My Story

I was going to post this in a forum over on Ravelry, but it ended up being more an autobiography than an on-topic post, so I decided just to put it over here.

I learned to knit on straight metal needles, with cheap, 60's acrylic yarn. I didn't knit much after that, and didn't know there were any options until just a few years ago. Then I discovered all the incredible yarns that exist now (what are probably known as "novelty" yarns). I also discovered circular needles, which changed my mind about knitting completely. I switched over to knitting from crocheting, almost exclusively, and almost all on circs. I just discovered I could knit with DPNs a few months ago. Now that I've pretty much got the hang of that, it's okay, too.

I swatch, but don't block. Like I said, I've mainly been using acrylics. But, I might have to block some things I'm working on now. My problem is that 1) I don't iron, 2) I don't have a big enough clear, flat, cat-free surface to lay something on, and 3) I would only be willing to do it once. If something needs this blocking process every time it's washed, I might have to give it to someone who's willing to devote that much work to laundry. My idea of how to treat a hand-wash-dry-flat garment is to toss it in the machine on delicate cycle and hang it upside-down. (Tip: hanging a wet sweater upside-down, clipped at the hem, will avoid the shoulder tumors.)

I've only been inside a non-chain LYS a handful of times. I didn't even know there was a local yarn shop where I live until not long before they closed up shop. I didn't know there was such a thing as a sock-blocker, or a specific thing made just for winding yarn.

I just very recently discovered that there are books about knitting, and they aren't just learn-how-to-knit books, or books of patterns. I've never taken a class on knitting or crocheting, but I have taught many relatives and friends to crochet, and a couple to knit.

I still can't believe that a "steek" is something that people knit deliberately just so they can cut through it with scissors. That makes me want to scream and hide under the bed.

Yes, I have a knitting blog. However, it's more an old-fashioned "journal" than a blog. It's much more for my own use than for the entertainment of anyone else. I'm not sure anyone else is even looking at it. I'm using it, though, to keep track of what I'm working on, and what I want to remember about things I've learned or problems I've run into. This link thing I've created in the right frame is also extremely handy, and I use it more than I go to my bookmarks directly on del.icio.us. I do love del.icio.us, but when I specifically want to find that tutorial on the Turkish Cast-on, for example, it's just so much easier to find it here.

Wool Good

I love me some Yarn Harlot. I need this on a t-shirt. "Wool Good." Yes, yes it is.

clipped from www.yarnharlot.ca November 9, 2007 One for the geeks I would like a wee virtual button for my desktop that says SMACK MY SERVER. It doesn't even have to have a script attached to it that actually does anything to the server....it would just be like the buttons at crosswalks. We all know they don't do anything except for give you something to push while you wait for the light to change anyway. I could call tech support, they could work on the problem and I could sit here and push the button (perhaps it could make a nice firm "thwack" noise) and I would feel like I was doing SOMETHING VENGEANCE BASED AND HOSTILE TO MY *&^%%$!!!!&&ING SERVER instead of just sitting here waiting for it to release me from its digital hades. Never mind. Look at wool. Wool never break down. Wool never need upgrade. Wool have no port settings. Wool have no hostname or DNS. Wool Good.

Baby Socks

I have been trying to find a workable pattern for a pair of baby socks for Nicky's baby shower. I started with Cat Bordhi's Little Sky socks. The first problem I had with them was that even after reducing the number of stitches by about a third, the sock was just was too big. When I got almost down to the toe, it was also really strangely shaped. I didn't even bother taking a picture of it at that point - I just frogged it and started over with Charlie's Wiggle Room socks.

The first problem with this next pattern was the Wiggle Room toe. The book describes it as having "gently rounded corners". I worked this two different ways, and both times ended up with a toe that is pointed on each outside corner, and concave in the center.

At this point I'm just going to frog it and start over with the Little Coriolis pattern again. It's going to be too big for this gauge, but hopefully I can adjust it and make it work, since I had good luck with it the first time.

Oh, the one positive thing is that this pattern had cables! I did the cables with no problem. Too bad that my first really successful cables have to be ripped out. Oh, well.

Like a Pig in Mud

Yesterday several packages of stuff came in all at once. I got yarn, books, and needles! The first thing I ripped open was Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. More about that later. I also got the Backstrap Weaving book I ordered. It's an old library book, but it's in excellent condition. As I hoped, it includes instructions on making your own loom. Yay!

The order of yarns and needles from Discontinued Brand Name Yarn came in, too. Oh my goodness! The pictures on their web site don't do justice at all to these beautiful yarns. I am so in love with the bamboo! It's silky, shiny, and strong. Now I am dead to make my next pair of socks out of bamboo. This will surely be the most decadent pair of socks I've ever owned. I'm much happier with the color than I thought I might be, too. There are more shades in the actual yarn than you can tell from their picture. The same goes for the Amerah silk. I'm tempted to get another bag of the silk, but it isn't as soft and scrumptious as the bamboo. I'm afraid I am going to have to get another bag of the bamboo - in purple!

The needles I got are addi Naturas. I have been hearing about addis on different knitting groups, but I had never seen any in real life. They're circulars. They compare to my Clover bamboo circulars the way a Hersey's chocolate bar compares to a Lindt bar. I may never be able to buy the cheap ones ever again.

Where the Clovers are connected by a plastic line that's very similar to stiff weed-whacker line, the addis are connected by something like a gold plastic cable. They're unbelievably flexible, and also thinner than the Clover lines. Instead of just being glued to the bamboo needles like the Clovers are, the addis have gold caps that secure the cable to the ends of the needles.

Now I just wish I'd gotten two pairs of each instead of one. They're no longer available on the web site in those sizes. Oh well, I probably won't be doing many more Turkish Cast-ons in size 7 or 8 needles, anyway. I might get them in 9 and 10, though!

Rippit, Rippit

On Wednesday I worked the sock up to the last row. Yesterday I got a lot of good info from folks on the group forums at Ravelry. I learned that I had basically only done half the heel turn. After doing more web research and pondering this, I ripped the sucker out. There's no sense finishing one sock that had such major things wrong with it, when the whole point of this pair is to learn how to do it right.

So, I started with the Turkish Cast-on again. This time, though, I used Hellchick's toeupsocks Toe Shaping. The only difference is that she uses the figure eight cast-on. This gave me a really lovely rounded toe. The before picture is on the left, and the after picture is on the right.

This toe makes me really happy. I think it's going to be well worth it to have frogged it. I also discovered the rest of Cat Bordhi's videos on constructing a short-row heel.

I stumbled across the Universal toe-up sock formula on Knitty.com, too. I had a lot of fun creating a spreadsheet and plugging the formulas in for this. I haven't followed it exactly so far, but it will make a very helpful guideline for the rest of the sock.

The tedious details are: Cast on using Turkish Cast-on with 8 wraps (16 sts per circular needle). Worked 8 rows with increases every other row, making 32 sts - 11 sts on each of 1st 2 DPNs, 10 on 3rd DPN.

Knit Your Own Organs

Bag of brains, or sack of intestines? You be the judge.

clipped from www.coolhunting.com Brain Bag by Tim Yu Known for stretching the fashion limits with his avant garde design for the label Undercover, Jun Takashi recently came out with this Brain Bag. An intricate knit of wool resembling the three-pound jelly structure encapsulated by the skull, it's playful but also looks mature and sophisticated and holds its own among other designer handbags. I will spare you most of the puns, but for any of you needing or wanting a bit more brain, the one-off handbag is available at Someday.