Gibbie in the Sunday Rain

Not that I'd ever let it rain on my Gibbie Shawl, in progress, but it is such a rainy day here in Austin, it would be perfect for knitting if it didn't make me so sleepy! Last night was drenching, and today looks like more of the same. There's a little sun break (as they say in Washington State) right now, but it doesn't look to last long.

Oh well, more time to knit. I've followed the steps outlined in Townsend's Shawl, but the patterns are different, of course. Here's full frontal Gibbie:

I started with the lace points, as usual:

Gibbie doesn't have a center panel, so now, I'm knitting inward to the center

You can't see the pattern too well, yet, but that will happen, soon. It is one of the designs of the late Gladys Amedro, in her book. I think she probably did more than anyone to make the Shetland designs accessible to knitters outside the UK. I plan to write more about the Shetland Lace Tradition in the future.

Someone wrote that she is starting her adventures in lace knitting, and was glad that I don't hurry the lace projects. Aside from the fact that I don't hurry much of anything, I think that is a good point. For me, lace isn't something that I can knit in a room full of people. I need some quiet, and concentration, at least in the beginning, and I definitely take a step-by-step approach to any lace project. I don't agonize about how long it will take me to complete 96 lace points, or how hard it will be to manage over 700 stitches on one needle. I break each project down into its component parts, and manage those parts in as small increments as possible.

I think a Shetland Shawl project is the world's greatest proof that if you quality manage all the steps of a process, the outcome will take care of itself! (Sorry, old quality professional training taking over.) It isn't a particularly romantic approach, and I'm sure it isn't the approach that would be taken by the knitters on Shetland. They can probably make one of these with their eyes shut, but I can't.

I pay little attention to time spent knitting, and I try not to set myself up with a lot of deadlines. Obviously, I never accept consignments. Eventually, though, I do get a fair amount done, in spite of my chronic startitis malady, and my unfortunate tendency to rip.

We'll see what happens next.
Onward,
MEM

Comments

[Elena]

Hi there,
Your gibbie looks fantastic so far!
What needle size are you using? I'm making one too, and have just started the edging with the needle size the pattern calls for and I find it way too loose. I'd love to hear what you're using.
Thanks!