More Sparkles

I was not a tomboy when I was a little girl. I wanted to be a ballerina until I decided that I wanted to be an astronaut instead. This was not a sudden shift toward boyish rocket ship adventures, but rather due to my love of National Geographic nebulae photos and Princess Leia. It was as an adult that I decided that I wanted to learn to surf and ride motorcycles and that it would fun to ride around on a giant big bike loaded with kids and build lego robots.

In large part, the majority of my current clothing has been chosen to resist coffee and grass stains, to survive being covered in snot and cooking spatter, and to need no ironing. My hairstyle must be easy care. I have a hard enough time putting the house back together after a shower without also blowing my hair dry. Flat iron? Forget it.

In recent years I’ve found that I still have an inner Space Princess Ballerina. I like my hair dyed and tied up in a fancy clip. I like a little mascara and lip gloss and seem to be acquiring a slight hint of steampunk. And, I like to wear a little something fancy with my yoga pants and t-shirt--maybe a bit of knitted lace, something an especially pretty color, or a bit of fancy cable something. It was last year’s new years resolution to wear some of my fancier and stranger knitted garments and I found that I really like it especially at this time of year. (Let's face it, its just not normal to pick a kid of from school in a a cabled kid mohair stole.)

Consequently, my Ravelry queue and my knitting stash has had a bit of a shift towards the girly. But, I’m now starting a project that may be taking it a bit too far. I’m doing the In Dreams KAL. I’ve been admiring Susan Podoff’s designs for sometime, but never had one high in the queue to get on the needles. I got hooked into this one because of the yarn--Unique Sheep Eos Gradience I’ve been wondering how to use a long color shifting yarn like this in a design to really highlight it. I’m excited to see how and when we will be shifting the colors for best effect. Oh, and there are beads? Why not? I’ve been wanting to try that to!

So, off I went to buy specific yarn for a specific project. Its been a long time since I’ve done that. I seem to buy yarn and then match to a pattern later even if I’m not knitting from stash. I decided that the colorway “Midnight in the Garden” both suited my taste in color and the theme “In Dreams”. I bought 5000 silver lined crystal beads give me some moonlit sparkles and admired the whole thing when it showed up in a tidy little bag.

And then it began to dawn on me that I am planning to knit a pale, lace, beaded shawl. To wear where? And when am I going to be able to get out 5000 beads with a child, a toddler and a puppy in house? In my dreams? At midnight in the garden?

Well, I’m going to find out! I still want to do it even if it get finished years from now and hung high on the wall.