She came, she saw....

....she decided not to conquer.

Sometimes you just have to give a thing a try to discover that it really isn't something you want to do.  During the month of May, I took a shawl design class at my local yarn store. Most shawls consist of lace patterns which are usually written in chart form.  Charts are great.  I find them easy to read and use, but creating one was much harder than it would seem.  After several days of wrestling over how one gets a pattern into chart form, and then creating a simple pattern, I came away from the exercise fully convinced that my creative ability does not naturally flow in that direction.  It is like learning another language, and I am sure over time I could gain some skill in it, but I would rather direct that energy into my quilting--especially since I am starting to get requests for my work, but that will be a subject for another time if anything comes of it.  

So, I want to express my appreciation to all those wonderful knitting designers who make the lovely patterns I can enjoy knitting.  Thank you!

Nostalgia

A couple of weeks ago my iron died, so a shopping I went.  And this is what I found:

The Black and Decker Classic--simple, straight forward, no fancy gadgets or features, and hopefully sturdy.  The only thing is that it makes me feel like I should get my hair bobbed, and don a gingham apron and high heels when I iron.  

Not In My Queue

A sweater for an introvert:

Created by Andrea Crew

Homework

I am taking a class--something I rarely do.  Most classes in my interests of quilting and knitting are about making a certain pattern or project, and I would rather spend the cost of the class on fabric or yarn.  This class, however, is about how to create a knitting pattern, with the object being a shawl, my favorite thing to knit.  Now, having 250+ shawl patterns already queued on Ravelry, it isn't like I am lacking in project ideas, and I don't really have an interest at this point of pursuing pattern design as a business venture.  I have, however, reached a point in my knitting where I would like to be able to modify a pattern I mostly like, or change an element to make it more unique to me.  So, for the first time in a very long time, I have homework to do.

Technically, I have homework with a personal Bible study I am doing, but I don't see it the same way.  There isn't really a deadline, and if there is a question I don't want to spend time on, I just skip it.  My class homework comes with a different level of expectation. First of all, this is a group project.  By group, I mean the shop owner, myself, and one other woman--about all the "group" I can handle. ;-)  We have a specific assignment and a deadline.  Granted, the deadline isn't hard and fast, but if we are going to make the most of these four weeks, then we need to keep up as best we can.  

Here are the beginnings:

Free download from Laylock

We are making the shawl pattern on the far right--the heart-shaped shawl.

First we need to do some swatching, or make a sample, to try out a lace pattern and get the hang of how the shaping works.  The stitches will show up best in a light colored yarn, so I will be using this cream colored yarn I had in my stash.

I picked out a lace pattern from a perpetual calendar on knitting stitches I had, printed out a list of knitting chart symbols, and put some graph paper in a notebook.  The yarn is ready, and now I need to draw out a chart of the pattern, and cast on.  We are off and running!