Osborn Fiber Studio

Though you wouldn’t know it from reading this blog, I have actually been knitting. It just gets a little photographically dull when the thing you are working on looks largely the same from day to day, you know?

The knitting hasn’t been dull, though. With every fully-focused moment I can spare, I’ve been chipping away at the “In Dreams” shawl. This week I reached a milestone: Clue 4 (of 7) complete.

It’s so big now that I can only stretch half of it out on the 40″ circular that holds it.

I’m not really sure how I feel about it at this point. I am curious to see how other people block theirs, because right now any attempt to flatten out the knitting results in some unpleasant distortion of the shapes. And I’m not too sure how I feel about those giant globs of beaded openwork in the middle.

I often suffer such periods of self-doubt in the middle of projects. Following a long stage of initial enthusiasm, I enter this langorous period in which I start to think the whole thing might have been a big mistake. I eventually push through to stolid resignation, during which I am determined to finish no matter the result, just to say I did. Then, when it’s finished, I am so pleased to have it off the needles that any imperfections or issues with the piece are written over with powerful denial, bordering occasionally on self-deception.

Clues 3 and 4 together make a lovely leafy arc. Though it looks painful (and was rather tedious), clue 4 was almost predictable in its continuation of the motifs from the previous two clues. Clue 5, though, has me baffled, with wrong side increases and interesting charts. This isn’t going to defeat me, though, no matter how much eye strain it causes.

Okay, let’s be honest. All my complaints are kinda hollow, because working with my very own handspun merino-silk is like playing with a cloud, and the whole thing is just so darn interesting. The product knitter in me is being shoved to the back seat on this one, which I dare say can only be psychologically healthy.