The smouldering embers blush --
Oh Hearts within the Coal
Hast thou survived so many years?
The smouldering embers smile --
Soft stirs the news of Light
The stolid seconds glow
One requisite has Fire that lasts
Prometheus never knew --
~ Emily Dickinson

Today started off bad - bad bad bad - and just continued to be a generally “ick” kind of day. So I wanted to cast on for the Cleite tonight so that something would go right! I’m almost done with the first repeat of the second chart and I’m in love. This pattern is so calm and repetitive and simple. It’s fantastic.

What’s really amazing is this yarn. I’m test knitting this for Kimber and it’s fantastic. I’ve knit with merino lace before but this one just feels different. It has such great body and doesn’t feel all wimpy in my hands. You know how sometimes you feel like your merino laceweight is just so thin and fine that it’s about to snap? Not this base. It is amazing. I can’t get over the depth and vibrancy of the colours. I keep looking at what I’m creating and thinking, “Now that is RICH.” And to think, I’m only just getting started! My plan is to knit this on my way to and back from Baltimore for Christmas. I have this wild notion that I’ll be able to finish it on this trip. Crazy, right? Still, who knows. I felt that the poem was fitting not only because of the colour of the shawl but because it makes me think of New Years, years end, winter - all that wonderfulness.

1/11/10 - Sometimes, lace knitting makes no sense to me. I was working on my shawl this evening for quite some time, getting a little bored and frustrated with it. I just want to knit something in thick yarn, something less delicate, something with BULK. At the same time, I want this project to be wonderful and perfect - but I also want it to be done so that I can block it and tell Kimber how fabulous her new yarn base is! I want to be able to post amazing photos of what I’ve been working on for her. I’ve hit that point where the knitting is going very slowly because there’s about 400 stitches in each row. I was actually thinking of binding off early. I was at the end of the 7th chart repeat, that’s long enough, right? Then I weighed the yarn and thought, “That’s not enough - I have too much left over. I’m just going to keep going.” After all, I was about to hit the part that starts the decreases for the triangles, which I like. It’s just that 10-row repeat that seems to drag on forever. I decided to do at least one more repeat, if not the two more repeats I’m supposed to do.

And just like that, it started moving quickly again. I did two full rows in under 20 minutes! Like I said, lace knitting doesn’t always make a lot of sense to me - but I do love doing it.