Annie Modesitt's Twisted Float Shrug
Photos are coming ... sometime!
I have been a busy little knitter. (Well, OK, I'm big and middle-aged). Besides finishing a couple of two-color Brioche scarves for charity, half a Brioche (so far) for a friend, and another rainbow-hued one for my favorite 5-year-old, I made progress on a Smooshy sock (the second of a pair I started as a class example) and knit a 12-inch "pizza pie" three times.
So what's a knitted pizza pie, and why did I do it thrice?
I took Annie Modesitt's Twisted Float Shrug class at the shop this past weekend, and had a great time. I like her encouraging approach, and I learned a lot of little tips and techniques along with learning how to measure for and construct the shrug. Alas, however, the contrast color I originally chose wasn't looking as nice as I'd hoped, so after I'd knit a piece about 12" in diameter, (the shrug is a big circle with sleeves) I decided to change the contrast color. (The main color is a gorgeous teal/yellow green/smoky blue variegated in Cherry Tree Hill's worsted; my original contrast was a dark orange tone-on-tone in Araucania Nature Wool worsted. But the orange was too similar in value to the main color, as my boss lady helpfully pointed out, so it looked flat. Well, OK, it IS flat, in dimension that is, but the color is supposed to have more depth! So a coworker helped me audition other contrast colors and we came up with a rich chocolate brown in Cascade 220. It's stunning, if I do say so myself. And thanks, Ms. Coworker; you know who you are.)
I'm going to do the border in Cherry Tree Hill's Baby Loop boucle in the Java colorway. It should pick up the smoky blue and the chocolate tones nicely. I may have to bulk it up with some Kid Seta fingering mohair, or double the Baby Loop, as it's only a sport weight, and worsted is called for.
Having knit the initial teal et. al. /orange pizza, I started over with the teal/chocolate. I love the way the colors are working with each other. But I was not at all happy with the way I'd been carrying the chocolate yarn up through the 4 rounds of main color. So, once again, the pizza was frogged down to a demitasse-sized coaster, and I started again, cutting and weaving in the contrast strands so I don't have to carry the brown up through the blue. Now it looks like I wanted it to. And it really only took a couple hours to knit each pizza. I'm so glad I started over and got it right. (Photos coming sometime!)
P.S.: See if you can find "Superbunny" at the store, wearing my class swatch in teal and orange.
Freddie Krueger
A friend of mine has been knitting -- and knitting, and knitting -- an intarsia baby sweater. The intarsia is disagreeing with her, much like a liverwurst full of e. coli. Intarsia disagrees with me, too, and I with it. I know I can do it, I just don't care to do it, in the same way that I know I could make fancy cookies like Martha Stewart's, but ... who cares? If I don't enjoy it, why do it? I'm going to leave Martha's title as cookie diva unchallenged, and the intarsia divas can have their beautiful, repellent craft to themselves, too.
Anyway, the particular sweater design my friend is knitting is called "Freddie". It's a very cute sweater, a pullover with a star (or is it a snowflake?) on the front. She has picked up the project and put it down several times, and, as mentioned, is not enjoying it now that she is at the intarsia portion. She even lost the sweater for over a year, I think in the instinct of self-preservation. I think we identified the base problem when it came to me that the sweater is called Freddie ... it must be Freddie Krueger!
My friend called yesterday and said that Freddie Krueger is dead. She has decided to do the sweater plain, without the accursed star/snowflake. I admire her for this; I'm sure it was tempting to do as another friend of mine once did, and burn the offending item in a ceremonial fire while doing a sprightly dance.
So, Freddie is gone. I guess we'll have to rename the sweater. How about Clive? I don't know of any evil "Clive"s, do you?
