Something That Will Ultimately Make Me Crazy. The Real Kind of Crazy. With Voices and All That Jazz.

I have a new fabric arts goal.

(Yes, I suspected setting all that aside wouldn't last long. Or take at all. I just like crafting too much.)

I want to start knitting lace.

So far, the only thing lace-ish that I've knitted were my wedding gauntlets.

This picture belongs to MCM Photography

They turned out very nice. It took me until a couple of days before the wedding to finish them. Eventually I'll add the lace trim I started. But I want to make more things like them. And I found a gorgeous book to work my way up to.

Picture copyright by the people who did this book

This is definitely not a beginning lace book. You can tell from the size of that shawl on the cover. See how it's folded over? That thing is the size of the girl modeling it. It's enormous, and it's knitted on size 4 needles. Size 4, seriously.

Size 4 is about the size of the average twig on the ground. I used size 4 needles to make my niece's blanket several years ago and it drove me batty. Not to mention she didn't get the blanket (which was supposed to be a "Yay! You were born!" gift) until she was six months old. Uff da.

Picture copyright by the people who did this book

Here's another gorgeous project, called Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf. Uber pretty. This one was done on size 3 needles.

I'm starting off a bit more simply. Yes, "simple lace" is kind of an oxymoron; my gauntlet pattern was 48 lines long. By simple, I mean I'm using size 13 needles, which are more like a good-size stick than a wee twig. I'm also using brown acrylic, so that if I mess up, I don't mourn the loss too badly. (I don't really do brown.)

Another project in the back of my mind involves using Järbo Yarn, which is mostly bamboo and acrylic. (And something else called bomull, which apparently means cotton in Swedish.) Järbo is what I used for my gauntlets, and I plan to use this royal blue stuff for a similar project. But this one will have little clear, iridescent beads. I'm excited to use beads.

Maybe someday I'll be able to actually set the yarn aside and focus full-time on writing. But I think it's more fun to mix it up a little. There are too many forms of fun creativity for me to just set them aside, especially when I like them as much as knitting and crochet.

Not too long now and I'll no longer have a job. This makes me sad. But I'll be using that extra time to my advantage. Half the time will go toward looking for jobs. The other half will go toward my creative writing. But I'll keep going with fabric arts the way I always have. At least until I have a job again.