Sometimes you feel like a nut... - wildwoodwoolery.com

“Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t!” That old candy bar jingle has been stuck in my head for days. No, I am not yearning for a Mounds™ or an Almond Joy™. I just noticed that my knitting and spinning have veered in the direction of nutty or not lately. Just check out my latest two hats!

My August knitting projects were to complete Fox Paws – a pattern of some popularity and difficulty by Xandy Peters – and Stardance – an elegant pattern by Romi Hill.

I knit Fox Paws on a timeline as part of a KAL (Knit ALong). I started it on August 1st and I am pretty sure I ripped the first pattern repeat 4 times before I understood what I was doing and had the correct number of stitches. By the time I finished the project 20 repeats later, I couldn’t get the numbers out of my head. The pattern is created using stitch increases and decreases. You never knit with more than one color at a time. Really, it is pretty simple if you take out the fact that a moment’s inattention and you are ripping out miles of laborious knitting. I counted and counted. My husband didn’t like the pattern because I couldn’t carry on a conversation while knitting – I had to count. Every row. I loved the pattern, really I did. But I couldn’t knit it in company or while watching television. It required and received my attention the whole time I was knitting. By the end, I could count every row, drink white wine, and carry on a slightly stilted conversation. Still, no television, not really. Is that a difficult pattern? Yes, because it took devotion and concentration. I love the result – no non-knitter could appreciate how intense and satisfying it was. And it is clearly a nutty pattern!

On the other hand, Stardance looks like a complex and difficult knit. It is elegant and uses lace weight yarn – very delicate indeed. But Romi’s patterns all have an internal rhythm that makes knitting them easier than one would think. I had decisions to make as to how large to go – where I wanted beads incorporated – what colors to use – but I was able to pick it up after two months had elapsed and get right back into that rhythm. The knitting flew off the needles. Unlike Fox Paws, this shawl isn’t finished until after it is washed and blocked. After a thorough wetting, I pinned out each and every point (check out the lower edge in the picture on the left). And oh boy, am I happy with how it turned out! The beads give it wonderful drape. I think it will look very elegant on someone.

Spinning gives me a similar range of expression – my mood is reflected in the colors and styles of the yarn I am creating. A very fine, somewhat subdued colorway: not nutty. Bright tailspun locks: nutty. Barberpole ply: nutty.