It started off humbly enough somewhere in December when I started Mim's Mountain Peaks Shawl. And last night, with total disregard of my wrist and thumb (not carpal tunnel, I think it's repetitive stress), I finished it. This is what it pretty much looked like:
But then I invoked a little faerie magic (it's the Midsummer birthday), retrieved my 'magic' blocking wires, gave the thing a much desired and needed bath and after a massage where I rolled it up in a towel and did an Irish jig upon said towel, I began spreading it out.
It was dry before I was even done:
But I dampened it with damp towel, wet washcloth and finally wetting my hands and patting the thing down once it was completely blocked. And it worked quite well.
The whole transition from ragged ramen to blocked lace is amazing, I really do love the whole look and the blocking wires were WELL worth their price from KnitPicks. And the best part of the deal is that my mom absolutely loves it.
The Other FO This Week:
Tangled yarn is nasty, especially when it looooves to cling to itself. It's almost as if it gains a personality, a deviant personality with a wicked sense of humor. And sometimes it gets to be so bad that you just want to throw it in the trash. Which is precisely what a girl about did on the Lime & Violet messageboards. But I told her that I'd take it off her hands in exchange for cookies (except that I'm a very bad person and she hasn't gotten cookies yet, I'm sorry!!!). I got it on Thursday in this state:
Upon closer look, I could see that it had previously been neatly balled (skeined? I think the drugs are getting to me) up:
So with a growing sense of "Oh dear, what HAVE I gotten myself into?", I sat down and began to untangle. I worked and worked and worked on that thing. I believe the grand total is 15 hours. Oh yes, that is very close to accurate because I got into kind of a trance-like state, the same sort of state I get into when drawing something engaging. It's that focus and concentration that I believe surgeons share.
And before I knew it, I was halfway through.
Yesterday I washed the skeins, dried them, spit-spliced (but used water instead of spit, that's just gross) and balled the whole thing up into one neat little cake.
The colors are all the sort you'd find in any studious student's pencil pouch. Highlighter purple, highlighter pink, and highlighter yellow. No, the blue is just my inadequate photography skills, I'm afraid. The halfway photo is the most accurate in color.
Magic Yarn Ball
Finally, I had been participating in the Magic Yarn Ball Swap and mine came in today. The Breast Cancer Awareness stamps were not lost on me, it was so very sweet of my pal to use them to send the package! The little sticker, too. Teriffic! Thank you!
Well, once I was done blocking, I opened the box and along with a bottle of Vaseline Intensive Care Healthy Hand & Nail lotion that must not have fit in the ball, I found a well wrapped mound of yarn and...other things.
I could not leave well enough alone, I grabbed my ball winder and began 'unwrapping' my package!
It was an adventure, that's for sure but it yielded quite a treasure!
I recommend clicking on the link and rolling your mouse over to see all that I'd received. My pal was incredibly generous!
Well, dinner's been announced, I have to dash! I hope you all have a good evening!
No comments:
Post a Comment