Smocked Slouch from Genuine Purl - Day 2

Smock Value...

The smock stitch, besides looking more complicated than it is (big value in my book), crafts an ideal hat band.  It’s just hearty enough to give this hat some shape without being too stiff.  It really is the perfect touch, and a clever piece of design.  

Part of me wishes I had a lighter color to show off the "criss-cross" motif better, but light hats--like light mittens--are just asking to get dirty.  I bought a white houndstooth scarf and gloves once, and they looked smashing...for a week.  Within ten days they’d gone grey in more places than your grandmother and looked sad instead of smashing.  This dark green--sort of a heathery British racing green--will do just fine.

From just the little bit I’ve seen, the texture of the stockinette portion of this hat is going to be amazing.  Some yarns just fade into the basic of stockinette, while others make it a showplace of texture and color.   This is definitely the latter.  Is it the multi-layered color?  Is it the particular nature of the chain-construction?  I don’t know, nor do I think I care.  It’s best not to overanalyze knitting beauty--better to simply enjoy how it runs through your fingers.

Next up, I’ll start the increases that will shape the crown of this hat and really see how the stockinette stacks up to the smock band.  “How the Stockinette Stacks”--that’s either a soap opera or a great book title...

Honey Cowl from Cream City Yarn - Day 2

“You knit to save your life.”  Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle

Non-knitters would find this statement hyperbole, but we know better.  

There are days--weeks, months, even entire years--where the act of knitting becomes the only candle holding the darkness at bay.  Times where everything else feels too complex, too ineffectual, too demanding...and we hide behind our needles.

I have known the life-and-death moments of knitting, mostly done on cold vinyl hospital chairs and scratchy “family conference room” couches.  I have also known the less dire curveballs of life, the ones that pummel you with random frequency.  Both bring hours where I must knit, because it’s all I can do.

These are the places were the graces of texture and rhythm show their kind faces.  The softness of yarn slides between my fingers to accomplish small beauties when everything else in my day feels sharp and tangled.  

Oh, how I have loved my knitting these last few days.  I am not knitting to save my life (or someone else’s), thank goodness,  but our family is facing yet another medical challenge, and I am knitting to find my footing.  Again.  Weaving the three-ply strand of yarn and prayer and the tiniest of accomplishments so that row by row, peace is restored.

I know you know what I mean.

Diagonal Rib Infinity Scarf from Stitch(es) - Day 2

Tell me how you really feel...

There are projects where texture really matters, and this is one of them.  Nothing can ruin your day like a scratchy scarf irritating your neck--even if it is one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever knitted.  I’m not at all above relegating even gorgeous projects to the limitations of a turtleneck (as in “not touching my bare neck again, sister!"), because beauty does have its costs.  Yet, there is a special place in my heart for those projects that FEEL as good as they LOOK--and not just to my fingertips.

Sue has matched the soft loft of this baby alpaca with just the right needle size to give a plush feeling that still allows for warmth.  That’s the sign of a quality designer in my book.  Anyone can knit a rectangle and call it a scarf--it’s a great designer that knows just why diagonal rib will give a lovely drape and why a size larger needle would be too open but a size smaller would stiffen things up.

And then there’s the color.  I’ve tried to help the camera catch the deep, botanic teal of this yarn, but I’m not having much luck.  Take my word for it--it’s lovely.  With just a hint of color variation to give a mysterious depth.

At first I thought I was going to need a marker to notate the beginning of each row, but when I realized I was just shifting each set of “purl 3”s over one stitch to form the diagonal line, It no longer mattered where I was in the loop.  Just the right amount of thinking here--no zone-out miles of garter or stockinette, but no brain-bending lace charts, either.

A really lovely project that I'm enjoying!