Not the Usual Topic

I'm not exactly ashamed of my little knitting habit, but I don't go flaunting it either. My one night out every week since Karl died has been my "Knit Night." It's not really a stitch-n-bitch, because we're just not very bitchy people. But it's a great time, and one of my favorite parts of the week.

For the last year I've been working on my first lace design. It's been an on-again, off-again project, and I've struggled both with making the math work and all the patterns fit together, and making it truly feel like my own work. I'm using some patterns from a stitch dictionary, and it's taken me a while to come to terms with calling it "my" design. Really, tho, these historical designs are no different from the Italian techniques I happily borrow from in glass, or the traditional handle designs I use in clay - they are part of a sort of vocabulary of the craft, and can be borrowed, I think, freely. Particularly when used in a context and merged with other patterns.

So the design piece is nearly finished. It's not what the final pattern will look like, as I've tested various methods and modifications along the way, but it's still quite lovely. I'm so excited to have now made all the major design decisions and to be into the writing and testing phase.

Here's what it looks like so far: