The Wanderer -- Part the First

Doo wop The Wanderer. That would be me this last week.

Oh. My. God. Did I have a great time. I haven't laughed so hard in years. No lie.

Then, living out of a suitcase that I am, Delta misplaced it on the return trip. THE suitcase. What was killing me was all the laceweight in it from Joslyn's fiber farm, and the roving/sliver I picked up for a song from Meg Swansen's very own stash. The clothing? Yeah that hurt too.

Finally they found it last night. Whew. So I'm back to living out of a suitcase again. Never thought I'd say that with happiness but life does do interesting things sometimes.

But first, thanks to the newly found camera cable, some pix of the FOs from before my trip.

Here's the Fruitcake Knits fir cone shawl finished, made from my Barcelona Knits friend Betty's yarn gift from when she was in town and we did a yarn crawl.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I had to block it on my studio partition at right angles for it to fit, but I took the picture so you could see how it really looks.

My studio is not on a Titanic style slant.

Here is a closeup of the edging. These pix are all from before the fire. You can see the subtle gradations in color, and even a little of the yarn's slubby blue features. I love this shawl.

The pattern was a good one, and the yarn blocked out beautifullly. It all started from the center back and spread out from there, so I knit till I thought I had only enough left for the edging and then started the edging.  I guessed right too; if I'd done another repeat I would have run out. The edging took up more yarn than I thought it would, but isn't that always the way with edgings.

Next in the queue is the collective afghan for a friend with health issues.

30 squares.  All Koigu. Now if that isn't healing I don't know what is.

The only restriction on the group's creativity was that every square be in Koigu and 10 inches square.  Everyone picked their own colors and patterns, and I put it together. (I did a square too.)

So so worth it. It's hard to see the detail on some of them, but they are really incredible.  Two of the pieces were in shadow knitting, with one appearing as a heart, and the other as the LOVE graphic you may remember from the Love postage stamp and the movie Love Story.

Some are beaded. One has the King Charles brocade pattern. 

A number have tree, leaf and other life force motifs in raised texture, really more bas relief sculpture than anything else. The quilt block was perfection, a tour de force of looking just about as neat on the reverse as on the front.

All in all an amazing effort.

And it's already being snuggled under.

Part the Second: Chicago, or, what happens when you track down your very best friends and places from your formative years.

Comments

[Publicado por: Maria del Valle]

I like the square and the triangle. They are precious, nice works!!!

[Publicado por: dulce]

É, sem dúvida, uma colcha muito original parabéns

[Publicado por: monkeemaven]

Beautiful shawl and the afghan is amazing - what a labour of love you and your friends made there!

[Publicado por: LynnH]

Nilda, I've been so focused this summer on my own stuff that I've been behind on everyone else's blogs. Sarah Peasley told me she met you in WI and had me go catch up. I'm so sorry about the fire, so glad you all are safe. Do take care of yourself!

[Publicado por: betty]

el fir cone triangular shawl ha quedado espectacular! yo también estoy tejiendo uno, pero sin prisa, y no con esa lana, así que no sé si qeudará igual de bonito. :)