comfort knitting

my constant companion at present:

EZ pi shawl

fingering weight baby alpaca, soft and lots of drape, knit on 3.75mm addi turbo's...

It's just whooshing by, all the while keeping my lap warm and feeling like an entity all of it's own. Comforting and pleasant company - what more could one ask for?

I plan to just keep knitting until the 200g ball runs out, then I will edge it using all the leftover bits of sock wool in my stash, if all goes to plan. I've got nearly 100g of leftovers in colours that would harmonise with the natural fawn of the alpaca, and I'm hoping there's enough of each to at least make it around the edge a couple of times.

My other WIP is the ever-lasting candle flame shawl. I got back into the rhythm of it just recently (although the pi shawl has sort of taken over - pushy!)


It's a 36 row repeat, with the "wrong" side requiring just as much attention as the "right". No purl respite here, let me tell you!

This piece is teaching me a side of zen philosophy not yet encountered.

Once I realise that resistance is futile, we (the shawl and I) reach a mutual respect and understanding, and live in harmony. But while I still fight (and believe me, I do) it throw tricky purl stitches at me out of the blue, let's yo's slip slyly off the needle when I'm not watching, and then, worst of all, it lulls me into a sense of cocky confidence until I just finish the end of the row with one little stitch too many/not enough. Then, of course, I arrogantly believe I can "rectify" that on the next row, and no one will ever see it. Of course, in rectifying it, I invariably make a second error, and thus the shawl wins. Definitely an entity of it's own, this one, just not for good, like the darling pi, but bad, like the Wicked Witch of the West

At this point, I just go pack to my pi until the rocking stops...