« Catching Up! | Main | The better part of two days... »
June 08, 2007
Epic Projects
I have a fatal attraction to epic projects. When I saw the 15 foot, 19th century, knitted lace sampler in Knitting Lace by Susanna E. Lewis, I was doomed. DOOMED!
Unlike the Dear Jane quilt and the Civil War Diary quilt, patterns and fabric bought and untouched, I’ve worked on the knitted sampler everyday since I opened the book. While the project is still young, I’m on Pattern 6 of 91, I find myself reaching for it all the time.
Partly because I want to teach lace again, this time with my own patterns and my own instructions. Partly because I'm learning so much. This project is perfect because I can try out a variety of patterns, gauge their difficulty and applicability, and make adjustments as I go. I just can’t do that from a picture. I need to knit the pattern before I can design with it. It's a trait that used to drive my bosses crazy when I developed software. I always had to develop a piece before I could plan the whole.
I’m not the least bit interested in changing! It wasn’t until I started knitting seriously that I began to finish things. Not just knitted things, but work things and home things and school things. I don’t know if it’s
1) the portability
2) the acceptance that projects need a break from you as much as you need a break from them
3) the stockpiling of projects
4) the balance between easy and difficult, short and long, classic and new fangled
but when I approach life like I knit, I get loads of stuff done.
This project scores two out of three on the frugality scale. I borrowed the book from the library, used KnitPicks yarn from my stash BUT I just had to try the new addi Turbo Lace needles. Toni just go them in. The points are great The cable is so fantastic you forget it's there. They're very lightweight. The only thing is a slight ringing in my ears when I use them. ???