With Apologies

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Dear Knitting,

I’d like to apologize for the way I’ve been treating you these last few days.   You’re a beautiful Laminaria shawl, and you’re really the prettiest green silk thread, and I feel badly about ignoring you.

I could see the way you were lurking at me while I was looking at the Margaret Stove book this morning, and I could tell that you were angry that I was ogling  other laceweights, but it’s not what you think.   It’s just that the shawls in there are all shiny and new and sort of exciting and it’s not that you’re not pretty or exciting, because you really are, and I love you a lot,  it’s just that our relationship is,   well… you’re sort of  ummm… mature, and I mean that in a good way.  Who really wants one of those floozy fancypants wedding ring shawls anyway.  They’re not even green.  You’re real and experienced and we know each other and I’m happy with what I’ve got here at home with you.

In any case, I was absolutely not thinking about actually knitting with those other shawls in that book and I know it sort of looked like I was looking at their charts, but I wasn’t.   I was just… reading it for the articles.  

109 thoughts on “With Apologies”

  5. Pssst. Green shawl? If she ever steps out on you, you know where you can find some true warmth and affection. I’ll leave the key under the mat.

  6. oh yes, I have to have those types of conversations with my knitting all the time too. Love Laminaria and it has been on my list since the first day I saw it; I just can’t decide on a yarn. Maybe it will be next.

  7. Uh-oh. Am in a coffee shop with a friend and just showed her the blog. Another lurker has been born.

  9. Dear Laminaria,
    Give it a week, and she’ll be calling YOU the ‘floozy fancypants.’ Be prepared.

  11. *snorts soda through nose*
    Poor Laminaria, feels like it’s being abandonned? Once it’s complete, it can come live with me, and I promise to love it and cherish it forever and evers. No schmancy wedding ring shawls here. 😉
    Don’t let the shawl overhear your blog name (Yarn Harlot) lest it get ideas that you’re anything but monogamous with your knitting.
    Speaking of, what socks are you knitting for your sock club this month? 🙂

  14. I just read how Justin Timberlake was caught cheating on his beautiful girlfriend. People tend to wander (or at least have wandering eyes.)

  15. I don’t believe a word of it. It is definitely not the articles (and it wouldn’t be for the articles if I were flipping through the book either), so you have every reason to be concerned!

  17. I LOVE that shawl. I want to knit it someday when my knitting isn’t relegated to sometime after 10pm or during skating practice. I’ve read so much about it. Please tell us what you think about knitting it. It is stunning. And… I wouldn’t call it mature so much as full-bodied 😉

  18. LOL…love the knitting letters, although this is the 3rd keyboard this year that I have spilled coffee into when I am laughing…
    Love the shawl…

  19. “for the articles”?? it’s the cast-on knitting that is always the last to know… TOO FUNNY!

  23. Well, what goes around comes around. If I remember correctly, Lumaneria was the Pretty young thing that seduced you away from October’s sock. She’s just getting a taste of her own medicine, I’d say.

  25. Does the shawl know about the dark blue sweater? Perhaps they’ll meet one day in the dark, abandoned closet. Maybe they’ll finish each other?!

  26. Hi, Stephanie: Will you be publishing a calendar for 2011? I haven’t found it on any bookstore websites yet.

  28. You just made my day. Thank goodness I learned a long time ago to put my drink down before checking your blog. My computer thanks you for that.
    The poor knitting. It is bad enough when there are patterns and charts hidden all over the house but now it is just so easy to find free online knitting articles and…….. charts. In colour, no less.

  31. If you tire of that yarn, please send the poor abused little ball down to me in the lower 48. It’s gorgeous and as I am the green girl, the color works!!! :>)
    Lovely bit of knitting you have there.
    Diana

  32. It’s not my knitting I have to apologize to, it’s my mother! I’d get constant badgering, “Have you finished that shawl yet? What about Christmas? Have you decided what you’re making everyone? You better get started. Have you started your baking yet? Where are you putting your decorations? I think you’d better finish that shawl and start on your Christmas knitting or it’ll never get done.” She sews. I think sewing’s less forgiving. Knitting always forgives the odd…indiscretion, doesn’t it?
    P.S. Sorry for bringing up Christmas. Mum’s become a voice in my head that I can’t stop.

  33. I left my mature Laminaria last year in favor of . . . I can’t even remember. I too really like the pattern and the yarn. I HAVE been keeping it close by in the living room knitting basket, when so many other laceweights have been forgotten in my upstairs yarn room. But will I remember where I left off? Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t have risked it.

  34. Dear Stephanie,
    I know I began as an accidental something-on-the-side, but my feelings have grown. I long for the days when we’d spend hours together, just enjoying each other’s company. I’ve seen how you look at other patterns when they pass by. I was warned about your wandering eye (I’ve chatted with Joe’s Gansey), but thought I had what it took to keep your attention. After all, I’m green, I’m lacy – what more do you want from a shawl? I, too, can be a floozy fancypants, just give me a chance.
    Sincerely,
    Laminaria

  35. Listen, Laminaria knew you were a Harlot when it let you “get to first base” (cast on). It went into this relationship with its eyes open. No use complaining now. (It’s gorgeous. What could possibly be tempting you away?)

  36. Poor Laminaria. One week, she’s the sweet, pretty, new thing; the next week, she’s wondering if there’s another project. She should probably talk to Joe’s gansey…

  39. You’ve been with Laminaria for what, a week? And the bloom is off the rose already.
    But you’ve been with Joe for something over 20 years.
    Congratulations on picking the right thing to be fickle about.

  42. Ohh your shawl is beautiful. So funny that just today I finally added four silk shawl yarns to my Rav stash page. Along with those are my Blue Moon Silk Thread II in Pond Scum. Is yours the Pond Scum also ? Whatever it is, it’s pretty.

  43. Of course you were just reading the articles, you harlot. Drat that Margaret Stove. Says the shawl.

  45. Day after Joe’s birthday might not have been the best possible day to work this trope. Just sayin’.

  47. Reading it for the articles? Don’t deny it – you were ogling the smutty pictures, too.

  48. wow, your shawl is absolutely beautiful, I wish I could make a lace shawl, but, Lace yarn is out of my budget 🙂
    Charlotte
    suspenseknitter.blogspot.com

  49. i love this one. especially the line about reading the articles. i laughed out loud. thank you for sharing 🙂

  50. Hey Steph,
    Love the shawl, but you have been “outed” with your obviously “ball winder” wound ball of SILK THREAD which you said to NEVER wind on a ball winder!! Those of us who have been and those of us who are coming to the Knot Hysteria Silk Retreat have been spying on you! HAHA!! LOL! Hmmmm…..”do as I say, not as I do”??
    Can’t wait to see you in 10 days!!!! YAY!!!
    Tamara

  52. Enabler! Just placed an order with Amazon for that book. Along with another lace knitting book that I’ve been coveting to get free shipping. Hope my cardigan doesn’t get too jealous.

  53. I was just… reading it for the articles.
    Oh god, I laughed so hard at that.
    And it is a nice green thread…

  54. Well you do claim to be a Harlot and you were exposed to Margaret so it’s no wonder you’re “reading the articles” and eying that cobweb lace weight you spun at SOAR. But you are so close to being done with a wonderful shawl. Try very hard to go against your nature and complete Laminaria before casting on one of those luscious new patterns.

  56. Totally off-topic: What kind of camera do you use? I *love* this photo and doubt I could get that much detail with my Canon PowerShot something-or-other. Please say you secretly bought a fancy-pants SLR-type camera so I feel less like a photography dunce. (Beautiful shawl, btw.)

  58. A whisper to the divinely green Ms L: Not to worry dear; as soon as you’re soaked and blocked within an inch of your dear little life, you, too, will floozy up quite nicely. Hang in there and demand the attention you so rightly deserve.

  59. Totally not on point, but I purchased your Baby Yours pattern at the Silk Retreat, and the yarn.. Finished it and gave it to my first grandbaby last weekend.. She loves it….The sweater is beeee-uuuuu-teeee-ful. The mom liked it too.

  62. Has there been an update on the furnace wars that I missed. Surely your heat is on now. I’ve returned home to Kingston for a couple weeks from Florida and the furnace has been on here a while and my daughter is super-frugal. Lovely shawl.

  64. I could write letters like this to all of my yarn, all of the projects that I have planned etc. I’m pretty good at remaining focused on one or two projects…but I’m constantly ogling other yarns and other patterns.
    When it comes to knitting, I’m a serial bigamist. And I’m okay with that.

  67. I imagine it would be powerless feeling oneself partially ‘done’…well, little green shawl needs to know she has a lifetime ahead of her to wrap herself about shoulders and necks; being very needed.

  68. I pre-ordered Margaret Stove’s book and am overcome with jealousy that I don’t have mine yet. I’m pretty sure that Laminaria has a good reason to feel the way she does.

  70. Hussy. Reading the articles indeed. I know you’re stroking the charts and fondling other yarns to see when you can cast them on. Don’t think I can’t tell.

  71. Tamara
    I’m the rogue silk ball winder. I just couldn’t sit here and let Steph take the heat for my obvious disregard for the rules. Besides I bet I’ve clocked in enough ball winding meters,yards, minutes,hours,days…to be considered a bit of an expert at it.
    Insert unapologetic sheepish grin here.

  72. I am SO thrilled you mentioned the Margaret Stove book – I peeked on Amazon and it looks superb. Her granddaughter Tash (who runs her own gorgeous yarn store Knitsch.co.nz) is a talented dyer that has inherited grandma’s talent, these things run in families! I can’t wait for my copy of the book, and, no I am not beside myself with envy taht you have your own copy already…….

  73. That shawl is green though, how can you abandon green knitting? Green knitting is clearly the best knitting out there 🙂

  74. Laminaria… a picture is just a picture.
    You dear, sweet yarn, can be reached out to and touched. You are beautiful in 3D, so lovely….
    and you smell so nice…other more grateful knitting baskets call out to you …
    I too will leave a key under the mat…

  76. Oh, how you do make me laugh. A few weeks ago, I wrote a similar love note to my yarn and needles. They have been sorely neglected during this, my first year of teaching.
    Thanks for giving me a chuckle this morning.

  77. hehe, I too wound my silk laceweight on my ball winder. Having learned that this is often the way to all sorrow, I did it carefully and slowly and monogamously until it was all wound and it ended up okay. Glad to see I’m not the only one who winds … erm … fast and loose(?) around here.

  78. Your letters/notes to your knitting are hilarious! I might use this one to my minimally started Laminaria. 😉

  80. *snort* That was funny! “I’m only reading the articles…”
    Keep it up, Steph. I really needed that laugh today, what with the US elections and all.

  82. I’m sure that Laminara was put wise by your stash and your basket and Joe’s gansey. She’ll be fine and she’ll be beautiful……eventually.

  84. uh oh.. a new book.. at least christmas is coming! and I just want it for the articles too 🙂

  85. Laminaria is a wonderful shawl and has been on my needles for a year. I ran into snags, not other projects, but I have to frog a good part of it and that has me shaking in my boots. Some day ….

  86. That yarn and shawl looks amazing. I wish I had skills like you do!!!
    I find lace intimidating, but will be trying it very soon. It’s too pretty to be scared of!

  87. Ah, you made my morning. Bit of sad and crazy around here this week and I smiled right down to my toes with this. Thanks-

  88. I can’t help but notice that you were looking at the new book but the book is not released yet according to Amazon. What a lucky duck you are!

  91. Heavens Stephanie….show some consideration. No need to be so blatant about your cheating ways. Have the decency to cover your projects with a towel or something before you start…well…you know.

  92. Too funny, Steph!!! The day will come, and Lamanaria will be a FO, and then you’ll be forced to cast on something else. It’s inevitable–so, she really shouldn’t be offended…just sayin’.

  93. I am still trying to figure out if the pictured knitting is a Margaret Stove shawl, or if the light was really strange, or if I have finally gone completely around the bend. (With the day I’ve had at work, the third one is looking highly plausible.) Just tell Laminaria that if she wanted fidelity she shouldn’t have hooked up with a knitter with Harlot in her blog name.
    (I sometimes wonder, “how come she likes yellow so much? it’s a terrible color.” Then I remember, or am reminded by a picture of you wearing yellow, that it’s a terrible color *on me*. Vive la différence.)

  94. You talk so nice and soothing. I wish certain people in my ife would treat me as well. That Luminaria doesn’t quite realize how lucky she is!

  95. That green beauty is so…..beautiful. It makes me feel calm just looking at it!
    This is my first comment on your blog…I finished the entire archive the other day, so this is the next step, I suppose.

  96. now we know why you are called “harlot” toying with the emotions of existing possible royalty.
    Welcome to reality

  97. now we know why you are called “harlot” toying with the emotions of existing possible royalt (existing shawl….)
    Welcome to reality

  106. Dreaming of the end.
    Will it ever come to me?
    This is my hobby?
    Please, let the random winner be me!

  108. Thank you for another great article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such a perfect way of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.

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