Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Yarn Along



Lenten Reading:  Revelations of Divine Love, and Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth.  Not the new one; dh is reading that one.  I really like Revelations, but it's one that you can only read a small section of per day and then spend the rest of the day digesting.

Another book not pictured is Where the Lillies Bloom.  I picked it up at the church yard sale for a quarter.  I've never read it, but I saw the movie as a child (a young teen?) and it has always haunted me.  Do you have movies or books like that, that you just barely remember, but you know how they made you feel, and you've always wanted to find again???  So far, in 10 minutes per night, I'm enjoying it.


The knitting is, as usual, going better than the reading.  I've done 3 repeats of the pattern and am halfway through the 4th.  I have to do 6-8 repeats, which sounds like I'm almost halfway done, but you have to bear in mind that each repeat is longer than the one before, so they go slower and sloooowwwwweerrr.  "Let me just finish this row!"  takes on a whole new meaning.

I also had to break my yarn yesterday to string more beads.  Bummer.  Since I calculated that I need 10 feet of beads and I had strung 5 feet to begin with (figuring that half was the right amount for one skein of my 2 skein work), I was a bit disheartened.  The stringing takes forever and it's hard to work with 5 feet of beads hanging from my ball of yarn!  I have to keep stopping to push all the beads down a few more feet so I have some free yarn to work with.

I think it's a good metaphor for Lent and my spiritual progress:  the more I do, the further behind I feel.  And it's never going as smoothly as I'd like!  I don't seem to be making progress, just mistakes.  At least with the knitting there is visual proof of progress.

I must have calculated the number of beads wrong.  There are 8 repeats and 128 beads per repeat; that's 1024.  Plus another 5 dragonflies at the beginning: about 320 more beads.  That's a lot of beads, and the little containers don't tell you how many are in each one.  I may be popping into Joann's with my handy coupons to buy more beads in a couple of weeks!

Another thing about this project is that it requires me to have faith.  I don't know if you can see how each diamond puckers, but they do.  I'm working hard to keep my tension even and loose, but they all do that and I have to trust that all the flaws will be smoothed out with the blocking.

7 comments:

  1. I remember the title "Where the Lilies Bloom", but I'm not sure why.I think I must have read it as a child. (?). Your knitting is very beautiful and I love the bead work.
    Warmly,
    Tracey

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  2. Your knitting is beautiful! I have knit anything with beads, I can only imagine the figuring and weight.

    Thanks for stopping by for a visit today.

    Blessings, Elizabeth

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  3. You are really persevering with that project!
    But it looks lovely. I'm sure in the end it will have been worth it.

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  4. "Jesus of Nazareth" is an awesome book. That reminds me to get a copy of Vol.II... Thanks for sharing and greetings from Germany, Nicole.

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  5. Your knitting project is gorgeous! I love the color, the lace, and the bead work. I haven't attempted beads yet--someday :-)

    I really appreciated your thoughts about Lent, faith, and how your knitting is a fitting metaphor to your spiritual progress. I often find myself thinking the same kinds of things about my own life. (I'm Catholic, have five children, and I've been homeschooling for thirteen years.)

    Thank you for visiting my blog today :-)

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  6. I understand your thoughts on faith, completely. The knitting is absolutely gorgeous and will be worth the effort!

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