When You're Sick...

 ...knit a shawl.  
Here I am, sick as the proverbial dog, modelling the Shetland Triangle Shawl on this Easter Sunday.  I'm tempted to call it The 21 Jump Street Shawl because I watched a whole season of  that mindless eighties series on DVD this week while sitting on the sofa knitting.  I've been absolutely flattened by a nasty virus that has been complicated by a dental emergency.  It's been the kind of illness that only bad TV, rhythmic knitting and massive amounts of  painkillers can make bearable.  (When I say bad TV, I mean So-bad-it's-good).
Anyway, the virus is subsiding and the sun is shining this afternoon.  I'm beginning to recover from Stage One of what promises to be a long and expensive dental process.  Also, I have a pretty new shawl.  
This is the third pattern I've knit by Evelyn A. Clark.  It is not an intentional happening.  I guess I'm just drawn to her designs.

Sneak Peek

She's done but I haven't managed a good picture yet.  
I only took a quick snap today because I feel crappy.  I feel crappy because where once was a tooth in my head, there is now a gaping hole.  Getting a bad tooth pulled out, while not as horrible an experience as I feared, still rather sucks.  The dentist assures me that by tomorrow, with the help of lots and lots of painkillers and a liquid diet, I should feel much better.


In the meantime, here is the focussed portion of the Shetland Triangle Shawl photo.

Eight Thousand Three Hundred and Twenty-Two

That's how many Raveller's cast on Jaywalkers before I.  Talk about a pattern going viral!  I was so in love with the sharp colour change of this Kaffe Fassett Regia, that I knew it would look stunning in chevrons. If you think you recognize this yarn, you're right.  Barbie is sporting it as a dress a few posts back. 

I've promised myself not to knit any new socks for a while.  There are several pairs in the WIP basket awaiting repair.  I tend to wear my socks out on the ball of the foot so I just need to cut back to there and reknit the toes to get more life out of them.  There's enough leftover yarn to do this in at least two cases.

In other knitting, the Shetland Triangle is very near completion.  Pictures soon I hope.

Knitting Spring

Weather-wise, Saturday in TO was abysmal, filled with constant rain and high winds.  It was the kind of day that makes it difficult to get out of pyjamas, much less get any housework accomplished.  I can proudly report that I did dress (in sweat pants) but no housework got done.  Instead I threw some spring coloured stash yarn on the swift and then cast on - madly willing the season to arrive with my knitting needles.

This is Evelyn Clark's Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style with a rather non-traditional yarn choice.  I had purchased this homespun silk slub from an Ebay seller years ago.  It's vaguely crunchy, thick & thin and has a slight glow.  It's also light as air and is sure to knit up into a barely-there small wrap.  I own six single skeins  of this silk in six different colours.  This Easter lavender (the true colour is less pink than in the photograph) will bring the crocuses and tulips but is probably not enough yardage to finish even the small version of the triangle.  So the plan is to knit the border in the cornflower blue.  I think it will be very pretty.

Second Stanza

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

I've continued my reading of this Yeats poem.  One article describes it as a metaphorical journey to a land of one vast eternal design in search of a song for the soul, not the body,  I like that.  I feel the part about the outward tatters too.  As my outer self becomes increasingly so, and is thus often ignored and devalued by those around me, my inner self is still quite capable at times of magnificent singing and clapping.

This is why I love the Internet!  While searching around for various analyses of the text, I came across this AMAZING online exhibition by The National Library of Ireland.
Poetry.  Knitting patterns.  The world wide web is a nerdy paradise far beyond the scope of social networking.

Did Yeats Snooze At The Screen?

Sailing to Byzantium (first stanza)

THAT is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect    
Monuments of unageing intellect.

William Butler Yeats 

I came across this the other day in an old anthology of mine.   As if I'm the first person to ever read it!. A revelation. Though, try as I might, I still don't see Javier Bardem of Tommy Lee Jones in these lines.  Seriously.  I just don't get it. I've been over and over it.  Possibly the language is too thick for me and the allusions too specific.

Well I get some of it.  Is it possible to sail off from here to mythical Byzantium, home of art and gold, when one is so fastened to a dying animal?

 "THAT" which we are leaving, sailing away from.  Ireland?  Toronto? Geography in general?  This mortal coil?

Because I Am Cool

As if knitting Barbie clothes isn't cool enough, I've also recently finished a Harry Potter Gryffindor scarf.  It's actually for The Daughter to wear to the midnight screening of the finale in July and is modelled after the Philosopher's Stone version. Nineteen stripes, eleven fringe per side, stripe width to height ratio equals approx. 3:2.. One must be correct in these things. 
My poor kid.  "After Harry Potter finishes,"  she says "my life will have no meaning."

Pattern:  Hogwarts Scarf by Lauren Kent
Yarn:  Cascade 220, 2 skeins Burgundy, 2 skeins Goldenrod
Needles: 5mm circs

Mad Men Anyone?

  Is it just me or is this curvy dress reminiscent of of Marilyn circa How To Marry A Millionaire?


This was the predicted quick satisfaction. I cast on the little bit of leftover Regia from the latest sock project and then just continued with some generic blue from the stash. The longest process is the finishing - crocheting the edges, weaving in all those tiny ends and sewing the teeny tiny snaps to the placket.
Love the cinched waist line and hip celebrating decreases on the skirt.  I just wish I had some cute shoes to complete the look.