Skip to main content

Montebretia, the unHAPpy conclusion

I finished the first shawl from Kate Davies' The Book of Haps. It's the cover pattern, Montebretia, the pretty star of a book of great haps. Right? You'd think so.

 As I was knitting it I knew it was pretty:
The colours, the welts, the bobbles. I figured construction was somewhat similar to  Colour Affection, and other medium sized shawls featuring short rows. Well, it's not. The final shape is odd, and basically unwearable for me.

 it's too deep to wrap around my neck like a scarf:
It's too small to go all the way around my shoulders like a crescent shawl. 


























If I wear it like it's pictured on the front cover I can't move my arms at all. To be fair, it doesn't look like the model can either. 

 It might look all right held together with a shawl pin, but that's not really how I want to wear it, and it's still really messy. There is excess fabric everywhere, and the colourwork in the border means there is no stretch there.

 The only way it actually looks good is if I pull the excess fabric over my head, like a hijab.

 I don't have a lot of use for a hijab in my life.

 So basically I made a pretty, and pretty useless rag. i have no idea what I am going to do with it. I'm certainly not going to put it on the shawl shelf with all the shawls I wear daily. I can't give it to any of my friends, because I consider it unwearable. I guess I'll give it to the opp shop and hope someone wants it for a dress up party?
  





Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linky Wednesday - the one with the pause

In meditation it's said that the pause between the in breath and the out breath is a gap, a space to rest. Well, I'm in that in-between space for reading, listening and knitting. This is a random photo of a highlight of my week - I filled up my lolly jar. These are just supermarket party mix. During the lockdowns, we sources a great pick-and-mix delivery service, but at some point they started sending from the UK, which is a bit silly. Rachey messaged me a new one she found, and I impulsed purchased a kilo of mixed lollies, and then she sent me a link to the biggest lolly shop in Melbourne, which also delivers sweets by the kilogram, so i think I'm sorted for the rest of the year!  In reading I've just finished  The Beckoning Lady   by Margery Allingham . It's the second last book in the Summer of Mystery, and I have to admit, having now read nine Margery Allingham books, that they are OK. I wouldn't have read them if they were not connected to this club, but on...
5 comments
Read more

Why Andrea Mowry, why? (A rant and a rather nice finished object)

As mentioned, prior to our hiking trip I suddenly, and rather randomly, decided to knit  Andrea Morwy's Traveler Shell . It's basically an open fronted rectangle in a knit purl pattern. The pattern is FOURTEEN pages long. Why is the pattern 14 pages long? Because, instead of explaining the ten row repeat and then putting the shaping on top of that (e.g. decrease while continuing to knit in pattern), she writes out the entire ten row knit purl sequence every time something changes. Additionally, most of the time she starts with even number being the right side and wrong numbers being the right side,which is just plain odd. It's confusing and it's like she wants to keep you looking at the pattern for every row, rathe than following the very intuitive stitch pattern, which I had memorised after one repeat.  The instructions for the band just say 'pick up x number of stitches'. No ratios, no acjnowledgement that different bits of the band have different ratios. Afte...
Post a Comment
Read more

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises. 
7 comments
Read more