deja vu

Leah started weaving the triangles for this wrap about a year ago. 

She had only three pieces done on her triangle loom at the time and wanted to wear it for her character in a play she was in, so we kind of cobbled together an oddly shaped shawl then. She was in another little play last weekend and her character again was someone who could wear a shawl, so she dug out another ball of Scott's handspun yarn and wove a fourth segment on her triangle loom last week. We took apart the old one and put together the four triangles for a 6-ft. wingspan shawl that softened and bloomed beautifully upon fulling and blocking. Worn with the spiral shawl pin rec'd as a gift from our friend Leslie Wind a couple of years ago, it was perfect for her character on stage and apparently also perfect for her character off stage, as I noticed she wore it for a little extra warmth while reading a book yesterday afternoon.

Here I'd like to introduce you to my newest favorite knitting tool. 

Yes, it's a wood stove. How does it have anything to do with knitting? Well, see, its dry heat made it possible for us to block something overnight. Helpful, since there was a deadline for the project and we were cutting it close! And how does it have anything to do with the deja vu title of this blog post? That would be because it was installed in a new location in our house recently, but it was actually here when we first moved in. We removed it many years ago and passed it to a neighbor. The neighbor never got around to installing it and we decided this summer that we'd like to have a wood stove again. Neighbor (who is rarely home and had admitted that he would likely never get around to installing it) happily helped us move it back over here. Scott slowly but surely figured out how to install it properly and safely, so now we have a nice heat source and a convenient addition to our blocking processes!

The last deja vu of this post is a picture you saw only a few days ago.

Leah decided at the last minute that she wanted to knit another cashmere neckwarmer, since we had a second skein in the stash (purchased just in case we needed a little extra yarn for the first neckwarmer), this time for the director of her play, who is always cold. She set to work on it late Fri. afternoon and cast off by bedtime. It blocked overnight near the warmth of the wood stove. Buttons were sewn on Saturday afternoon and it was in the recipient's hands by Saturday evening! Same yarn, same stitch pattern, similar mother of pearl buttons, but we didn't snap a pic of the second one before it was wrapped and out the door.

Wait till you see the hat she's working on. I think she's on the crown decreases now, so pics soon. It's a winner!