Chicken

Knitting doesn't scare me. Though I have been knitting for a relatively short time (coming up on 2 years) I have accepted that all I have to do to succeed in knitting is follow directions. The craziest, most whacked-out looking stuff in knitting all boils down to very simple directions and as long as you follow them dilligently and in the right order, you're fine. Skp? What the hell's a skp? Oh...slip knit pass slipped stitch over. Okay, I can do that. Piece of cake. It worried me when you crammed it all together like that but when you break it out, it makes sense. Just follow the directions. SSK? Slip slip knit? I needed a little expansion on that one but once again, pretty easy.

I have occasionally had issues with directions that I thought could maybe be broken down a little more - most notably, "pick up and knit." I was fine with the knit, but the "pick up" thing had me stymied for a while. Just...just pick it up? That's it? Pick it up how? Through where?

Fortunately for me I live in the age of the internet, a time when a panicked knitter with half a sock in her lap can google the living daylights out of something until she has read 6 different explanations of how to go about this thing and can therefore feel somewhat mentally prepared for following this unusually complex simple instruction.

The only new technique I have really abandonned as of this date is the toe-up sock. Not because it was hard...but because I couldn't get over the idea that it was STUPID. Intellectually I know that there are very good reasons to make a toe up sock. But as I sat there shortrowing and wrapping and contemplating the next step, I kept thinking, "I'd be halfway down the rib by now" and I just gave it up and went back to my unrepentant top-down sock knitting ways. However, this is temporary. Now I have to knit a freaking toe-up sock or I will never respect myself again. It probably didn't help that I tried this technique out of desperation with a sock yarn with which I had started a top-down sock that I then quit in the middle of because I HATED IT. Because I am a Harlot Whore (I know it sounds redundant, but I can't help it, it's what I am, but we'll talk about my constant desire to knit what Stephanie's knitting some other time - though did you see my noro scarf?) I decided to try the Leyburn sock and see if it could overcome my dislike for this colorway. So I tried to work a new technique in a yarn I hated and it didn't work. I. am. so. shocked.

I digress. Often, actually. Where was I?

Yes. Knitting does not scare me. Why, then, despite the fact that I have for the last year at least been determined to knit a sweater...not knitted a sweater? First it was a cost issue. I couldn't figure out how people were paying for these sweaters. I will admit I am a sucker and a bit of a spendthrift and I will buy just about anything - as long as it is cheap. I will put myself in the poorhouse with nickle and time purchases that add up and then I get to the counter and I'm like WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT'S THE TOTAL but I am there and I am too proud to back down so off goes the money. But offer me a seventy-dollar sweater and I will laugh in your face. So I had to find something inexpensive to knit it in, and I kind of did, only it was out of stock in the color I wanted and blah blah...

Enter the SO, who very sweetly gave me a sweater's worth of yarn for our anniversary back in October. I was thrilled, I was excited, I was indecisive...my initial sweater choice didn't seem right. I thought about it, but I worried. I didn't want to spend a lot of yarn and time on a sweater I would hate. I decided to look at other patterns. I narrowed it down to three. I debated which would be best. I conducted a poll of friends. I eliminated one. I waffled between the others. I didn't have the book for the sweater I wanted. Besides, it was Christmas season and I had some major knitting to do for Christmas so...I'd wait until the New Year.

Meanwhile a friend gave me the book with the sweater pattern I wanted and so lo, here I was, fully equipped and ready to embark on my sweater voyage...except I wasn't done with the Christmas knitting yet AND I had not double-pointed needles, which were a requirement. Normally I use double circulars or magic loop to do anything that would otherwise go on a dpn, but since I was going to be knitting a pentagon and not a circle...five needles seemed like an advantage (I am going to have to figure out something for the sixth, since I am not buying another package of double-points just to get one more needle).

Well, I finished the Christmas knitting and several sizes of DPNs are now sitting in a box on my table waiting for me and...I still have not started the sweater. I was going to swatch for it (I remembered later, that's what the unidentified yarn in the MLK day pile was) and then I looked at the pattern (duh) and realized I didn't have enough yarn to spare for swatching. Back in the pending pile it went. The SO generously offered to buy me another ball of the same yarn (but in a different color, as the one I am using for the sweater is backordered and it would be a different dyelot anyway) and so now I am waiting for that to get here so I can swatch, but I have to tell you, as we cruise into February and I have yay verily, not a stitch of a sweater on the needles...I might be a little afraid of the sweater. I may have built up some unreasonable sweater expectations.

My fear comes from 2 major quarters:

--This is a Norah Gaughan sweater and I am a little afraid that it might be too complicated for a first attempt - however, I am sticking to my experience which tells me that all I have to do is follow directions and I will be fine.
--It has seams.

That is the part that really gets me, I think. Seams are not knitting. Seams are sewing. I do many crafty things. I do not sew. At least, I do not sew in a way designed to make things actually look neat and hold together at the same time. I cross stitch. I am intellectually aware of the basics of making the seam. I have knitting books galore at home with detailed photographs of mattress stitch and a bunch of other seam-sewing techniques. But I have to say...I'm a little terrified of the seam. I know there are seamless sweaters out there but 1) I really like this one 2) I am a Harlot Whore and the Harlot says that learning to seam things is an essential knitting skill. And also, while I believe the Harlot to be a comedy writing genius...frankly I'm not sure that she knits better than me. Faster, for sure. Absolutely. With more confidence, definitely. And experience probably gives her an edge with regards to appropriate yarn choices for particular projects. But knitting is knitting and there really is no good or not good about it. As the Harlot says...as long as you are ending up with socks at the end of the day and not (what was it, I loved that prhase...) wee knitted cows, you probably aren't doing too badly. My stitches are even and I have not stabbed anyone in the process of knitting. Although I probably have to give her colorwork. Colorwork takes some extra skills that I do not yet have. My one experience with it was mediocre at best. Fabric too tight, colors peaking through. Not so wonderful. So she does colorwork way better than me. Well, and there may be some levels of neatness about her edges that I have not acheived. But still! Regular knitting? Plain sweater knitting? I can totally do that.

It's just, you know. Seams. Also fit. And guage. And stuff.

In which I have issues

Issue 1: Noro Scarf

My noro scarf is finished.

But, I had issues with my cast on edge. It was floopy and flared and I hated it. If I had taken a picture, you would have hated it too. I decided while I knitted that when I finished I would go back, snip the cast on, unravel the beginning a bit, and then cast off on that end too, since generally speaking my cast offs are much nicer looking than my cast on. (Something about that doesn't sound right, but moving on.)

Well, it turns out that you can't unravel 1x1 rib from that end. It doesn't work. I got out my scissors and cut across the entire cast on row and ended up having to pick all the bits out because there is no unraveling. This was definitely an issue. I pondered what to do about it, and then remembered that I had been on the Yarn Harlot's blog fussing around in the archives because I was bored, and I had read an entry about a crochet cast off. This seemed a promising solution. I was worried that it would be too tight, but it turns out, it was perfect.



I liked it so much that I picked out my original cast-off and did the same on the other end. I photographed it, but it looks exactly the same, so...just picture the above in different colors. Brilliant. I've never had scarf ends look this good. I'm pleased.

Issues resolved. Scarf complete.



I have to say, I don't like it as much as I thought I would. I mean, it's okay, I don't dislike it, but it's not the best scarf in the history of scarves, period. Also, I have a few million ends to weave in. Several knots and a couple places where the yarn came apart. I got impatient towards the end and just knitted past a couple of knots, but they show and I really should have done it right. But, at least I don't have to weave in those ends. Whatever, I'll weave the ends in during tv time or something.

Issue 2: Tilli Thomas Bag

See previous post re the sillyness of expecting a silky ribbon yarn to hold its shape when wound into a center-pull ball. I got the yarns untangled and rewound, and now the bag is done!



It only took one skein of each yarn after all. I really thought I was going to need more, but nope...one skein knit 1 crochet 2 Souffle, one skein Berocco Glace (I which I believe has been discontinued), with both yarns held together. It doesn't really show in the picture, but I put in three rows of staggered yarn overs in hopes of letting a little more of the red of the bag peak through. In hindsight, I think I would have knitted this at looser gauge, but I think it's really cute as it is.

Issue 3: Caribbean Sock

This sock was great. I love the colorway, the pattern was easy, I managed to cable sock yarn without a cable needle without too much trouble. I was a little concerned about that, because I knit so tightly that my stitches pop down a few rows as soon as I take them off the needle, but it wasn't too big of an issue.



See? Isn't it pretty? Doesn't it look so innocent? I just went happily along, until I decided to try it on and see what kind of length I needed to put on it and then...then I found the issue.



I can't get it any further than that. It's stuck. I'll never be able to get it over my heel. The ribbing's okay, but the cabled stitches don't want to stretch. I got out my needle gauge and used the ruler edge to check my gauge. 10 stitches to the inch - 2 more than the pattern-specified gauge. I'm going to rip it back to the ribbing and reknit on larger needles. However, I also have issues with this plan, because I don't have a pair of number 2 needles free and my 3's are also engaged with the Orchid Mitts.

Issue 4: Cards for savings bonds

My boss gives his grandkids savings bonds for their birthdays, and he often asks me to make cards for them, since his preferred approach of sticking them into a plain white envelope has not been well received in the past. I made these two cards this week:





Not bad, eh? So what's the issue?

The issue is that he wanted me to make one for Kennedy, not Paige. -_- So, um...I'll be making another card before this Friday. Two, actually. Then all four grandkids are finished and I don't have to worry about it again for a while.

Issue 4: Orchid Mitts

Click the orchid mitts tag to hear the whole saga of issues. Left on a plane, messed up the thumb gusset, etc etc blah blah. So, this is more of an issue resolution than anything else. I photographed, but it wasn't interesting, so we'll revisit when I finish the rest of the mitt.

Finishitis

I know many knitters would envy me, because though I struggle with startitis, I also suffer from finishitis. My brain decides, independent of any input from my conscious thought, how long it should take me to do something, and once I pass that point, I get antsy about finishing. I partly blame Ravelry, which shows me exactly how many projects I have at once, and gives me the infinite pleasure of marking stuff "done." Since I am addicted to lists and the checking of things off lists, I am a very motivated finisher.

I really am a process knitter. I enjoy the act of knitting far more than the finished product. I use finish stuff because I made it, but I would almost rather make it than use it (which is, I suppose, why I end up giving so much stuff away). However, as much as I enjoy the process of knitting...I also enjoy the process of finishing.

So, to that end, I have been in a finish-it-up mode after my recent bout of startitis. I am nearly done with so many things that it is driving me kind of crazy. I finished the handwarmers for the SO to go with the hat (and I even managed to make them kind of match a little bit - at least, each member of the pair contains the same colors, if not in the same order). He has expressed some ambivalence toward having a scarf, so I'm not sure whether I will knit the scarf or not. I may have to evaluate the amount of yarn I have left before making a final decision. I have two entire balls and four partial ones.

I've almost finished the scarf for me. The yarn balls remaining are very shrunken. And, after a few hours spent untangling the yarn, I am almost done with the Tilli Thomas bag. I put it aside for a while because I had wound the two yarns together into a center-pull ball, which seemed like a great idea at the time...but one of my yarns is a silky ribbon yarn and after the center of the ball had been displaced, it wouldn't hold the shape. The whole ball just kind of fell apart. I tried to keep going anyway, but eventually it tangled so badly I had to stop, find the ends, untangle the whole mess and wind the two yarns back up into separate non-center-pull balls. I have, however, discovered that I can stuff the balls in the bag itself, close the drawstring, and just pull my yarn out through the hole, so now it is all beautifully self-contained. It worked out smashingly and served as my exercise bike knitting this evening. I am so close to done I can taste it.

That will bring me down to four active projects - the Caribbean (why did no one tell me I had been spelling that totally wrong??) socks, the orchid mitts that would not die, the just enough ruffles scarf, and the moonlight sonata shawl that has been neglected for months. I am hoping that after accomplishing the Whispering Pines shawl, Moonlight Sonata will be a piece of cake.

The Wordy Post

I think every knitter has something that inspires them. With many, it is tradition, the idea that you are connecting with millions of other knitters in other culture and in the past. With some it is color or texture. With some it is downright usefulness.

I love conceptual knitting. What I mean by that is, I love knitting that is more than just "hmm, this stitch looks pretty!" I like stuff that has names before it ever exists. I love Pink Lemon Twist patterns for this reason - she thinks about her patterns and they actually mean something. Swan Lake is a perfect example. Not only the big details, like the wing, but the small things as well, such as the field of cat's paw stitches that represent the pas de chat ballet step. I love that.

I've posted about this before, mostly about how being concept-driven has gotten me into trouble because I ended up knitting totally unattractive socks because the idea got into me (remember the Van Goph socks?). I'll buy anything if you give it a nifty name and a plausible explanation. I love the idea behind the Moonlight Sonata shawl, which I'm absolutely determined to get back to once I get all the scarves and such under control (seriously, what is it with me and the scarves lately?), but I've discovered something in the process - I don't really like repetitive patterns. I like the stitch motifs to change after a while. I'm not patient enough to do the same thing over and over and over again if that same thing is actually work to accomplish. I apparently don't mind knitting 1x1 ribs until my hands fall off because I can watch tv or put on a book or whatever, but if I actually have to pay attention then the repetition quickly becomes tedius.

Anyway. Not the point.

The point is I am totally, totally excited about the book concept Annie Modesitt is working on, which she's currently calling History on Two Needles. See the posts here. Annie is looking at historical sculptures, paintings, etc, and reinterpreting the garments involved into knitted items. That is SO COOL. I can't wait. I only hope the patterns will be wearable as well as interesting and beautiful - sometimes function gets lost in a concept, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how the book comes out.

The Pretty Post

...in which I finally post all the photos that had been accumulating on my camera. There are actually fewer than I thought there were, but oh well. New business first! This weekend, in no particular order, I:

1. Took my first handspun, seen here:


and turned it into my first plied yarn, seen here:



It's, um...textured. To say the least.



Many thanks to the SO for loaning his hand & arm.

2. Took my second handspun, which I apparently did not photograph as singles, and turned it into my second plied yarn.



Apologies for the absolutely bizarre angle of that picture. It was late, I was tired, and the SO had gone back to his video game and I didn't think it was fair to bug him again. Also, I am impatient and could not wait for him to cross the room.

While not perfect, I think we can all agree that the second attempt was much better.



I'm sorry - I meant to say the second attempt had not nearly so much character as the first. Yes. Character. But it is soft and beautiful and I plan to make a hat or something out of it. I am rather desperately in need of a hat, but I have spent all my time knitting them for other people and haven't got one for myself.

Both skeins are currently hanging in my shower drying out. As prescribed, I put them in water and Euclan to set the twist and then hung them up (actually, the prescribed method according to Maggie Casey's book is to put them in water with dish detergent, then dump that out and put them in with distilled vinegar, and then to put them in with a plain rinse "to get rid of the salad smell" but I figured the Euclan was close enough). I checked on them several times before bed and when I got up this morning. The bottoms are still wet, but I have faith that when I get home they will be dry.

3. Finished a super sekrit hat.



Ha! You all didn't even know I was knitting that one! The SO's birthday was this past week and I didn't want him to know, and while I don't think he reads very often (most likely because he hears way more about yarn and knitting than he wants to when he is home anyway) I didn't want to take the chance. 1x1 ribbed hat based on a cross of the noro scarf pattern and Kim's Hats from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. I took the largest size from LMKG, looked at the difference between it and the second-largest size, which was about 2 inches. Since I needed one four inches larger than the largest size, I took the difference in cast-on stitches between the second-largest size and the largest size, and added twice that many stitches to instructed number of cast-on stitches for the largest size (bless that man and his 26" head). I then ignored the pattern until I got to the decreases.

I knit the whole thing in Noro Kureyon, using a 1x1 rib, and switching colors every two rows. I'll have to check the tags when I get home to see what colors they were, I forgot to look for the purposes of this post. I didn't finish the hat before the birthday celebration (which took place several days after the actual birthday), but this turned out to be a good thing, because when he tried on the unfinished hat I found that I had actually overestimated the length I would need to knit (I will be taking better notes on this hat than I did on the last one I made him, for sure - also, I will make an effort not to lose my knitting journal that has his measurements next time. I did find it - right after I finished the hat). I frogged a couple inches, did the decreases last night, checked it on his head several times, wove in the ends, and dunked it in water with some Euclan to try to soften it up a little bit. It's actually wet in the picture above, because I did not plan ahead, so the colors are darker than they should be.

Once I finished that, I cast on this:



Men's wristwarmers from LMKG, only in a 1x1 rib instead of a two by two so that they will match the hat. I had planned to make the hat, and then a scarf, and then the wristwarmers if I had enough yarn left, but the man expressed a level of enthusiasm for the handwarmers that made me think maybe I should do those first, and just end up with a shorter scarf (or go buy more yarn). Thankfully for my sanity, he does not care if the two wristwarmers match each other in color, because I think attempting a match would send me off the deep end. If I can get them close enough to at least look related, I'll be satisfied. The scarf will pull it all together anyway, if he wears it.

4. Saturday I went with a friend down to the Museum of American History, and I needed metro knitting, so I wound this:



I'm knitting it up in Pink Lemon Twist's New Fallen Snow pattern from her Visions of Sugarplums Sock Collection. Now, this colorway looks nothing like snow - it is actually all the colors of a tropical ocean somewhere in the Carribean. But, I think the NFS pattern could also be interpreted as waves, so - as far as I am concerned, I'm knitting the Carribean sea.

(ETA: Oops, almost committed a blog sin. I'm going to hae to go off memory until I can look up the details. The SO bought this yarn for me while he was in New Hampshire. It's from a local dyer. The tag says Serenity and it has a Celtic knot on it. The blend is superwash merino, bamboo and nylon and I will have to look up the colorway. I actually thought I took a picture of this yarn in the skein along with the purple one he bought me, plus two skeins of Happy Feet I received for Christmas that I had forgotten to photograph, but I did not find the photos last night.)

(ETA2: Ah, here we go - Sereknity yarns Sereknity Sock Options Shimmer Merino Bamboo[rav link] Ravelry to the rescue as always! The other yarn he brought me from them is a merino-seacell blend [rav link].)

(ETA3: I'm slow. The spelling rang a bell and I went and look, and sure enough - this is the same Sereknity that dyed the Eye of Jupiter Yarn the Yarn Harlot is using for her Battlestar Galactica socks.)

So, that was new business. On to (or back to?) old business.

One of my Memorial Day activities was stashing all the Christmas yarn.



Except for that which I intended to knit over the long weekend.



(I may have overestimated my abilities somewhat.)

From left to right: Yarn for the noro hat pictured above. My noro scarf and the two balls of yarn I had left to knit into it. Malabrigo Silky Merino in Velvet Grapes for a Just Enough Ruffles scarf. Right above that, a ball of Valley Yarns Northampton (one of three) for the Hemlock Ring Blanket (I have been pilfering the yarn off that ball to use as leader on my spinning wheel, because I didn't have any non-superwash scrap yarn that I could find). And, last but not least, the nearly finished Tilli Thomas bag I have been meaning to get to. There is a lot more finished than it looks like because it rolls up, I really only need like an inch and a half to get it done and I swear half an hour would do it, if I could just stop KNITTING STUFF FOR EVERYONE ELSE FOR FIVE MINUTES.

I'm not actually sure what that purple ball in the left corner was...maybe the Homestead yarn I was going to use for the Hamsa scarf? I think that's right.

I am crazy enough that I actually believed I would finish the bag, the hat and the scarf and the center part of the Hemlock Ring blanket (leaving me with easy tv knitting at the feather-and-fan section). Ha. On top of that, I'm actually crazy enough that when I put it together for the picture I was thinking that that was my knitting stuff for the day. Then I took the picture, stepped back, and thought, that it was probably enough to last me the weekend. Maybe.

One week later, I have finished the hat, gotten through about half the two balls left on the scarf, cast on and worked maybe six rows on the Just Enough Ruffles Scarf, and the rest is pretty much untouched (although actually...I don't think that's half bad).

And, of course, the one last bit of old business...pictures of the finished and blocked Whispering Pines Shawl. Unfortunately, they are kind of crappy pictures, because it was really late by the time I got around to uploading stuff last night and I didn't take much time to fix them. They also just weren't great shots to begin with, since I was a bit giddy after pinning it all out.











I did not pin out the edging, since I kind of liked it floopy, and I may have chickened out at the thought of pinning that many points.

In which my perfectionism is justified

So, I finally had the intestinal fortitude to face the orchid mitts. The nearly completed mitt is still MIA and I am almost certain I dropped it on the plane. I try not to think about this bit of stupidity because it burns.

I frogged back, carefully and keeping an eye on the number of stitches, on the other mitt, and I finally found the problem all the way at the base of the thumb gussets. I was supposed to yarn over once, then knit three plain rounds and yarn over, knit one, yarn over. I skipped that first single yarn over, and that's why I was short a stitch. The stitch that would have been created by that single yarn over didn't exist because I skipped it, and so I ended up taking one of the other stitches.

When I discovered the error many rows later, I was tempted just to increase and move on, but it killed me that I couldn't figure out where I lost the stitch. I should have been able to see where I dropped a stitch or had an extra decrease. Because I couldn't find it, I wasn't happy just increasing, and so, I frogged.

Even I thought it was stupid to rip back so much work over one stupid stitch, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't shake the fear that it would turn out to matter, and sure enough, it would have mattered. My entire thumb gusset was off by three rows, and wouldn't have fallen the way it was supposed to. It might not have been noticeable, but it might have made a difference in the look and fit, so I'm really glad I went back and found the error.

But now...it's past time for bed.

Round and round

My spinning hit a snag earlier this week when one of my bobbins - one that was full of newly spun singles - fell apart. Both end discs came off (I want to call them whorls but they are not the whorl, so...discs it is) and I'm just sitting there with a wooden tube wrapped in wool that could leap off the edge at any moment. I'm a little miffed - this is not supposed to happen. I guess it's possible maybe I overfilled the bobbin? I googled to see if it was a common problem but I didn't see anybody else having problems, so I think it was just an isolated issue with my bobbins, which really weren't in great shape coming out of the box. Two out of the three were dented, though not badly enough to really affect the function, and one of them had one disc fall off before I even put any yarn on it. The SO is calling the place he bought the wheel to fuss a bit, but last night I bought some superglue and fixed them. One of the bobbins still has a problem, because the disc on the end is dented, which has splintered the wood a little bit, and splintered wood is not good for yarn. So I'm hoping he can get them to replace that one at least.

I tried gluing the discs back on the bobbin without taking the yarn off, but that didn't go well since the yarn kind of wanted to expand so it was pushing outward on the discs, and I didn't want it to get in the glue, so I had to wind the yarn off on my niddy noddy and then glue the bobbin back together.

I did order more bobbins and a tensioned lazy kate after all this insanity. When I took the merino off the bobbin to free it up to spin the Corriedale, I wound it off on my niddy noddy, aand I'm hoping that putting it on my swift like a normal skein would give me more tension than the kate, and make a nicer, less kinky and tight ball.

So, I have both the merino and the corriedale to ply (is it asking for trouble to ply the merino? Also, am I supposed to capitalize sheep breeds or not?) and I will have to ply both from center-pull balls, since I am not winding the Corriedale back onto the bobbin, so - I guess this weekend I am learning to ply from a center-pull ball!