my home-buying excuse for not knitting is wearing thin. I’m all moved in, the house is functional and the yarn’s been stashed. it was high time that I start up again. and, yes, I was even dreaming about it.

I was antsy to buy a new book for inspiration (Teva Durham or Debbie New?), but I forced myself to consult one I already owned. I hadn’t spent much time with it, so I decided to crack open Anna Zilboorg’s Knitting for Anarachists.

I wasn’t ready to start swatching out new designs, so I decided start sleeve2 of my aran sweater. there’s so much to be learned from the classics. besides, inspiration always comes quickly when bored by tedium.

Sunday night: I started the ribbing of the cuff. it felt wonderful to be using my hands again. but then bedtime called.

Monday afternoon: after the patriotic festivities (shrimp and basil pasta, corn on the cob and banana cream pudding), out came the knitting bag during our conversation. as you can see, quite a bit more got done.

I’m travelling in two weeks, and I’m not sure what I want to bring with me. Finish this sweater or start something new? once that trip (swim competition) is over, I’ll return to my favorite knitting night at 3DB.

I missed you, sweet wool.

At long last a picture of the simple scarf made for my sister…

I still have to sew in the zipper of the cycling aran and photograph that.

I’m one sleeve into a traditional aran, but have promised tea cozies to the boss’ wife.

To make matters worse (or more exciting), or my knitting less focused, a dear friend has asked me to design some simple men’s sweater patterns.

Any thoughts?

If you want to be part of some activism and art via knitting, read on. Forwarded from a friend:

Nina Rosenberg shaped the electrons to say:

i'm making an art installation, and i'm enlisting the help of every knitter i know! ... can you please ask the knitters you know to participate? we're going to knit over 1500 small sweaters and hang them in a tree. you can find out all about it at www.redsweaters.org

lemme know if you're into it. i'm hoping you'll tell all your knitting friends about the project 🙂

thanks!@#!
-nina

I personally don’t know Nina, but plan on contributing a few sweaters.

damn you, eBay, and your wiley, economically-priced yarns! I must stop bidding on you. (not to mention other things like selvage jeans, stupid premium denim.) so, I didn’t get the Noro Kureyon… but I keep going back to the "Buy It Now" chunky Rowanspun.

I have more than enough yarn as is. plenty of stuff given to me by the aforementioned dear friend. lots of leftovers from past projects. a whole sweater’s-worth once I’m finished the current cardigan, not to mention the first sweater that I’ve resigned myself to rip out. then, there’s that fleece to be spun for a yet unnamed project. and, this weekend’s outlet mall purchase of a XXL handknit sweater to rip for many balls-worth.

there will never be enough time or money to knit everything that my little heart desires. eventually, I’ll have to prioritize my newfound interests with the classics I want to knit up on. just because a coworker/friend gushes about a certain Japanese beautifully-dyed yarn, doesn’t mean I need to seek it out immediately. I have yet to earn the right to knit cashmere.

I need to go on a yarn diet. no more purchasing, online or off. no requesting freebies. then, I’ll create a schedule for future projects and the stash I have. once that’s done, there’s reading to do (how many knitting books do I own and have never cracked???) and judicious selection of more projects.

how do people maintain jobs, or social lives with knitting? when is it appropriate for an intervention? can one tackle big projects like home-buying, starting a business or writing a book and balance those lovely little sticks and fiber?

maybe I should just start up a second project to feel more productive…

brought to you by Flickr.

Mom’s cabled scarf:
   Dad’s cabled scarf:

Wait! There’s more…

Are you down with dpn’s?

Let’s get cozy, rosebud! (Sorry, Craftster.org, no irony.)

 

(give thanks to the gods of hackneyed HTML that the images are visible.)

How can I explain, when there are few words I can choose?

Well, it’s not that there’s few words, just not a lot of time to compose and arrange those words to summarize my knitting since before Xmas. Where to start?

Looking through the images on my camera, it’s been lots of gift knitting. I don’t know if I’ll get around to posting images… one day. I just hope I don’t erase them before. (see? another clever reference to the title.)

I finished the pair of scarves for my parents, with contrasting stripes (red with gray stripes and gray with red stripes). They were my first cabling project, a simple pattern. One was finished and shipped before Xmas, the other the week following.

My sister also got a scarf, a variations on Betsy’s Fizz scarf (just two rows of a dark blue sandwiching the neon green). I do not have images of that unfortunately. Becky will just have to send me a photo.

Chum, my downstairs lesbian, got a delicious chocolate and baby blue hat. It was my first attempt at adapting a pattern, not just in color, but with different gauge yarn as well. Unlike my first hats, this one actually decreased and were my first DPN action. The learning didn’t stop there. My adaptation, although circumferance-wise was on, the length wasn’t there. So I just picked up stitches around the bottom edge and knit in the other direction. Easy peasy, no? No. Upon binding off, I learned that longtail cast-on is much more elastic than traditional binding off. In the spirit of Missy, I had to “flip it and reverse it.” Introducing the suspended bind off. Gosh, I love reference books.

Just this past Monday, one of the sisters who works at the cafe around the corner had her first child. In January, I gave her my first baby hat! (the umbilical cord hat from S’nB in a purple grey. It flew off my needles. Again, I don’t have a photo, but I could try to get one once I meet the little niña. Note to self, get more friends with babies.

My final gift project was inspired by an Xmas gift from my dear friend Carol. She’s the woman who shephered me through the world of ultrarunning. I call her “Old Hen” and she calls me her “Chickadee.” She’s an amazing athlete, approaching 60, who at least annually completes an 100-mile race. (Yes, running.) Since I’m not racing much any more (not that I ever did more than 50 miles in one stretch), we don’t have our hours together to chat. In lieu of time on the trails, we meet for tea dates after work.

She gave me some rose tea (one of her favorites, I’m much more of a green guy), so it’s only natural that I made her a tea cozy intarsia’ed to look like a pink rosebud. That pattern also went quickly; just a week, even while working my usual hectic schedule!

There, I feel much more up-to-date. My cocoon sweater has been completed and assembled as well, but that’s fodder for an entry entirely to itself. It will need surgery to rectify a Rennaissance Faire-like poof on either shoulder. In the meantime, I’ve got these to-be felted clogs to knit.

Verbosely yours,

S

Last night my world was rocked. Everything I knew about knitting changed. It’s scary. I have real power.

Sure, one can knit and purl and change color, create paterns and stitch in different ways, but as my knitting guru Betsy taught me, you can travel through time.

I’ve made mistakes (in knitting, not just my life). We all have… And, heretofore, that has meant ripping out rows. Working backwards and unknitting until I find the problem. Hopefully, I notice it before I climb too terrible higher in the piece. I’m sufficiently advanced enough to know how to catch a dropped stitch, and, in the same vein, I learned how to change a knit stitch into a purl a few rows later.

I’m working on my first cabling project, a scarf for my mother. Between knitting before breakfast, sneaking in the rogue row at work, and sitting down at Monday’s 3DB knit night, I mistakenly skipped a cabling. And I didn’t find it until three rows later. (Between Indian food, conversation and TV, you might have knitted on by, too!)

I really wasn’t in the mood to work back, stitch by stitch to fix it, nor was I willing to accept the error and hand an obviously hand-crafted (i.e., flawed) gift to Mamman. Betsy, impressed by my self-taught cabling ambition, felt it was time to show me the magic that is selective ripping.

We dropped six stitches (it sounds scary than it was), held them on a spare needles, and proceeded to knit them back correctly using the saggy ladder rungs from whence they were ripped. Who knew? At times it was tricky and tight, but I cabled those three bad boys and climbed back up to my regularly scheduled knitting and resumed.

Emergency adverted. Cabling added after the fact. Knowledge in head. For the disbelievers in SF, I can show you tonight. Otherwise, go forth and knit. But use your power wisely.

Just try not to make mistakes in the first place.

I still haven’t photographed my first scarf project, but chances are I’ll be wearing it if I ever meet you in the non-cyberworld.

Of course, I’m late to get to the next SF knitting night, so I’m just going to slam up some images of recent completions.

I was in such a hurry to start the mittenettes in the Weblinks section that I didn’t notice I bought the wrong size dpn’s at ImagiKnits.

 No, Virginia, 7mm is not US size 7. Read labels more carefully.

It wasn’t a complete disaster, as evidenced when I reknit them on 8s. These are for Mr. Man’s oh-so-punk-15-year-old niece. Yes, it’s the same gauge yarn.

Proof of the joys of big-ass 15s and the joys of speed knitting, I busted out this scarf over two days. Can you see how the model’s lips really accent the piece?

Just some Key Lime Splash carried with a big wooly sale-rack yarn.

I hope my Secret Snowflake/co-worker recipient enjoys it. I was worried that it was too bulky and not drape-y enough… like a giant potholder cowl, but I’m hoping the texture and cuddle-y-ness make up for any design flaws. I promise my next scarf will be skinnier.

Now, I’m late… oh well. Take good care of Neptoon, boys.

I had to take a break from the sweater that’s inching along row by row. Millimetering would be a better description. I needed something fast and mildly challenging enough to make me appreciate the droning hours of stockingette the sweater requires. The only logical choice would be Mittenettes.

A Mittenette is basically a fingerless mitten, a tube for your wrist and palm with a thumb gusset. I’ve found other patterns that only make a hole for one’s thumb, but I knew I was ready for at least one digit’s cuff. (Darrel’s Fingerless Gloves were too big of a leap). This was also my first project on double-pointed needles.

They were started on Tuesday and finished by Saturday night. Unfortunately, in my haste to begin the second one, I rushed through the pattern leaving the left two rows shorter than the right. So, I now have a means to tell which is which.

All in all, it was a great experience, providing many knitting lessons:

• I’m no longer afraid of M1 increases.
• Paperclips make fine stitch markers.
• Safety pins make fine stitch holders.
• Weaving in the ends provides opportunity to "fill in" any gaps.

The biggest gamble in this project, was making a women’s-sized pattern on a larger than recommended needle. (Note to self: don’t rush into a LYS after they’ve closed to grab your first dpn’s, mistaking the metric 7mm for size 7’s.) And, no, the pattern didn’t specify a gauge. The Mittenettes could be a smidge tighter, in order to fit like a glove, but the experiment worked.

I’m still going to buy some smaller dpn’s. Just after a hundred or more rows of the sweater.

I have never knitted in a group before last night. Sure, on occasion I’ve knitted with one other person, but group action was something that wasn’t part of my knitting repartoire.

Until last night…

I had an informal gathering at my house of a female (yes, it’s true) friend and Darrel (a charming lad with a fine taste in music and ginger). After an hour or two of toiling over squash, lentils and rice, we enjoyed a delicious curried stew. But who cares about food?

Knitting together was fun. As I faced having to un-knit a few rounds of my mittenette (like recipes, it behooves one to carefully read a pattern and not assume a thing!), it was great to have company around for their moral support. As always, unravelling was a learning experience, so I feel I’m understanding shaping better, as well as the pattern.

It was three times the usual joy of knitting as I got to watch the progress of not just mine, but two other projects. I look forward to an even bigger future group knits.

Tonight it’s back to solo knitting, as the boyfriend falls asleep in front of the TV. One mittenette will be completed, barring any tragedies. I may even be able to start its partner!