in real life

Here's Big Blue Orenburg, halfway done. You can see why photographing is such a problem. Besides the usual I'm-unblocked-and-invisible tendency of lace, the whole thing is scrunched up on the short straight needles, making a true understanding of its size quite impossible to capture. Here I could digress upon the difficulties of two-dimensional representation, something that has been a lot on my mind recently, since I just got back from a country in which flat spaces are very, very rare. Instead however I offer you a couple of pictures of small portions of the whole, stretched out as well as can be managed by a photographer with only two hands. This particular design is full full full of "peas". My next Orenburg will have to include a wider variety of stitches. I like the peas, but I could use a little relief now and then. That picture is a corner of the shawl. Here's a look at part of the medallion near the middle: There is something extremely comforting about diamonds in squares in diamonds in squares. This shawl is fully aware that it does not appear to its best advantage in its current state, but I felt that reaching the middle should be marked in some way. Once it is finished and blocked in all its glory, I can remember fondly the days when most of it was invisible as the long chains of stitches slipped from needle to needle...

Comments

[susan]

the orenberg shawl you are making is beautiful, and i have one quesiton to ask if it doesn't bother you. i have been practicing spinning for an orenberg shawl, but i spun the thread too thin. i have heard the yarn unplied of the goat down has to be 48 wraps per inch. is it possible for you to photograph about 6 inches of your yarn unplied for me to use as a guide? both the downy ply and the silk ply. please let me know if you can. your shawl is very beautiful and i know you must be pround of it.