Sunday, November 09, 2008

It Only Seemed Fitting . . .

Liberty This Week

. . . that I'd pick my Liberty Throw to knit on Election Night, 2008. Nevermind that the "Liberty" in the name is Liberty of London, and that neither the motif or colors are patriotic--just the name was enough. I've worked very little on this since I came back from Boston, and it's been nice to get back to. Since Tuesday involved a LOT of television watching, I made a lot of progress that night, and continued to knit a little on it every night (except Friday, when I was only thinking about Malabrigo sock yarn).

Working on it a little at a time is probably the best strategy for me, since it is a LOT of knitting, and it's going to take a long time to finish even if I work on it exclusively. The holidays are coming, there are a lot of things to knit between now and then! I'd hate to put it aside until after the holidays are over, and lose momentum. I'm still completely entranced by the colors, and right now I'm especially enjoying the new shapes that are forming as the first chart repeat flows into the second repeat. In a flash of patriotic fervor, I briefly thought that it would be wonderful to finish this by inauguration day, but as I have a full time job that I plan to keep, and a 0% chance of having any direct involvement in the inauguration, I'm going to return to a slow-and-steady strategy.

The next challenge with the throw is going to be working in a blue yarn of a different dyelot. I was (as you may remember) very impatient to start this, and I couldn't wait for the special-ordering of yarn to wait for a single dyelot. That means that for awhile (a long while, probably), I'll be alternating rows with the light blue, which increases by 50% the likelihood of logistical issues. The difference between the two dyelots isn't dramatic, but I'd rather alternate than end up with a wide stripe of slightly lighter or slightly darker yarn.

Here's a birds-eye view, with no dachshund interference, of the blanket thus far:

P1010612




____________________________
Rare Political Aside (since I mentioned the election): I'm very happy about the outcome of the Presidential vote, and very unhappy with some of the local / and not-local-to-me results, but most of all I'm happy that the election is over. I'm really tired of the nasty political ads, and of the snarky, spiteful comments that I've seen all over the internet from both sides. I'm also a little alarmed that I heard people on the news refer to the election as a "peaceful transfer of power", as if there was imminent danger of a NON-peaceful transfer of power here.

Long story short--I propose no more gloating and beating of dead campaigns by the winning side, and no more sour grapes and predictions of immediate doom by the losing side. If you would rather see Obama fail than see our economy, international standing, and quality of life improve, then you've got bigger problems than I can address here. Ditto if you think that the Obama presidency will be all sunshine, roses, and money raining down from the sky. There is a lot of hard work to be done in this country, and there's a lot of common ground about what we want as a nation--let's all start there, shall we?

3 comments:

LizKnits said...

WOW... that is looking absolutely fab. It definitely looks like a "little bit at a time" type of project but I can't wait to see it grow larger!

Anonymous said...

Amen!

emicat said...

That really is a beautiful pattern.
I look forward to seeing how this turns out!

And regarding the election, although I have supported Obama since the primaries, I'm not expecting puppies and rainbows like others - there's definitely a whole lot of work ahead. Here's to a slow road to recovery.