Those of you who have been to one of my trunk shows or tutorials know that I ask people to be very careful not to snag my crochet shawl samples on rings, brooches and zips, because I am wholly incapable of remaking a piece when I’ve already done it before.
(This is why I only have one single mitten in each design made, for instance. Second Sock Syndrome is real, y’all.)
For me, it’s discovery that keeps the wind in my sails and helps me pile row upon row, stitch after stitch until I see the final piece complete.
But.
Oh my god. I find myself in the position this winter where I have to remake not ONE sample, but TWO.
Several weeks ago, two samples loaned out to display at a fibre festival went missing in transit, and have since been deemed ‘unrecoverable’. It’s a blow, I won’t lie; the samples in question were some of my favourites and some of my proudest work. Both are hard to lose.
Ard Rí was my show-stopper. She’s always been a crowd pleaser, and the yarn (Love you, Townhouse Yarns!) is just divine.
And Bríd – never released as a pattern – is an essential bit of kit because it’s the shawl I teach for Knittingtours.com‘s incredibly popular Fairytales & Flowers tour.
Now, it’d be easy to blame myself for letting them out of my sight and for not anticipating the possibility of losing them, but three things are important to remember here:
One. This is far from the first time they’ve gone on holidays,
Two. This also is far from the first time Knitting Tours have borrowed them and returned them with care, attention and gratitude,
And thirdly, these two shawls are also a great way to advertise my involvement with them and I have always felt the risk was worth it.
So, no blame please to them. They always treat me and the people who take their tours incredibly well. I’m still working with them, I’ll still lend them samples in the future. I love them all dearly. This wasn’t their doing and it wasn’t my doing. It was solidly the delivery company’s fault, and they too, are making amends.
But. That all doesn’t take away from the fact that I have to remake these pieces with a brain that abhors creative repitition and craves novelty like a 5-year-old coming down from a sugar high.
With that in mind, and with the first batch of new yarn in hand (thank you Eriú Yarns!) I have decided to improve Bríd in new and interesting ways, and to not only swap the colours around, but also to use a new, softer Eriú yarn. That way I hope to trick myself into behaving as I re-crochet this piece.
Wish me luck!
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So very sorry to hear that your precious samples have gone missing! As a mother and fibre arts creator myself, they ARE like your children…but perhaps in remaking these shawls, new versions can evolve. 🥰
Roxann, thank you.
It really was so heartbreaking to lose them, especially Ard Rí, as that shawl was the one I made as my heart healed after losing our last dog, Rosie. The colourway “Rosie’s Gold” I used was dyed especially for me, and I named it for her.
And to find out it was lost the day after we said goodbye to our dog, Korra, was just… ugh. If you wrote it in a script you’d be told it was too on the nose, you know?
But, I am taking any silver lining I can find, and in this case, that silver lining is coming in the form of catharsis. This remake is soemthing I CAN restore, you know? It’s something I CAN fix. There’s value in that reframing, I think.
Ard Ri is really beautiful! It is the shawl I get the most compliments on. I love the colors in your shawl!
Thank you!
The two colours were a collaboration between myself and Julie Knits in Paris. She chose the purple, I chose the gold, and we both designed shawls (she knit, I crocheted) in tandem.
It was a wonderful experience all the way through.