Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Poinsett...ish?

So, with the end of Emma in sight and FF&L not yet back into the groove, I've begun to get some serious startitis. Organizing the stash both helps and not helps with this, as I'm really pleased to see all my yarns sorted by weight all nice and neat, but it also reminds me that I've got some good stuff that deserves to be used. I think I feel this pull most strongly with the laceweights because a lone ball or two is enough for a large project. It's must easier to pick up a 1300 yard ball of gossamer and say, "What, of all this sea of possibility, will this ball become?" than to grab a 200 yard ball of worsted and say, "So... hat? Maybe a scarf, or a pair of socks?" It just seems more limiting somehow, and while I know that my best work comes when I'm somehow limited, the inspiration needs a serious kick-start. All of this, plus the fact that I like to keep projects relatively uniform in texture, so no mixing and matching between the slubby-nubby Peace Fleece and the smooth, workhorse worsted.

At any rate, the Lust List has been calling to me. I went through it more thoroughly, and realized that the picture of the poinsettiashawl? it really sucks. In fact, ALL pictures of the poinsettia shawl I'd seen so far really sucked. So I set out on a mission, to find a picture of the damn shawl that showed it in actual use by a person, not the same ho-hum promotion pick that seems to be everywhere.

And I did.
And I read up on it.
And I hate it.

Seriously, let me clue you in here if you haven't looked over this shawl yourself. You're supposed to do four squares, sew them all together into one big square, then make strips of edging, then sew that onto the big square. What the fuck? Do the words regular increases mean nothing here? FF&L is a center-out shawl, and there's no reason Poinsettia couldn't also be.

So, in summary, while I work on finishing FF&L, I'll also be designing my own jury-rigged center-out poinsettia-inspired-but-not-all-stupid shawl. And you know what? I'm using the lavender. So there.

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