Sunday, August 28, 2011

MADAME DEFARGE*

I KNIT. Therefore I am. But I'm not a very disciplined person and I don't plan ahead the way we're supposed to. As in life, I kind of make it up as I'm going along. In our early marriage, I used to knit Bob argyle socks. That is, until he requested that I stop, which I did, but it sort of hurt my too-tender feelings. The act of knitting, when it's going right, is soothing. In my opinion, following directions is hard. I can always interpret things in several different ways and can't determine which one is right. In the sample below, when I was doing the brown block with a stripe of orange through it, by following the instructions I increased stitches until there wasn't a circular needle in the world big enough to hold the 1,421 stitches which finally told me that I couldn't possible be doing it correctly. A call to the knit shop set me on the right track. Silly old me.

You may recall that over a year ago I began to knit a colorful wrap. It started off in a pleasing manner, but as it grew, it became less lovely and my dissatisfaction increased in direct ratio. My problem lay in choosing which color to put next to 


which. That's where a plan would have been wise. I was okay with it as it looks in this photo, but subsequent blocks did not please me. Here's the shameful part........ rather than working through my displeasure by ripping out my stitches and choosing another color, I did another "drop out" which is my usual reaction to something that falls short in my experience. And I started the project all over again with different yarn.

When we disembarked from our cruise ship last October I asked Tim to stop at a splendid yarn shop in Encinitas, just north of San Diego. I bought enough yarn to do a second wrap and that yarn was waiting in its original shopping bag against the time I might complete the first project. It was called into service early.


That's a little brighter than it actually is, but you'll get the idea that it's variegated or self striping or just call it interesting when it's knitted up.

I like the way it's progressing, but then I was pleased at this stage on the first wrap, too. Maybe someday I'll go back and tackle the original one........... that would be after I complete the fluffy afghan I started five years ago.



"Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence.  Of course, superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage."  
                  ~Elizabeth Zimmerman




 * Madame Defarge

Possessing a remorseless bloodlust, Madame Defarge embodies the chaos of the French Revolution. The initial chapters of "The Tale of Two Cities" finds her sitting quietly and knitting in the wine shop. However, her apparent passivity belies her relentless thirst for vengeance. With her stitches, she secretly knits a register of the names of the revolution’s intended victims

14 comments:

  1. I've been unable to post on your blog, but I'll try again. Love this post!
    ~MJ

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oooh- did it actually work this time? Love the yarn and the project!
    Are you on Ravelry?
    ~MJ

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, Whatsit? I'll go investigate.

    ReplyDelete
  4. www.ravelry.com
    Join, and you'll spend hours on it...
    ~MJ

    ReplyDelete
  5. I joined. Thanks for the lead.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You might not thank me later. It's a time vampire. :0)
    ~MJ

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm Sissyknit; you can "friend me."
    I don't have a camera, so I never post pics of my finished projects, but I hope to change that soon.
    ~MJ

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for the post on knitting. After i find a new job and finally feel some kind of security, i will madly dive back into knitting and learning new stitches. Love the colors and look forward to the finished product.

    ReplyDelete
  9. These are beautiful pieces, Jane! Glad you've saved them all. You're very talented.

    ReplyDelete
  10. OH Jane....it looks fantastic. Other blog readers might like to know that
    through you, I got excited about this pattern, bought it, bought the yarn,
    we talked about the fabulousness of the project, I never started it (a year
    ago) and now don't even know where the yarn is.

    I call your kind "efficient".

    ReplyDelete
  11. Keep goin' Babe. Just knit ! Anon Y Mouse

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jane, I choose the easiest patterns possible because I don't want my knitting to add stress (and unlike Madame Defarge, I can't enjoy wine and knit at the same time). I hope you keep going, because beautiful yarn soothes, just by the touch of it. Ravelry is phenomenal and you get to see how some pattern you're considering looks by clicking PROJECTS. Then you see what looks better or worse than you thought! Enjoy.

    dee f

    ReplyDelete
  13. I decided after knitting two extremely ugly sweaters that all that was required was to purchase yarn and keep it in a beautiful basket, so as to be able to enjoy it visually. That solution has served me well. Plus, I join you in not being able to interpret those instructions.

    Lynne

    ReplyDelete
  14. Susan H writes: I love yarn, I only know how to crochet long strips, I can say they are scarves. My mother knitted wonderful hats when we were children, long hats that could be wrapped around necks like a scarf. Oh the mememories.

    ReplyDelete