Shawl Meditations

It may come as no surprise to you peeps, but your hostess with the mostess, Lady of the Linoleum is not quiet of mind nor of spirit. My cerebrum plays host to an almost daily raging and raucous par-tay where wine flows freely from the tap on the box (just kiddin’…kinda) and ideas shake their groove thangs until the wee hours of the morn. Needless to say these obnoxious idea partiers oftentimes keep me from sleep and definitely provide me with a healthy dose of sensory overload much of the time. Seriously, psychotropic drugs are not needed here, thank you very much. Timothy Francis Leary, move ova! This is your brain. This is your brain on LadyLinoleum. Ahem, I digress…

Various attempts to quell the screams of the par-tay goers and quiet my mind via traditional meditative practices basically result in me not speaking, sitting on a pillow, legs crossed, staring off into space and thinking about vegetables with beards, or how to make a crocheted spaceship give off an electrical glow, or even wonder whether two mermaid bodies chopped off at the waist, torsos discarded, then pushed back together at the waist would make a good shawl…um, yeah. However, all is not lost because recently I found a meditation that seems to work for moi, effectively shutting down the idea ravers continual confabulations, gray matter staid, psyche soothed.

What is my meditative masque inquiring minds want to know? Makin’ shawls. Yes, you heard me correctly. Making shawls is akin to a trip to a day spa for my mind. I like to knit ‘em and crochet ‘em. The more complex the pattern the better, whether it be my own or someone else’s. Making shawls is immersion therapy for my addled mind. And folks, I am hooked. Can you tell? Totally strung out on these fantastic fibrous wonders, happily channeling my Inner Granny.

First, I made this lovely bat-wing inspired little diddy using a free pattern from Elann (pic from Elann's site).



Mine is a stashbuster made from four hanks of black Cascade 220 (legacy from a paranoid purchase that consisted of double digit amounts of black Cascade 220, hey, you just never know about store supply levels and I need to have black wool around...save yer judgments...I've seen your stashes posted on yer blogs). At any rate it's a lovely and warm retro goth kind of item, imho.

Next up was a crocheted wrap which I will unveil in another post. It is a vintage Monster Crochet design which is sure to delight. Stay tuned for that one!

After completing those two projects I was in need of more shawl eye candy to tempt my needles to clicking so I purchased this book, which I LOVE and HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you find yourself in need of some knitted wrappage and want gorgeous patterns that levitate above and beyond the norm.



My future shawl making efforts will also lead me to explore this pattern and this one as well as a few that I plan to design myself.

So here I sit, completely content, quietly contemplating but not frantically cogitating, working hook and needle through the loops, breathing rhythmic, the world receding...life is good.