As you would have expected (it being over a month since my last post), the pair of socks I was working on are finished, and I have to say, they turned out very well. My open-work technique still needs a little work, but the pagoda motif comes through quite well, I think. Also, the bamboo ridging down the back of the sock came out quite nicely, and the tabi-style separation between the big toe and the remainder of the foot worked like a charm. Here are a few pictures of the finished socks, modeled by their lovely recipient.
I have to say, the more I knit with the Trekking Pro Natura, the happier I was with it. The way the coloration and the striping comes out as you knit is just gorgeous. If anyone out there is considering trying it, I'd personally give it a big thumb's up.
So, after I finished my first project with open-work, it seemed a natural choice that my next project be my first project with ... (complete unnecessary drumroll, if you please) ... color-work. Yes, I decided to try the waters of color-work; and rather than sticking my toe in the water like a sensible person, I've really more sort of run off of a cliff into a lake which might potentially be filled with razor-sharp rocks that will tear me limb from limb. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I hope.
The notion to make this splash into color-work originally started as an intention to knit a pair of gloves; something tasteful, hopefully, with some sort of color-work design. However, I felt reluctant to start this, since I'd already knit a pair of gloves -- two pairs, in fact. In spite of my misgivings, I picked out a pair of colors from KnitPicks' Palette (which by the way, also gets a thumb's up: very nice yarn at a very, very good price) and waited for them to arrive, ignoring the fact that I really didn't know what I was going to do with them. By the time they did arrive, I was firmly set that I would not knit another pair of gloves. Unfortunately, I had two colors of Palette, and nothing to knit. After some rumination, I settled on a hat: I had never knit one before, it offers a fair amount of freedom, plenty of flat space for design, and would actually be improved by the extra-thick fabric from Fair-Isle, or so I hope.
Here's the work so far. The color-work text is taken from Pulp Fiction. I toyed around with the quote for quite some time. I considered Shakespeare, Stoppard, even Homer, but eventually settled on Tarantino, with a beautiful blend of strikingly poetic eloquence and pleasing recognizability. Of course it's tougher to recognize when partially knit into a hat by someone amateur at color-work, but Tarantino can hardly be blamed for that.
Two more rows of quote, and then I'll finish the hat by ... doing something I haven't quite worked out yet. But I'm sure it will work fine. Yeah.
One thing about color-work which I suppose I should have foreseen, but never quite appreciated until now, is the incredible proliferation of yarn ends. This project has led me to the conclusion that if I die because of knitting (and I realize, disturbingly, that I can think of worse reasons to cross over) it will most likely involve me being tangled in a teeming mass of yarn ends like a midnight swimmer in the first 10 minutes of a giant squid movie. I used to worry about impaling myself on a size 0 while knitting socks on a public bus, but no longer; it's the yarn ends that're gonna get me.
So that should pretty much bring you all up to speed. I apologize again for my long absence. I hope that it won't be happening again -- I find I take a great deal of pleasure in setting these randomly assorted thoughts on and about knitting down for everyone or no-one to read. Anyway, I'll hopefully be seeing you all again soon, if only to update on the Jules Winnfield Appreciation Hat, or J-Wah as it may become known. I may make some mention also of my other project, which, unfortunately, I can't describe, due the fact that some of my readers might be receiving said project as a gift in the near future. Still I might drop hints; you never know. Anyway, until we meet again, my friends. Knit long and knit happy.
-DT
