I need a reality check from the knitters out there to see if I'm a complete nut for contemplating a potentially overwhelming project.
Here's the scenario:
My future-office is now drywalled and painted blue (I got rid of the creamsickle peach color). We have the oak flooring that we will install sometime soon. And then the final electrical inspection. Anyway, for a room that we have been working away at for, oh, 4 years or so, it is almost done.
The room is north facing and has three windows facing north and two facing east. They are pretty big windows: 40" wide x 45" long. And the north windows face the street and are about 5 feet from the sidewalk. This means that the room is very visible and I'll need to figure out some way of creating a privacy screen. I'm no privacy freak, but I don't particularly want everyone to see my messy desk and appalling posture (I'm currently writing this slouched down in the chair with my spine twisted to the left and my feet up on the same desk that the computer is on. No, it isn't particularly comfortable, but it is one of the many contortions that I assume when seated at the computer. Yes, I've tried to sit with my feet on the floor but it makes me feel insane.)
The problem is I really don't like curtains much. Don't even get me started on the term "window treatment." The first time I heard someone use the term was about 5 years ago and I swear I thought she was talking about something you did to the glass--like the way a fluoride treatment is something done to your teeth.
With a room that is dominated by the windows (there isn't much wall between those 5 windows, just enough for a little wood trim for the frames), most curtains strike me as too busy and fussy for the space. I priced out supremely simple pleated or honeycomb blinds and it was more than $140 per window and that is just
way too much money for something I don't even like much.
So I checked out a few books from the library on how to make your own blinds and the ones that I'm attracted to are also the most simple to make and pretty darn cheap: roller shades that you make with your own choice of fabric. They have nice clean lines, I could pick exactly the kind of fabric I'd like and the ones in the book didn't look at all crappy. They even showed some that were nicely trimmed along the pull-down bar. I thought of hitting the next antiques market looking for some old lace to attach to the edge, but what are the chances I'd find 200 inches of the same lace?
Which got me thinking whether I could knit lace to edge all the shades.
Am I nuts to contemplate this?
Lynne gave me the beautiful book
Knitting on the Edge for Christmas and there are plenty of potential edgings in it that I could try out. But I think it would have to be pretty fine cotton yarn or maybe even the thread that people use for
thread crochet. Would knitting 200 inches of it turn me into the kind of crazy person that people cross the street to avoid?
While you are thinking about my dilemma, here are a few not-insanity provoking projects I'm knitting now:
What you are looking at: about 3.5 inches of the back of the
Ribbi cardigan, done in mist
knitpicks wool (I'll do the sleeves in olive), and 1 and 1/4 socks done in the
knitpicks merino sock yarn in the flower power colorway. I like how the stripes swirl down the foot like a barber pole.