Nothing like sitting on a train with no power and looking at the time pass to take your energy away real fast in the morning. Yes, that is how my day started. A few min. after I got on the train the entire Northeast Corridor lost power. Instead of a blissful one hour, my ride was two hours and I was 45 min. late to work. And to think I used to sit on the train longer than that! Sheesh!

What’s a girl to do? Knit of course!

This is the beginning of my Swallowtail Shawl which I actually cast on about two weeks ago, got past the second repeat of the second chart, and promptly didn’t work on again until now. This isn’t ideal commuter knitting. While the Misty Alpaca yarn is softer than silk and totally drool worthy, it is *very* thin and a bit difficult to work with on size 4 needles. A bumpy train ride doesn’t make that any better, but I certainly wasn’t getting a bumpy train ride for a while this morning! At least the pattern is fairly simple so far.

But I can’t knit this and read

I photographed the shawl next to “Knitting” by Anne Bartlett, which I recently finished. While a lot of the knitting story books that are out there are a bit, well, they aren’t exactly great literary works, I found this one to have an interesting storyline and a good message. It deals a lot with grief and loss and two different approaches to dealing with those feelings while winding a tale about a knitting exhibition through the story. Obviously it isn’t going to win a prize for literature any time soon, but it was a good story and an easy read and I found it enjoyable. Right now I’m starting “The Search” by John Battelle. Yes. I am a geek.

Spinning!

Thanks for all the encouraging comments about the spinning! Isn’t it funny how so many of us who have been knitting for a while are turning our attention to how our chosen medium is constructed? I’ve e-mailed many of you who commented an indicated that you also spin about your wheel preferences and equipment choices. I hope you’ll share your insights with me as I continue down this path of discovery! Once again, this online community is proving to be a wealth of information. I’ll definitely be trying out as many wheels as I can in the coming weeks. Always best to make an informed decision when making an investment such as a spinning wheel, that’s for sure.

On a completely different topic….

So the hat is coming along nicely now, the shawl is working out pretty well, the boyfriend sweater is trucking along (with a better neckline now) and I still have to get a pair of socks on the needles. But what I am totally Jonesing for is a crazy cabled sweater! I’ll tell you the reason why in a future post. I did get some yarn to make this one a while back but I’m not sure I want to start that yet. I’m actually looking for something more cabled and less lacy at the moment. Something traditional in its patterning but with some shaping. I recently bought some Paton’s Classic Merino and I have a ton of black Cotton Ease that I could use for such a sweater. Can you recommend a pattern that might fit the bill? If you can, please leave a comment!

For now, I think I hear my drop spindle calling me……

No related posts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Books, Spinning, Swallowtail Shawl, Working in NYC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.