Tales of the Yarn Wizard

Dor’s Next Project Waiting

 

There is more to being a crochet wizard than learning the ropes yarns!

For one thing, one has to figure out how to wind a thousand miles of string into a ball.  Evidently this has been done for centuries.  I suppose you could make someone stand there (someone you wish to punish) and hold the skein for hours, while someone else who needs punishment winds the ball – but not too tightly mind you – in different directions, with three fingers in between to make sure nothing is stretched.

This morning I was the punished winder and two chairs served as the holder-uppers.  Lucky chairs.

But that’s not all.

I thought I finished my first shawl!

But it was not really finished.

It needed to be BLOCKED.

Forgetting to look up “how to block things” on the internet, I winged it and steam ironed the darned thing.

It grew.

Actually that may have been fortunate because it was too short to begin with.

But it grew to an appropriate shawl length.

“HURRAH!  IT IS FINISHED,” I thought.

Nope.

The shawl needs just one more thing.  A SHAWL PIN!

Have you ever heard of a shawl pin?

Well, it’s a sort of clasp thing to hold your buns together.  No, that is not meant to sound the way it sounds.

But, it’s a stick that goes through a nice cover piece.

Anyway, the final stick and cover thing are supposed to hold things together

like hair or shawls.

As you may know, I have a new network of lovely knitter friends at the Stitchin’ Post in Lexington, Virginia “WhereFiber Artists Come to Play.”  They told me about a lady who makes the most gorgeous sterling silver jewelry and some stunningly beautiful shawl pins.  Jen Letter, Silversmith is a talented Virginia artist who makes things with a twist!  That means she hand casts pieces that stand out as uniquely special.  The fact is, they are absolutely beautiful!

I am smitten with her work and after the shawl pin purchase I will finally take a photo of my first finished shawl plus Jen’s pin, even though her pin may take the limelight.

Stay tuned!

To be continued………..