Because She Is, After All, My BKB!
Five or six years ago my friend Jenn stopped by a knitting class I was teaching so that she could do me the great favor of ripping out the entire back of a sweater that I had just determined wasn't going to work. I was annoyed and dissapointed. It was one of my first attempts at a sweater for myself, and while ordinarily I would have been rather mercenary about the need to start over, this time I was heartbroken. Having no such compunctions, Jenn sat down in the corner and started to pull the thing apart with a smile on her face.
As my students looked on with amazement at this seemingly crazy act of destruction (They were all newer knitters who didn't yet know that this was just part and parcel.), I laughed and introduced Jenn to them as my "Best Knitting Buddy." It was a spur of the moment phrase that just popped out of my mouth...and it stuck. Jenn has been my BKB every since.
And years later, I finally have a way to repay her for her kindness that day.
You see, Jenn started knitting Ysolda Teague's beautiful Ishbel scarf/shawl some time ago, only to discover that lace really isn't her thing. She made a valiant attempt, but ultimately decided she wanted the finished scarf a lot more than she wanted the process of knitting it. Her knitting time is limited these days, and she'd prefer to spend it on projects that she enjoys. She sent it home with me last fall, and I finally had the time this week to finish it up.
As it's not *really* my project, I won't do a formal finished project post...but it did deserve some blog love. Ishbel really is a lovely pattern, and the yarn - Malabrigo laceweight - is divine to work with. I did have to take a bit of time to figure out where Jenn had gone wrong. (In her defense, the pattern is not nearly as simple as it's advertised to be, with a couple of little details that are easy to miss.) I then had to frog and reknit one small section before moving on to finish it. It only took two days to finish, and it's now washed and blocked and ready to go home.
I don't get to see Jenn that often anymore, but she'll always be my BKB.
Love you, Jenn!
As my students looked on with amazement at this seemingly crazy act of destruction (They were all newer knitters who didn't yet know that this was just part and parcel.), I laughed and introduced Jenn to them as my "Best Knitting Buddy." It was a spur of the moment phrase that just popped out of my mouth...and it stuck. Jenn has been my BKB every since.
And years later, I finally have a way to repay her for her kindness that day.
You see, Jenn started knitting Ysolda Teague's beautiful Ishbel scarf/shawl some time ago, only to discover that lace really isn't her thing. She made a valiant attempt, but ultimately decided she wanted the finished scarf a lot more than she wanted the process of knitting it. Her knitting time is limited these days, and she'd prefer to spend it on projects that she enjoys. She sent it home with me last fall, and I finally had the time this week to finish it up.
As it's not *really* my project, I won't do a formal finished project post...but it did deserve some blog love. Ishbel really is a lovely pattern, and the yarn - Malabrigo laceweight - is divine to work with. I did have to take a bit of time to figure out where Jenn had gone wrong. (In her defense, the pattern is not nearly as simple as it's advertised to be, with a couple of little details that are easy to miss.) I then had to frog and reknit one small section before moving on to finish it. It only took two days to finish, and it's now washed and blocked and ready to go home.
I don't get to see Jenn that often anymore, but she'll always be my BKB.
Love you, Jenn!
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