I am not a prolific knitter. This year I’ve finished two sweaters, a hat, and now this shawl, and that makes more than probably the last four years combined.
I’m also not someone who includes making as part of a social practice. That is, while I think that some people successfully position their craft as a revolution of sorts, it has never worked that way for me. Maybe that’s because, as I’ve written here before, I find that makers often displace marketplace capitalism uncritically into their making, as either a frantic pace of production or of consumption. Or, it’s possible that having lived mostly in climates where all handknits are purely decorative items, I simply can’t make the same case.
I’ve always considered that to be unfortunate, and I think the truly ancient parts of this blog were an attempt to do that in spite of myself. I wish I could imagine my knitting as, somehow, an act of rebellious justice. Instead it’s just a thing I do, sporadically, when I remember that I could be doing something else while I watch TV. It feels like a missed opportunity.
In any event, I made this. Pattern: Sylvia McFadden, Some Time Alone, from her book Gentle Armour. Yarn is Backyard Fiberworks American Wool 2017–the CVM/Raw Silk blend they produced for Mason Dixon Knitting last year. This is exactly the kind of yarn I like best, in exactly the kind of knitting I like best.
Jessica Thinks 