Tag Archives: knitting

Knitting Misadventures: The Shawl

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I decided to have a lo-fi weekend after last week’s mental lapses. Yes, that’s plural—I forgot another meeting on Friday. Clearly the Spirit is throwing the red flag, sounding the alarms, ah-OOga! ah-OOga! This reverend-mother is on overload! So I took the weekend off from Facebook and the computer in general. I love you guys, but it was excellent. I feel much more grounded today.

One of the things I did was work on the shawl. I’ve been working on this thing for years, no exaggeration, but I’m almost done—I’ve gotta bind off and do some ribbing around the neck. It’s been something of a disaster, actually. It’s a lace pattern, which was a new thing for me anyway, but I found out early on that the pattern in the book was wrong. I got a corrected pattern off the internet, but now it drapes much shorter than it’s supposed to. (Some correction!)

I also made some mistakes along the way which are pretty obvious. I realized it at the time, but I couldn’t figure out how to unknit psso’s and k2togs. And let me remind you knitters out there—check the dye lot. It’s not hugely obvious, but…

Robert and I had a laugh over it last night. I tell people that my knitting is in the same spiritual vein as the Persian rug makers who always put in a mistake because only God is perfect. Except that they do it on purpose.

Oh well. A recovering perfectionist, one of my intentions this month is “make a mistake” and this shawl is replete with them.

But it will turn out fine, and I will wear it with gladness, because of all the history that’s in it. I’ll wear it and recall the fabulous, witty woman from my previous church who took me to the cozy knitting store and encouraged me to buy this rich blue yarn. And I’ll remember my clergy systems group, and The Well, and my fellow writers in Collegeville. I attended each of these gatherings with this monstrosity on my lap, knitting away while we talked and kvetched; I occasionally had to stop mid-row to wipe tears of laughter from my eyes. And I’ll remember many, many, many hours of watching LOST with Robert. Those memories are all knitted up in it: Linda G. and self-differentiation and “WTF” awards and the book of Isaiah and favorite novels and “not Penny’s boat.”

That’s life, eh?

That is life.

Image: Someone else’s version of the shawl I’m knitting. I wonder what memories are tangled up in hers.

Reverb #6: Make

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Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

We’re making a lot of our Christmas gifts this year, and buying less stuff. So I have made a lot of different things in the past week or so, but I can’t say what any of them are because gift recipients read this blog. But here are a few materials we have used:

  • butter
  • acrylic paint
  • sharpie
  • wrapping paper
  • nutmeg
  • laptop

Slight digression: We’ve been studying the Advent Conspiracy at church, and yesterday the topic was “give more,” which emphasizes “relational gifts” rather than the easy and impersonal sweater or gift card. Back when Robert and I were newly married, we did the Hundred-Dollar Holiday for several years. I’ve loved Bill McKibben’s stuff for years and wish we were related; I suppose we are if you go back far enough.

We didn’t stick to $100 strictly, but we bought very little other than supplies for whatever we were making. We did it because we resonated with the concept of simplicity and spending less, particularly at Christmas. We also did it because we had more time than money back then. Now the exact opposite is true—it’s time that’s scarce, and the time we have is measured in little fragments between piano lessons and dinner, or kid bedtime and adult bedtime. So it feels more sacrificial, in a way, to make things. The Advent Conspiracy folks are really big on making gifts ultra-personal: thinking about each specific person, what he or she means to you, and what would make the person feel loved. We’re not really doing that, but I like the place we’re standing nonetheless.

Back to reverb: one thing I want to finish is a shawl/poncho that I started a year ago and have worked on in fits and starts. It’s been a bit of a disaster, as much of my knitting turns out to be. It’s a little short in the torso—the pattern in the book had a mistake in it, and the correction makes everything a bit more compressed (it’s a lace pattern). I have no idea what I’m going to do about that so I’ve been in this sort of perfectionistic denial about the whole thing. I really need to just finish it already and figure out what to do.

I’m thinking fringe. Fringe makes everything better.