A new type of knitting!

I don't think I ever knew knitting could be this frustrating. I don't think I knew knitting could be this rewarding. I'm pretty much a practical knitter. I knit things that are useful and I use yarn that (if it's taken care of) should last generations. A lot of the new novelty yarns make me cringe! If I'm going to spend weeks out of my life making something for someone then I want their great-grandkids to still be wearing it. I know that most of the people I knit for probably don't think or feel this way about it, but I can maintain my illusions and keep my pretty scrapbook filled with pictures of yarn and sweaters and the people they were knit for. My point is, that for the most part, I've knit bulky warm scarves and warm sweaters and practical baby clothes and blankets. I don't think I've ever before chosen to knit something just because it was beautiful. It'll be warm, sure....but I don't really care about that. It's exquisite. It floats...and it's lace. I'm almost a third of the way through the main body of this shawl and I'm totally in love. I curse at it, reknit row after row (because for some reason, I can NEVER get the right number of yarn overs in there) but it's going to be worth it. Absolutely. Here's what it looks like so far...



When it's done, it will be about 20 inches wide (lace stretches a lot, plus there's a border to put on it). I'm knitting both halves of it at the same time (which is probably one reason why it's so frustrating), but they will be joined end to end when I'm done.




It's going to creep along for at least another week or two, and besides another baby sweater or two, I'm really not going to work on anything else, so I'll be posting up some projects from the past year that are now happily living with their new families.