Monday, October 26, 2015

The Importance of a Good Shawl


Our Salmon have not come down the stream this year.  It may be that their time has not come yet, or that the weather was too dry this summer.  We are missing them this fall, but still hoping they will make it.

It has been an extraordinarily busy time for me.  The leaves are turning and falling around me, making me crave a slower pace of life and the comforts of the season.  I adore the fall!  But I've never been busier in my life.  I find myself saying to people, "It's always busy, but it's just not normally THIS busy."  Then I realize I've said that before.  I've been saying that a lot.

Baking bread has been the one thing that seems to ground me in the middle of the crazy.  Sourdough in particular seems to be really forgiving, since it's slower pace actually fits with all of our comings and goings nicely.  Having my hands in dough, even just for a moment or two is really comforting.  


Knitting on the other hand, is happening even more slowly.  In all truthfulness, I have realized that my smartphone is filling those small slots of time that my knitting needles used to, and that is sad.  In the doctor's office today (my kiddo stepped on a glass chard) I had brought my knitting bag and forgot about it while I was on the smartphone in the waiting room.  A sad waste of my precious time that I must learn from.  

Until that perfect day comes along when I can sit in front of the fire for uninterrupted time on a knitting project, I will have to make due with waiting rooms and little snippets.  

I finally finished my shawl from this summer.  This is my second Tasha Tudor Shawl.  The first went to my oldest daughter.  


It has been well-loved and more than a few holes have been patched over the years.



This second shawl has been a long time in coming, but is finished due to our very long summer road trip. Both were knit in alpaca.  Fiber for the white shawl was from a farm in Colorado.  The brown from a farm near my house.  Two different phases of my life.  The edge was done in Blue Sky Alpacas.  I wanted it to be very large, so that I could wrap it around me in a variety of different ways.



I have been thinking of it as my animal rounds shawl.  The one I can quickly grab and tie on as I run out the door to take care of animals.





What is it about a shawl?  For me, they are very practical in the same way that an apron is.  It can become a hood, an apron, a scarf, a baby blanket, or a shrug.  I always think of a line in one of my favorite Jane Austen movies, Mansfield Park, where the master of the house is noticing there is no fire and his ward replies, "But I have a very warm shawl."  Seems that having a warm shawl is supposed to make up for a lot of other things.  I am hoping, that during this busiest-ever-fall, that it will bring me the comfort I so desperately need while I run around trying to keep things from 'fall'-ing apart.

It's been so long since I have shared with Ginny's Small Things Yarn Along!  I am looking foward to being inspired there this week, as I usually am by all of your projects.

4 comments:

  1. That shawl looks perfect on you, and must be so snuggly warm in alpaca.

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  2. Your shawls are lovely!

    I like to work with bread dough, too! It is soothing. I don't do it all the time, but I do like too. I've been stuck on a baguette recipe that is super simple. This week I made cornmeal rolls. They've all disappeared except for the ones I stuck in the freezer.

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  3. How beautiful your shawl is. It's lovely to pop by your blog and have a peep into your world. My life feels busy and I only have one little baby. I'm amazed you found time to make something so large and so pretty! Have a lovely week

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  4. What a lovely shawl. You're so right, a shawl is one of those versatile garments that is nice to have at the ready. I wish you many moments of knitting. :) Ann

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