Monday, April 10, 2006

Houseguests and the pervading smell of coffee

Houseguests are exhausting. Even when you love them. Even when they play with your kid. Even when they buy you groceries. It is still hard work to be off your routine.

I did get my yarn dyed today though. I ran through an entire four ounce jar of instant coffee, mixing it thick enough to get a caffeine buzz through breathing the vapors. It took a number of times to get it right, as what I wanted changed slightly with each progressively darker swim, but I finished with something I am quite happy with that smells only slightly of coffee and black cherry Kool-Aid. Very pretty with the great subtle color variegation you get when you do it yourself. As soon as it dries I'll start the shawl.

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time tatting another snowflake, only this one is much larger (probably will be 8" across if I ever finish it). And I realized that, while it is very beautiful, tatting is just not that satisfying for me. It takes a long time to see any progress. And once you are finished, yipee, you have a doily. Ours is not a home where we really have that much call for doilies. I would much rather knit my monkey a sweater, or Marc a hat, or something useful. Even the lace shawl I've been talking about for so long will be more practical, I wear my one shawl all the time. I'm quite happy to have tried tatting though. But I will probably put up the tatting for awhile, until it better suits me.

It is a real shame that tatting is not a better fit though, I loved that a project can fit in my pocket to be worked on anywhere.

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