Knitting A Coracle Or Scribble Lace Or Free-Form....

Some readers have probably realized instantly that I just got Unexpected Knitting, by Debbie New. (Read the Cat Bordhi review if you visit the link.) What a wonderful book!

Like Cat, I'd seen the coracle in A Gathering Of Lace and been greatly intrigued by it. Here were all these lovely lace garments, shawls and stoles and scarves, and suddenly, right in the middle of them was a knitted lace coracle. How could it not fascinate me? It isn't something I'd ever knit, but I was struck by the unorthodoxy and inventiveness of it. After studying it, I wondered if I could knit a lace Space Shuttle or, more modestly, a lace SR-71 Blackbird. I didn't ever try it, but I'd think about it whenever I came across white or black lace-weight yarn in my stash.

About a month ago I went to Amazon.com, looking for Knitting for Anarchists, by Anna Zilboorg. Unexpected Knitting was offered as a companion book, listed in the alternates, and referenced elsewhere, so I went off to look at it. When I read Cat's review and realized that the author was the coracle knitter I knew I had to have this book. I just knew that anyone imaginative enough to knit a coracle had to have written a book I really wanted to read. I was right.

I'm probably not going to knit a coracle or a free-form coat or spiral socks, but I am going to try scribble lace. I'd seen it around in magazines and on the Web, but I hadn't understood it or really seen it until I read about it here. There's a lot more to it than just alternating between fishing monofilament and polar-weight yarn. I've got a couple of skeins of Noro string yarn and some Magnum wool that I'm considering for a scribble lace scarf now. At least that's my starting point. We'll see what eventually results.

In reference to my most recent posting, it looks as if Anna Nicole Smith's death has driven the astronaut scandal right out of the news. I'm sorry that someone had to die to do so, but I'm glad to see the story fade. The poor woman doesn't need more hounding by the media. Nor do the other elements of the triangle, who are, it appears, innocent bystanders in this last event.