I'll Remember April... and Put a Bird on It

Yes, I'm addicted to making lace shawls.  It's not like they really go with my rather utilitarian wardrobe style. 

But I love working with designing lace as a way of studying and understanding the structure of yarn overs and decreases. Knitting them is like working out an idea or doing a proof. With each one I design, I do feel a bit more comfortable with it. 

This time I actually made a lot of changes to the original swatch/chart while knitting the shawl.  

Honestly I could not see the pattern of lace with this shawl too clearly because of the gradient. I may have to make another one just to see how the lace structure turned out. Yes, I'm that obsessed.  I need to be able to see the stitches to confirm my understanding.  

This is the latest one using  my hand spun yarn. The fiber was merino that I dyed last summer.  

If I may shamelessly say, this is what loveliness is! Lace with gradients of deep purplish burgundy to pink to silver. 

Again, named the shawl after a Stephane Grappelli's piece - I'll Remember April.

April is kind of a special month I'll always remember. It's the last month in Cody's life. I remember so clearly the cherry trees blossoming and how desperately we wished he'd live to see another season of it. I still miss him, a lot. And every April, seeing the trees blooming, it makes my heart ache a little, and, smile a little.

OK after shooting these photos, I felt like they're soooo sweet looking border-lining saccharine. In reality these lace shawls feel more like math study or conceptual art project or an idea pursuit than some representations of me. And I like that. 

I decided to switch mood and made a "Put a Bird on It" cup cozy.

This was truly an instant gratification. It took about 15 minutes to draw the design, and one movie to knit the cup cozy. I'd never made a cup cozy in my life.  This was my first time.  I don't see myself making many more either...

I was watching way too many times of Portlandia on Netflix that I couldn't help but make this. Love that show. I had not laughed so hard with TV (other than South Park) for a long time.

"Put a bird on it." from Portlandia, slurped from YouTube. 

A little confession to make, 10 years ago, Paul and I drove up to Portland to check the city out as a potential place to move to. Within half a day I told Paul, "No way am I moving here!"  

The attractiveness of that city that everyone talked about was completely lost o me. Everyone there was too good-looking in the self-consciously "don't care about look" kind of way. 

I guess that was a sign of me getting old and jaded.