Speaking of Girasole...

Guest post by Dory

Dory is an avid crafter, and lives in Brooklyn, NY.  She is also the brains behind all of the graphic design work at Yarnia.

The last time I was in Portland, Lindsey cajoled me into making a Girasole. 



Girasole is a giant circular blanket (knit from the centre out), that Linds has made at least three times now for different friends' weddings.

This is exactly the kind of project that I know Lindsey loves, but I’m hesitant about huge stamina knitting projects. Most of my knitting is on the subway and in lectures and talks; I knit a lot of socks and mittens and fingerless gloves. I like portable knitting, and the quick and constant satisfaction of finishing things. But Lindsey put the pressure on, “you’ll love it” she said.

So after hemming and hawing for 3 days in Portland, I accepted the challenge. Linds wound me up two cones of solid blue 6-strand wool yarn, and I was off.

Shortly after, I went to Calgary Alberta to participate in the Mountain Standard Time performance art festival, where my friend David and I knit a game of Go. We took turns, each knitting our moves, and when it wasn’t my turn, I was working on the Girasole.



Now, it’s getting close to done. I have loved watching this thing grow out from the centre, and even though it now takes close to an hour to knit a row, I’m really invested in seeing this through to the end. I’m nervous about the knitted on edging, where each of the 640 stitiches gets increased to 6 and then decreased back down one. But I’m taking Lindsey’s masterful knitting advice on how to do this: settle in with Netflix and podcasts and it’ll get done.



There’s only been one mishap in the process. When I switched to the longest cable in my interchangeable needle set from KnitPicks, I knit 6 stitches and the cable broke! Thankfully there are two cables in a pack, so I wasn’t without a knitting project for the rest of that day. And later, when I called KnitPicks, I was so impressed by how fast and helpful their customer service was that I just felt great about knitting all around.

This is not to say that I’ve been single-mindedly attached to the Girasole. Since I started it in late September I’ve knit 2 pairs of socks, 3 mittens, and finished a granny-square blanket. I still like the small projects (I think of granny squares as a small project, btw), and an undertaking the Girasole makes me like them even more.

But I think that I'm willing to take on more giant yarn-and-time consuming projects in the future.