Flirty Ruffles
I can’t believe I am finally done with the ruffles! They just seemed to take forever, but thanks to Project Runway I finally slogged my way through them and now I only have the ends to weave in and the blocking to do before I can officially declare this a Finished Object.
I’m at that place when I finish a project and I end up feeling a little lost. Kind of like how I imagine Bo Peep must feel like without her sheep. I’m a knitter without a project. I know I still have the Shaped Triangle to work on, but it’s more of a UFO then anything else and I’m not at a comfortable place with it. If there’s one thing knitting is to me, it’s that it’s a comfort.
So when I’m without a project I tend to look around quickly for another project to quickly fill that empty space. I’ve decided to cast on the Hidcote Garden Shawl by MimKnits. I’ve also decided to use Jaggerspun Zephyr in Sage. The Mountain Peaks Shawl was also high on my list of shawls to knit next, but I wanted to work with the pretty Sage colour and the mountains need to be knit in brown.
I was originally going to start on the Rose Of England, but the ruffles, people! The ruffles have melted my brain! All that k15, p15, k15, p15, ad nauseum infiniti. So I just can’t deal with fiddly DPN’s and heavy circular knitting and and.. all that. Okay. Moment of hysteria has passed.
I’m still planning on finishing the Shaped Triangle, but I figure I can work on Hidcote while the television set is being used to broadcast baseball games. I’m not a particularly avid baseball fan. I like a lot of high paced action and baseball is not that kind of game. So it’s perfect time for me to work on something that requires a little bit of concentration and I’m hoping that the Hidcote will require that of me.
I hope you all have a very serene weekend and be careful of ruffles. For they are everywhere and they are evil. I’m just saying.
October 7th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
oooOOOooo it looks great!!!
October 7th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Beautiful! We miss you at Whoduknit Opal – hope you will visit us soon!
Jane
October 7th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
your flirty ruffles is a gorgeous heirloom – i’ve yet to try my hand at a shawl, of course evelyn clark’s swallow tail shawl looks very inviting….
October 7th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Opal,
I’m very impressed with your stamina! Those ruffles do look like a form of knitting torture. Pick a no-brainer project so you can recover from the effort.
October 7th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
Congrats on sticking with it! Even in their current state of unblockedness, the Ruffles are beautiful! When it is blocked, I’m sure you will forget all the pain and suffering of knitting it.
Hidcote Garden is at the top of my list, too. I think I’m going to use some iris Alpaca cloud since Hidcote Garden is famous for it’s lavender and the yarn has a bit of lavender tint to it. But I can’t start something new until I get some of my old stuff finished. I envy you your FO–and such a beautiful one, too!
October 8th, 2006 at 2:06 am
Ruffles looks great! Just beautiful. I just bought the pattern for Hidcote Garden – so I’ll look forward to seeing how you do on it.
October 8th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Absolutely the most beautiful shawl I’ve ever seen.
October 8th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Opal,
Absolutely beautiful! You are to be congratulated on several levels-stamina, heirloom quality of your work, etc. Can’t wait to see Hidcote. It’s on my list, too. Thanks for letting us see your gorgeous shawl.
Sue J.
October 9th, 2006 at 3:50 am
Ruffles is beautiful (it’s on my list)! I have some yarn on order for Hidcote, but it won’t be here until November. And I’ve done a Shaped Triangle and Mountain peaks is also on my list. Great minds think alike:)
October 9th, 2006 at 7:14 am
Flirty Ruffles is beautiful!!! I appreciate your details of the ruffled edging that will help me decide if I should indulge in the pattern. Yours is stunning!
October 9th, 2006 at 7:46 am
I’ve been looking at that shawl forever (without, of course, summoning up the nerve to, you know, actually make it!) and yours is just beautiful! What lovely work :)
October 9th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Man-oh-man, Opal, all that ruffle knitting certainly must feel worth it! Big proof that perserverence pays off.
Magnificent!
Jess
October 10th, 2006 at 3:06 am
Opal,
It is so sweet of you to take the time to comment. Someone out there is reading my blog! The ruffled shawl is lovely. I admire your stick-to-it-ness!! I have a shawl finished except for the bind off row. There is a bobble at every point. I don’t have a long enough chunk of time to sit down and do the row in one sitting and I keep losing my place. I just put it aside. I guess that is really a lame excuse. Too many beautiful yarns, I want to try them all!!!!
October 10th, 2006 at 6:51 am
ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!
(((hugs)))
October 10th, 2006 at 8:24 am
CONGRATS! You made it!! Oh how I feel your pain (k15 p15, blech). Told ya you would finish first! I still have 5 rows total (incl. right and wrong sides).
October 11th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Beautiful! I love Fiddlesticks patterns and have thought of making that one. Coincidentally, I did the Fiddlesticks Garden Shawl in sage Zephyr. And I totally know what you mean about being lost without a project. I’m feeling that coming on myself at the moment.
October 15th, 2006 at 4:17 am
Those ruffles are just beautiful! I love it.
Deb
October 15th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Flirty Ruffles, she is so pretty! Now if only I could finish Swallowtail and get that same satisfaction…
October 15th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Thanks for the answer to #14!
October 17th, 2006 at 3:40 am
OMGosh! IT’s GORGEOUS!
October 17th, 2006 at 4:46 am
Beautiful work, ruffles & all!
Fia-knit, Whoduknit.
November 24th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
lovely! I wanna knit a shawl!! Can you please warp the space-time continuum so that I might have a few spare hours in which to knit?