#WIPWednesday : The Event Horizon Pi Shawl

I love this shawl, and learned a lot from knitting her. I'm finally in the home stretch,  and ready to bind off. I cast on New Year's day, and was supposed to finish on Pi Day, 3/14, but that obviously didn't happen.

The Event Horizon Pi Shawl , by Donna Druchunas, was featured in her book, Stories in Stitches 2, and is only one of many projects, along with accompanying stories, that can be found in this lovely little book.

More information on designer and author Donna Druchunas,  can be found on her website,
Sheep to Shawl

A Busy and Eventful Month

I have to say, the last month or so has been memorable, to say the least.  Between, my mom and her knee replacement, a joint flare up that parked me in bed for almost a week, I have been quite overloaded.

I ended up staying the night at Mom's a lot when she first got home, because at that point, she was so off-balance and sore that we were afraid to leave her alone.  She is doing much better now, praise God.

The joint flare up started when she was in the hospital and continued for nearly a month.  Bad pain the first week, then I progressed to functional but sore.  Bad news: my hands and wrists hurt too bad to knit for a few weeks.  Good news: read a lot of books.

I got my Citron shawl done near the end of last month, and it turned out very cute.  Since I can use it as a scarf as well as a shawl, I am sure it will get a lot of use. 

I am almost finished with my Swallowtail, which will be shawl #4, and have started on Ella, which is a Knitty.com shawl.

On a sad note, our ram has passed away, which makes me sad that he died, but happy that I will no longer have to fear being smashed to death by him.  His progeny live on though.

Crisis Knitting

I think that all crafters, and knitters, in particular, revert to form when stressed, and dive in to their chosen form of artistic expression.  To me, nothing relieves tension like spindles or pointy needles.

When choosing a knitting project to get you through a crisis, there are a few things you may want to consider

1. Choose something that you can put down if interrupted.  I am working on the 10 Shawls in 2010 challange on Ravelry, and cast on a shawl just to work on when taking my Mom to doctor's offices and sitting in the hospital.  It is something that I can set aside if needed

2. Choose a project that requires little counting and brain power.  I opted for stockinette, and soothing.  My project only requires counting on two out of every twenty rows.

3. Pick something that you can wash.  My project can take a gentle soak in warm water and soap.  Cotton may have been a better choice, or even superwash wool.

Basically, when I am looking for a project to get me for a crisis, I go for easy, soothing and portable.

This is the shawl that I have been dragging back and forth to the hospital.  I decided to go with the Citron form Knitty.com's Winter 2009 issue because it met all of my prerequisites for portability.  A very soothing knit without being boring.