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Tag Archives: alpaca silk

28/04

Finished object: Clementine shawl

Pattern: Clementine Shawlette, from Interweave Knits, Spring 2007

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk dk in Ruby, 3.5 skeins.

Needles: 3.5mm

Notes: I added two extra pattern repeats to make the shawl wider (I hate having a cold back!)

What you can’t see on these photos is that my hands and hair are covered in paint from spending the weekend decorating!

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22/04

Comfort blanket coming along…

… nicely.

I’ve been knitting like a dervish today: on the train, during Alex’s cello lesson, all evening at home. One of the definitions of the word dervish is a devotional exercise involving bodily movements. Admittedly these traditionally consist of whirling dances – far more vigorous than my two hands with their sticks, but I like the idea of knitting as a repetitive, meditational set of gestures. It fits in well with the mindful way in which I am trying to make this shawl.

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20/04

A comfort blanket knitted mindfully

Tara Jon Manning, author of Mindful Knitting, describes contemplative or ‘mindful’ activities as any that ‘allow us to practice mindfulness’. She says that such activities have, ‘an object of focus that empowers us to retreat from our thoughts and feelings back to the sanctuary of our still and relaxed place. The object of focus for the mindful knitter is the repeated formation of the knitted stitch.’

In need of some self-soothing, I decided to treat myself to a truly unnecessary, beautiful, self-indulgent knitting project with which to experiment with knitting mindfully. I bought some gorgeous Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk yarn in Ruby:

With it, I am making a Clementine shawl. I am trying to focus as much as possible on the process of knitting: concentrating on every pattern repeat, every row, every stitch.

This is a really quick and lovely project to knit: the yarn is beautiful to work with and the pattern is simple and satisfying. I started on Friday evening, and here’s where I’ve got to so far:

The other notion I am playing with is is less mindful, and more of a self-indulgent appropriation of the idea of a prayer shawl. I am, metaphorically, weaving into every row various positive and affirmative thoughts to myself. I hope that when I finish this shawl I will remember these thoughts every time I wrap myself in it. I am looking forward to having my very own comfort blanket!

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18/04

Letting the sun shine through

Sometimes I find it too easy to focus on life’s trials, and let them cast a shadow over its treasures. This has been one of those weeks, but it has also been full of special moments. Here are some of them.

This week I have:

Had a lunch date with Steve
Spent an evening with good friends
Done yoga
Eaten supper in a pub with Steve and our boys and laughed until we cried
Been to an art exhibition (Alexander Rodchenko at the Hayward Gallery)
Had a lie-in
Cooked dinner for my father and stepmother and seen photos of their trip to Cornell university and Niagra Falls
Started re-watching Brideshead Revisited
Bought some beautiful yarn (Blue Sky Alpaca Silk) with a special project in mind.

I’m stepping out from under that cloud. There’s too much to be grateful for.

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