Aftermath

This past week was a busy one.

We had several trips to Barrhead for school events and final exams for The Boy, along with some of the unpleasant last minute drama that, apparently, is an essential learning experience for teenagers. After all, until things actually go to hell in a handbasket because you didn’t confirm something and just assumed it had all gone as you anticipated … until something unexpected but certainly within the realm of likely possibility actually happens to throw the schedule off … well, how is a kid supposed to know that Mom’s insistence that the devil is in the details and being proactve makes a huge difference in real life … how’s a kid supposed to know any of that applies to him?

Well, he knows it now and as life lessons go, it was a cheap one, so that’s all good. However, cheap lesson or not, it cost me a decent chunk of energy on top of an already packed schedule that was likely  a bit over-ambitious in the first place.

Add in the unexpected crash at the dentist’s office yesterday, and I’m utterly knackered.

My body is telling me loud and clear that that was way too much. I’m listening – I’m taking it very easy, and The Boy is being very helpful about picking up the slack. Today I find it tiring just to sit in a chair – so I’m reclining on the couch, alternately puttering on my laptop and working on a new shawl design.

Forward Movement is a shawl specifically designed to make use of the long colour repeats of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn – two skeins of which I won from Flannelberry’s blog contest a while ago. The yarn is really interesting: very much like a handspun single, with thicker and thinner spots, slubs of silk every so often, and a wonderfully varied texture. I hear this yarn washes up to be much softer than it is right off the skein, so I’m interested to see how it is after blocking. It is a silk/wool/mohair blend and not as soft as I’d expect given those ingredients, so I imagine there might be some sizing agents involved in the spinning process that will wash out once it’s knit up.  

The reason for the shawl’s title is that the two halves of the shawl curve forward, over your shoulders and to the front of the body. With all the lovely colour in the yarn, the pattern can be very simple so I’m not planning to add much in the way of lace or other effects … we’ll see what it needs as it gets a little larger. So far, it’s only about 13 cm long (measured down the center back) but it appears to have the shape I was hoping for. I expect I’ll add some decorative yarn overs lower down the body of the shawl, and I’m still pondering the best way to do the bottom edge so as to accentuate the idea of forward motion and give it a bit of swing. Tassles, maybe? Still thinking.

I’ll post a picture when I have enough energy to get up and find the camera … meaning not today.

Back to my restful knitting and my cup of tea…