March 8, 2004

Back in the Saddle

Goodbye fateful claw of doom, hello sweet knitting needles. That's right, my love and I have been reunited after 3 long, long days apart. How I've missed the long, slender needles, my 100% wool. It's good to be back. I celebrated by finishing these.

mamlukedone

As usual, I am delighted, and Millie the cat cares nothing for my victory.

Who Knew?
This is my sister Erin, cavorting with the Jessica Simpson monstrosity. She loved it. Really. Said it was the best present she got this year.

erin1
erin2
erin3

This is a mystery to me. I can't tell you what it would take to get me to wear that....and she's never going to take it off. Erin is the anti-Steph. I've knit her sweaters, socks, mittens , wraps, a shrug...blankies and countless hats. Never see them on her. Ever. I'd finally realized that she's just one of those people who doesn't like hand knits. (Aren't I clever? That's 8 maybe 9 years of knitting before the light bulb came on for that one.) I'd just made the leap and decided that all of her sweaters should come from the Gap when her friend told me to make this. I patiently explained that I am done knitting for my sister. She doesn't like it. I'm setting myself up. My sister has made it pretty clear that she doesn't enjoy hand knits, and I should stop forcing them on her (along with wasting wool) because I like them. Sure, the gift should reflect the giver, sure...that means that every gift I give is knitted, but she doesn't like it. It's not nice for either of us for me to continue showering her with what she feels is a knitting nightmare. I explained all this to the friend. She explained that this shawl was different. (It turns out that she was right, this shawl is different. This shawl was fast, cheap and easy...compared with the multitude of time-consuming, expensive and elegant knits my sister has rejected in the past.) I spent the three days it took me to make it telling this friend that if she was wrong about the shawl I was going to strangle her with it. She was right. It is apparently glorious, trendy, and to die for. Who knew?

While I was finishing the shawl I was thinking about crochet. I loved Julie's quote from Spiderman in the comments "with great power comes great responsibility" I think that pretty much sums it up. It's funny to me that the things that I like about crochet, namely how fast and easy it is, are the opposite of what I like about knitting. (It's worth noting that it is exactly those elements that inspire the most abuse of both knitting and crochet, the deadly desire for fast and easy) I like that knitting is slower, and because it has more of my time in it...I feel like it is worth more. It's the old Protestant work ethic, if you didn't suffer, if it wasn't difficult, if you didn't sacrifice something....I'm sure you know what I mean. On the other hand...look at this, that's crochet that would please any Protestant. Crochet as an art form. Maybe that's what The Claw want's to do.

(Added July 15th 2004, I've had so many requests for this shawl pattern that I thought I would add a quick note to let you know that sadly, I don't have one. I invented the pattern on the fly, using the information here: http://www.hassdesign.com/DeltaCrochetTechniques/ as a start. Many apologies)

Posted by Stephanie at March 8, 2004 10:44 AM