May 15, 2012

On Wings

Yesterday's day off seems to have sort of been what I needed. I've still got a bit of a stuffy nose and cough, but I've turned a corner for sure, because it's clear that I'm going to live, and I don't mind that, which isn't something I can say about every day of the last week.  I really did spend yesterday doing something close to nothing - and made excellent progress on my wingspan,  though I thought for sure I would finish it, and that didn't happen.  Against my will, I fell asleep on the chesterfield, and as I'm sure many of you have noticed, holding knitting is far less effective than knitting it. 

Did I tell you how I came to be knitting Wingspan? Truth be told I was in a weakened state.  I'd had this cold for a week and I was right at the end of the little teaching tour, and I was in River Colors Studio in Ohio, and everyone there was so nice and so charming, and I'd been so good about not really buying anything. (Actually that's sort of a lie.  I bought a big fleece from Beth when I was at the Spinning Loft - but I don't think that counts.  Fleece isn't technically yarn and besides Beth cheats.  She washes you up a lock or two, and puts the fleece near you so the fumes get to you- and this time she even spun me a sample.  That's not fair - but it does work, and I have the fleece in the living room to prove it. )  Anyway, I was in the yarn shop and students started coming in, and a bunch of them were wearing Wingspan.  Now, I'm not blind and I don't live under a big knitted rock, so I'd seen this pattern around - and it didn't interest me much.  Sure it's sort of a cool construction and it looks fun, but there was something about the jazziness of it that didn't scream my name into the night, and life's too short to knit things that can't even mumble in your direction.  So that's what I thought, and then all these students came in (clearly this pattern and yarn combination had run through the shop like a virus) wearing Wingspan knitted out of Kauni.

I've got a soft spot for Kauni, as I do all colour-changing, self-striping yarns, and while the rainbow Kauni in wingspan was a little bright for my taste, there were knitters there wearing it knit out of the more subtle, lovely colourways - and once I'd seen three, I started to get a little suggestible. I'd finished the Color Affection and had started a little sweater for Lou, but I wasn't feeling it. (Never mind that I wasn't feeling much, except for some fairly strong feelings about human frailty as it relates to viruses) and somehow, when I got into my car to drive home from Lakewood, there was Kauni in my car. 

I started it that night when I got home, and now I'm really, truly almost done, and what a fast, fun, knit this is, and I really think that knit out of a lovely subtle shade of Kauni (EF) that it's sort of classy and cozy looking. (I totally get where the urge to knit it out of the rainbow shade comes from too. It's supremely entertaining to watch the different wedges emerge in different colours, and I can see how that entertainment would only be more exciting with more colours. I'm resisting through.)

The pattern calls for 8 wedges, but I'm going to keep going as long as the yarn holds out (probably 9 wedges, so not a huge modification.)  I totally would have finished today, but with the Bike Rally looming (and still feeling like I've made a big mistake to sign up) I'm swapping out my usual knitting time with coffee in the AM for putting my bum on my bike and going for training rides.  This morning was 30km, and it didn't go too badly, which is a big change from Sunday morning when ... well. I don't want to go into it, but let's say the world has one less chipmunk in it, and I have one more bruise.  (Unrelated events, sadly.  It was a bad day.)  There's an excellent chance I'm not quite built for this.  (Maybe I am. Who knows - it's a family team this riding the 600km this year - I'm riding, Ken's riding, my sister is riding, Amanda is riding, and so is Sam.  Megan's taking a year off because of work, but Pato's doing it. That's most of us, and if my sister can do it, so can I - or die trying.)

This afternoon I've got a ton to do, from writing to cleaning to shopping to... well all of the stuff I should have done yesterday and didn't, all lumped together with what I have to do today, and will.  Top of the list, tweaking my speech "This is your brain on knitting" (if you were in Sarnia or London to see me lately, you've probably heard it) so I can tell it to a hometown crowd tomorrow night when I'm the guest speaker at the Downtown Knit Collective. 
Looking forward to it - way more than the next training ride, and a tiny bit less than finishing Wingspan.

Posted by Stephanie at May 15, 2012 1:33 PM