Sidetracked
Despite my stated and published objective of working on a new sweater design, what I have actually done over the past few days is this:
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Yes, indeed, that is not one but two new scarves I have started. The first is out of Classic Elite “Imagine,” 53% cotton, 47% rayon; I purchased a somewhat meager 4 skeins of this yarn at (now brace yourselves) Tuesday Morning. Since I have been looking through the stash a bit (see Monday’s post), I re-discovered this yarn and thought it would be nifty to just make a little something out of it. And what better kind of little something than a scarf? See how it’s making those stripes? Cool, huh? Well, I thought so, and so did this man (shown here with our son, Harvey):
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Who happens to be my husband of 15 years, Rob. The thing about Rob that you must understand is that, though he has the deepest respect for my knitting, he doesn’t really get it. That is, he doesn’t truly appreciate the more knitterly aspects of the craft. A complicated and beautiful lace pattern gets this response: “Neat.” A complicated stranded project: “Neat.” A large lace shawl that I have devoted hours and hours of my life to: “Neat.” This scarf, which I have spent about 2 hours on and relies completely on the yarn for its effect: “Wow! That’s cool! Is that for me?” Huh.
So, maybe it will be for him. Who can fathom the masculine mind?
The other little project up there is out of some handspun fingering/laceweight wool that I spun up earlier this year. I’ve had my eye on this stitch pattern for a while:
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This is from a German stitch dictionary entitled Omas Strickgeheimnisse which I purchased from Schoolhouse Press, and it comes with a handy-dandy cheat sheet/translation which allows one to actually recreate the stitch patterns. (They are all charted, so it’s not that hard.) I have a germ of an idea that this pattern would look good as a large stole/shawl, so I decided to try it out as a scarf first and see what I thought. So far I like it, although it’s really too early to tell.
And, I’ve been hanging out under the piano with Hugo, ’cause it’s hot here.
July 12th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Heh, heh. Alex is kind of the same way, but his version is to not *quite* look up from his computer at the FO and say, with a brightness and enthusiasm that sounds suspiciously forced, “That’s great!”
But he really loves the super-simple stocking cap I knit him two winters ago and is constantly pointing out to others that I knit it.
Celtic cabling? A beaded cardigan knitted on US #1s? “That’s great!” But he tries, and we have to give him credit for that.
July 12th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
I had another thought. Maybe there’s something about men and yarn that produces its own effects.
Here’s my evidence (to add to your story): the first time Alex saw me make socks with self-striping yarn, he hovered over me watching the stripes emerge and said, “Wow! It’s like…it’s like…magic!”
Of course, I too believe that self-striping sock yarn is like…magic.
July 13th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Ellen, I think you’ve answered your own question. Stripes are the form of knitting that enters into the male brain. The rest pass over, somewhat akin to the effect that discussions of football have on me. Eyes glaze over . . . “Neat.” I say.
Oh, and Damn, girl! You’d better hide those good lookin’ guys. Someone might try to steal them.
And one more thing. It’s going to be your fault if I get electrocuted drooling on my computer. Your yarn, your lace work. Marvy.
February 26th, 2007 at 10:33 am
did anyone ever tell you that your hubby looks like Richard Gere!! just love your blog keep up the great work :0))