Day Twenty-Five in Days of Joy

Designing Lace

I would not term this a new-found talent, more like a new idea and adventure, but I am satisfied to have designed my first lace shawl. I have been looking at patterns and books for months now, never happy with what I found for some reason or another. To begin with, I bought the yarn before I decided on a pattern, so that limited my choices. Then I thought I would find a project that would not be so challenging as to make me work on it in the wee hours of the morning when no one could talk to me. Now I have realized (after knitting up the yarn into a disaster of a "no-fuss" project and frogging the whole thing), that the only time I get to knit anyway is when no one else is up and I might as well make something interesting and beautiful if I am going to do justice to the yarn. This particular yarn is just right for the person I am knitting for; Schulana Sojabama, I won't reveal the color, but it is soft and lovely and a joy to knit. I used a combination of lace patterns from "A Second Treasury of Knitting Stitches," by Barbara Walker, her books are true gems in the world, and learned how to chart from a Meg Swanson book on lace and an online site with explanations for charting.

I kept wanting to buy another present for this person, feeling that this project was not to have a happy outcome, but now I am pleased to see it take shape and having ventured into designing lace, can echo those maddening knitting books that love to say; "It's really not that hard."

Day Twenty-Four in Days of Joy

Joan of Arc in the Basement

I was visiting a friend yesterday and she asked what the children were up to. I told her that when I left the house they were putting on a play in the basement. As I told her about it, she questioned me, and I discovered what a cool project this really was. She asked if I had written it myself or if it were a pre-made script. "No, Lily wrote it herself. We read about, talked about and saw a film about Joan of Arc, or Jeanne d'Arc, last week, and this was how she decided to complete the unit, it was all her idea." Aragorn wrote a semi-serious, irreverent report on her life that made me glad he is not in a Catholic school as I once was, and Lily wrote a play. When I left they had spent three hours in the basement, building sets, hanging curtains and creating costumes. When I returned they were in rehearsal and as happy as clams. There will be a performance in the near future, don't miss it.