Turbulence
My blue period continues:
This is the back of the Turbulence U-Neck pullover by Norah Gaughan, from Knitting Nature. I am using the Berroco Inca Gold for this project instead of the Sidelines Top I had bought it for.
This will be my third project from this wonderful book, the first two being the Ogee Tunic and the Spiral Scarf.
I passed right over this one when I first browsed through the book, because it is in a very non-descript colour, and the photos did nothing to make it stand out. Frankly, I came back to it because of Ravelry’s wonderful search-by-gauge function, in my opinion one of the coolest things about that site (and as we know, there are many!). It fit my 5.5 spi gauge, and so I looked the pattern over and what other people had done with it. As written it’s rather boxy and shapeless, and also a good deal shorter than I would like. So I will be modifying the overall shape quite a bit, lengthening it and adding waist shaping. This latter I have already begun for the back.
I love the two twisting cables that turn away from each other in the central motif, like serpent-headed staffs. (They reminded me of a wonderfully spine-chilling Marathi short story by Ratnakar Matkari about a serpent-shaped magician who remains immortal by periodically sucking youth and life out of unsuspecting men, and where the shapeshifting is a big part of the suspense.) But I am not yet sure about the neck shaping. I might move the entire motif down a couple of inches to sit right below the bust, and turn the neck into a V, by playing around a bit with the motif itself.
An avalanche of work has hit me this month, and I am likely to remain buried under it for the foreseeable future. Some of it is very interesting and keeps me happily occupied, especially a new graduate course on historiographies of language, for which I am reading a lot of stimulating new work that straddles cultural history, literary criticism and linguistics. I also have two papers to write for conferences, which are fun to think about when the thought of the deadlines isn’t keeping me awake at night. But there is also a lot of admin work, which is boring and tedious, but unavoidable and continuous. All in all, it’s cutting severely into knitting time. Can you believe that I have only two WIPs right now, this one and the never-ending sampler shawl? The lace, of course, will take still more time, but let’s hope this mostly-stockinette project will not live up to its name, and race smoothly to the finish line!
I love that book; I’ve only made the Hex Coat, but have lots of other things in mind eventually.
The sweater will be pretty in that color!
me loves knitting nature too.. and rav has a search-by-gauge feature.. need to go look for it asap!
I love the ribbing – mini cables or twisted rib? The mods you are making on this pattern are fantastic and I love the fact that knitting is so versatile that we can do as we please to make a garment wearable. Only two WIPs – bravo!!!!
That graduate course sounds extremely interesting. Good thing I’m allergic to graduate school!
Mary and I were just now talking about you in Bombay, in particular about how you modify the bejeezus out of everything. This sounds like you’re aiming to out-do yourself.
I could knit that with both hands tied behind my back. In fact, you could dismember me and I could still do it with my teeth. Does anyone have a really, really big knife?