The View From Here

Can a butterfly lick its lips? I guess the question really is, does a butterfly have lips? (This begs another question: whenever a question is asked, what’s the real question? )

I’m not going to try to answer the parenthetical question because the view of my navel is getting tiresome, so I think I’ll look up.

Results of the looking-up experiment follow.

I went from looking here:

to looking here:

Then I went outside to sit in the sun with the dogs. A butterfly sighting isn’t a rare thing in my back yard, but I’ve never had one land on me, even for a second, so what happened next was remarkable. I was sitting with my legs crossed and a smallish brown and white butterfly landed on my dangling foot and stayed there for at least 30 seconds. I swear it was licking its lips. I think butterflies don’t really have lips; they have a long proboscis used for drinking nectar and it may be this that I was seeing. But it looked for all the world like it was licking its lips and eying me(and batting really long eyelashes). Maybe my foot smelled nice. The photo below is not one of mine, but came from this site.

Then, I turned inward again, like a pill bug, but I didn’t roll up quite so much. What I saw was a veritable shawlstravaganza in my living room, a great woolly sequence of events I’m calling Comfort Me With Stitches. Some of the projects here are scarves, not shawls, but I figure that shawls, stoles, and scarves are at least in the same genus, if not species.

First, there’s the Truly Tasha’s Shawl designed by Nancy Bush. Thanks to my dear S. for inspiring me on this one. Hers is in a gorgeous blue. I’m knitting mine in Cascade Ecological Wool, Chocolate. When it’s done it’s going to have a pretty lacy edging.

Second, there’s the Step Ribbed Stole by Margaret Klein Wilson (who, incidentally, sells her luscious yarn here ). My version is in Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK, in green (I don’t know the colorway name; it’s probably something like Cud). This pattern came from the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful book The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, by Clara Parkes. (My intelligent friend, T., bought the book for me for Christmas last year.)

Third, and also from Clara Parkes’ book, is the apt Butterfly Mobius, which I’m knitting in Panda Silk, in color 3005, a yellowy green.

Fourth, there’s the Garter Lace Triangle Shawl from Martha Waterman’s book Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls. (This book is my most used, most loved, most most most….) The shawl’s in Rowanspun 4 ply Tweed and the color is, no joke, Sludge.

Fifth, there’s a shawl I’m making following the steps in Evelyn Clark’s miraculous, clear, lovely, simple book Knitting Lace Triangles. This shawl is in J. Knits Lace-a-licious and the color is Portland. I periodically mistake this yarn for food and try to eat it, since it’s so soft and nourishing. Plus, a single skein is 1200 yards. Smart, smart people made this yarn. I don’t have a picture yet, because so far it’s just a little embryonic triangle. You know embryos: lumpy, very small, and difficult to recognize as specific shapes.

Sixth, there’s a little shawl called the Clementine Shawlette. It’s designed by Michele Rose Orne and is from the spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. This is one of those patterns I didn’t pay any attention to until I saw it in person, around knittingkninja’s neck. Her lovely version is in Dream In Color’s Smooshy, I think in Spring Tickle. No, Duncks, not tinkle. Tee hee.

Mine is in Schaeffer Anne, in the color Margo Jones:

Seventh, there’s a Moebius cape I’m doing from Cat Bordhi’s book A Treasury of Magical Knitting. For this one, I’ve combined three of her patterns–the Shifting Colors Moebius, the Rimrock Cape, and the Lost Trail Cape–to make what I want: The yarn is Rio de la Plata Fino Multicolor. The colors in this skein are Nugget Gold, Chinchilla, and Winter Wheat. The other yarn I’m using is Rio de la Plata Fino Solid in Seaweed.

Eighth, there’s the Union Square Shawl/Poncho designed by Melanie Falick. The pattern is in her book Weekend Knitting. I’m making it in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and the color is Amber Heather. I replaced the Baby Cable stitch pattern with the Broad Spiral Rib from Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I don’t have a picture here, either. So far, this one’s just a bunch of cells.

Ninth, there’s a center-started square I’m designing. Woot! I’m using Knit Picks Shadow in Oregon Coast Heather.

Tenth, there’s a scarf from Lynne Barr’s mind-bending and marvelous book Knitting New Scarves, called Twisted. It’s in Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK, color Lime Leaf. Yum.
Eleventh, there’s another scarf from Lynne Barr’s book called Aria. It’s in Malabrigo Worsted, Magenta Sapphire. mmmmmMalabrigo.

Twelfth, there’s a little scarf I designed in Margaret Stove’s Artisan NZ Laceweight. I can’t remember the name of the color. I’m calling the scarf Sea Foam:

Thirteenth, there’s another little scarf, this one from CEY Make it Modern, called the Little Leaf Scarf. It’s by Pam Allen and it’s in Classic Elite Soft Linen, New Fern. This is another one with no picture; right now I just have an inch of ribbing.

Finally, there’s a project not in the same genus, but definitely in the cozy family, a tea cozy I’m making for Gn. It’s actually a hat pattern by the inimitable Adrian Bizilia (Hello Yarn): We Call Them Pirates. We call it cozy.

And when I’m not working on these projects, I’m reading The Fox in the Attic, by Richard Hughes, or watching Planet Earth or In Plain Sight on hulu.

So that’s the view from here, butterflies and shawls, and butterfly shawls.

What are you knitting?