Monday, February 01, 2010

Ten Comments on Ten Shawls in 2010

So, how many of you are participating in the Ravelry group knitalong called "Ten Shawls in 2010"? The idea, which is remarkably obvious if you read the title, is to knit ten shawls this year, and to document your progress as you go. Of the ten, eight must use 250 meters of yarn and two must use 500 meters of yarn.

And here's where I am with the whole concept:

  1. Flickr is not your friend, or at least not mine. Every posted completed object must have a photo, the photo must come from Flickr, and though I've used Flickr many times in the past to post photos into forums, this time it took me days and days to get Flickr and Ravelry to communicate.
  2. When they say “shawls,” what they very often mean is “tiny, lacy scarves” or "things that sit around your neck and make you sweat." Many of them are "shoulderettes." Maybe these women’s shoulders are just substantially smaller than mine.
  3. Many are made from fingering or worsted weight yarn. A worsted shawl just sounds hot and heavy and my experience with Saroyan, which is lovely but hot and heavy, proves this.  My problem with this is that I typically buy worsted in amounts for a garment (i.e., 10+ skeins) and sock/fingering in amounts for a pair of socks (i.e., 1 or 2 skeins). The amounts do not compute for a shawl. This means the yarns in my stash that might be suitable don't have enough yardage or (in the case of the  worsted) too much yardage.
  4. HOT and HEAVY used to be a good thing, and something to strive for, not to mention something that has resulted in a very spotty marriage history, but not so much these days.
  5. These folks have nothing else in their lives, obviously. Some of them have already posted three or four January shawls, and not only the little bitty scarfy things--some are actual shawls.
  6. Some of them are really beautiful--Haruni, Aeolian, Bitterroot come to mind.
  7. Some are so ugly you have to wonder why, why, why.
  8. I have enough yarn in my stash to knit at least a dozen shawls this year without ever buying another yard of yarn.
  9. Odds are, I'll still buy more yarn to knit lace. Laceweight and fingering weight.
  10. The odds on me finishing even one more shawl/scarf/stole in 2010 are minuscule.
So, which one are we starting next? I'm thinking Haruni.

2 comments:

Janice in GA said...

I joined that group for a while, but I thought the rules were kinda crazy. Then when the first shawls were finished on DAY 1 of the year, I threw up my hands and threw in the towel.

TSMK said...

I'm in the group, and have finished two so far. A "Percy" and a "Bitterroot". The Percy came out nicely. The Bitterroot? Well, the pattern is awesome but I don't much like the pattern in the yarn I chose (sport weight & variegated). I'm giving it away on my blog.