Sunday, June 22, 2008

Shoalwater Lace Experience Begins

I was intending and looking forward to the Ravelry party today being held at The Studio. However, much to my disappointment, I am sick today with a full-blown cold and largingitis. So I'll have to miss it. Though I hardly EVER get sick, it's just my bad luck that my immune system would break down today, of all days, when I was SO looking forward to the Ravelry meetup. Blast it!


On Friday night, I started a lace project, Shoalwater Shawl, that I've been meaning to do for a couple of weeks now - it's a Prayer Shawl for a friend, Margo, who lost her son a few weeks ago. Though this will probably take me several weeks to knit up, I figure that she'll be in need of comfort for quite some time. It's kind of weird, but I had an emotional nudging to make this only a couple of days after her son's death. And the spiritual whisper I heard to do it also instructed me that it must be a dark, serene and peaceful BLUE to wrap her in the love of a son who is gone.

After several weeks of debating and searching for just the right yarn choice, the picture that kept springing into my mind was clear. I finally settled on the color "Nightwatch" in Dream In Color Smooshy. So I hope that she likes it, and I hope she doesn't dislike the color blue, because that's seriously what I was told - and the inner voice was quite insistent. Weird, I know this sounds rather "woooo wooooo woooo woooo" but so be it. It's especially weird since blue is my least favorite color.

When I say that I am beginning the Shoalwater Lace Experience - this probably sounds strange too. But I truly mean it. For me, knitting lace is a spiritual experience - especially this time making one deliberately as a prayer shawl and feeling some kind of internal prompting that isn't ME - it's an internal but it's being externally driven by . . . something.

A Bit About Talia. Yesterday when I went to Sip N Knit - hope I didn't give any of you the cold that I didn't know at the time I was coming down with. Kay came there and showed off her lovely finished Talia that looks great on her. My Talia project is within a hair's breath of being done. All I needed to do is block it and doing some finishing detail work around the underarms and neck. I'm so darn near finishing.

Kay modeled hers and pointed out that she blocked it BEFORE sewing the shoulder seams together. I decided that heck, I could do this afternoon while I'm housebound with the cold. So I gave it a wash and started blocking it.


Here's mine on the blocking bed. One thing I must note is that Lamb's Pride color bleeds A LOT and I had to wash it twice to get out the excess dye. This vest is a heavy one, so it may take a couple of days to dry. But when it's dry, I will sew it together and do that last bit of knitting around the edges and sew on the buttons and that's all that is left. It's about TIME I finished the vest that I started on May 1st. I've really been dragging my feet and being diverted by other projects.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend, and if you're going to the Ravelry party, eat a cupcake for me, will you?

3 comments:

Elysbeth said...

I'm sorry you had to miss Cupcakes.

Nice work on the vest.

I have that pattern, you will love it. And your friend will Feel it. (give it with a box of soft tissues)

Phyllis Bourne said...

Your Talia looks great.

Sorry you don't feel well and will have to miss the pattern, sweetie.

Debi said...

Hope you're feeling better!

The shawl is beautiful as is the sentiment behind it.