Scarf Progress

At least one person has asked me if this scarf is of my own design. Well, yes, and… no. It’s a simple thing, really, in a basic seed stitch with a plaited cable in the center. So, nothing earth-shatteringly new there. But, someday soon I will write it all down for the curious and post in these pages. Perhaps when the thing is finished.

I’ve been away from the blog for a long while. No good reason, really… but I will say that this summer I have been in a kind of a slump. It was just the scarf and me, all summer long, day in and day out… and I thought certainly it would be too boring to hear of this same project over and over, so, instead I’ve been quiet. While knitting this scarf I have been pondering my next one, which is a commitment I’ve made to do a Special Olympics scarf. In the meantime I’ve developed a strong love-hate relationship with knitting scarves at all, so I’m starting to lose hope a bit that the next project will ever get off the ground. What is it with scarves, anyway, and why does something that seems so simple take forever to do?

A couple of other things to catch up on:

A few weeks back I bought some new yarn that I had never heard of before:

mink and cashmere yarn

This is the Mink and Cashmere Yarn from the Great Northern Yarns company. The fiber content is 70% mink (sheared) and 30% cashmere. It sounded on the surface, like it should feel like the most amazingly luxurious yarn ever made. Well, let’s say that I was somewhat under-impressed for what I was thinking it should feel like. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly soft, but I’ve had my hands on a mink coat or two in my lifetime and well? I guess I was expecting it to feel like that. And it doesn’t. Not really… but it did sort of remind me of this silk that I have, at least in the feel of it. I haven’t knit with it yet so I don’t know what it’s like to knit with. But I’m thinking maybe someday DH will get a scarf out of this to go with his dress coat. He can’t stand the feel of wool (“itchy”) so I think this will fill the bill for him, someday.

I have something else to share:

Jackie's Tam

This is my friend Jackie, from knit group. She is a relatively new knitter, and she made THAT hat, from the book, Colorwork Creations: 30+ Patterns to Knit Gorgeous Hats, Mittens and Gloves. I’m very proud of Jackie. She came to us I think less than a year ago, learning to knit her first scarf, and now, she is fearless. She saw this book somewhere and I liked it and got one and loaned it to her, and off she went. Her very first hat looked as if it would fit a giant. If that had happened to me, I might have thrown the book across the room and stomped away in disgust, but not Jackie. She was undaunted, and tried again. I think, but I’m not certain, that this was her third attempt. And it was a huge success! Not only does the hat look great, but it looks great on her, a wonderful match to her coloring and hair. She says this hat is a gift for someone, but personally? I hope she gifts it to herself. I think Jackie deserves such a lovely thing.

As for me, it’s back to the scarf. I must keep knitting, must keep knitting, must keep knitting… ciao for now.

Sampler Knitting, by Barbara Walker

On the surface, the book seems to take bits and pieces from other existing Walker books. I have all of the stitch treasuries, and even Mosaic Knitting. But this book goes a step further, and talks about how to take those stitches and designs, and put them together to actually make a project.

And yeah, the colors and photos in the book, and the designs themselves, really look like 1973. But, just like all of my knitting books, this one will serve as inspiration for me. I’ve been saying for some time that I want to do knitting as art, and this book has certainly given me some ideas. I think I want to play with the concept of mosaic knitting especially, because a) it’s something new to me, and b) it looks like one of those things that LOOKS hard, and looks totally like knitting magic, but it’s easy! That’s my kind of knitting.

Stay tuned… there’s knitted art in my future.

So imagine my delight when I discovered this book last week: Astounding Knits!: 101 Spectacular Knitted Creations and Daring Feats. It is a compendium of all that is good, and weird, and a little twisted, about knitting.

Imagine the biggest, I mean BIGGEST, pink bunny in the world. Or colorwork sweaters so small they could fit on the tip of your fingers. A human heart made of lace, or a complete skeleton. Ever wanted a motorcycle cozy? How about a superhero costume?

The author, Lela Nargi, has written several other books that are interesting collections of thoughts and experiences of other knitters. I’ve listened to the audiobooks and I’ve loved them. This book is something like an extension of the theme. Who knew there were so many crazy and wonderful things that one could do with knitting? Surely I consider myself to be a creative person. But, my mind would never have gone to a place where I would have thought it would be fun to knit tea cozies in the shape of houses of infamous murder scenes. Or knitted sushi? Who thinks of that stuff?

This book isn’t a knitting book. It’s a book about knits, and the people who make them. It’s fun. It’s odd. And totally inspiring. It’s only around 10 dollars for this wonderful little book, and next time I go to knit group, I’m bringing it with me. I’m sure it will provide loads of entertainment.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely. Every knitter needs inspiration like this in his or her library. Any time I feel like I’m in a knitting rut, I’ll be sure to pull this one off the shelf and flip through a few of the projects. It’s sure to keep my knitting on its toes.

And, if ever I do decide to knit a tree cozy? I’ll look here first for inspiration.

I love the idea of knitting top-down. I hate, hate, HATE seaming and so the very idea of any technique that requires minimal finishing is a good thing. I remember thinking the first time I looked through the book that man, these designs are all for skinny people. My second read, just now though, shows that most of the patterns are, in fact, upsized for larger sizes. But, and perhaps it’s my unfortunate middle age showing here, I still have to wonder whether even though the patterns are upsized, if they would actually look good on plus size people.

The book definitely has a lot of positives, though. The author, Kristina McGowan, wrote in her introduction that she started by studying the book, Knitting from the Top by Barbara G. Walker, and then actually got to visit Ms. Walker, and from those things, the book was born. How lucky she must have felt to be in the presence of such a great and smart knitter! Reading that part in the introduction just blew me away.

The patterns themselves are thoroughly modern–full of skinny designs and plunging necklines and all of the things that make today’s clothes unwearable by people shaped like me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate their beauty. I especially love the dress on the cover, and I’m currently wondering if I can modify it to work as a vest over a t-shirt or something. Several of the dresses I think could be made as tops only, or sweaters, and I think for me, that will be something worth exploring. I bet I can do it. That’s the beauty of top-down knitting. You can make it up, or modify, as you go.

There are a few other types of patterns as well, including arm warmers, a wrap, and an Annie Hall-inspired hat that is just so adorable I think I’m going to have to make it.

The book is beautifully photographed and has lots of helpful diagrams, and tutorials for important techniques used throughout the book.

I have to say that even though this book isn’t necessarily designed for 45-year-old fat women like me, I am so glad I have it. There’s a lot to learn here about modern design, and it takes the concept of top-down knitting in some totally new directions that I hadn’t imagined before now. I think I’ll go dig out my Barbara Walker book along with this one and study up. This is gonna be good.

The book starts with the basic formula for making the dolls. It talks about yarn choices, and other materials needed. After giving you the basic layout of how to knit a doll, the majority of the book goes into how to knit the numerous variations that will create the various parts, including feet and legs (or shoe and pants style), numerous clothing and sweater/body styles, and tips for doing various hairstyles and facial expressions, using a variety of materials. Overall these seem like quick little knits, perfect for using up small bits of yarn, odd little buttons and various other things.

The book takes a mix-and-match approach to body parts, clothing styles, and accessories, such that the design possibilities are practically endless. The book even includes such details as whether or not to knit individual fingers, separate clothing pieces, and a variety of shapes that could easily turn your doll into an animal, or even a mermaid.

Me? I’d probably be interested in creating knitted amigurumi dolls of people I know. I’d probably start with someone wearing purple sneakers, a long denim skirt, a hoodie, and purple bangs sticking out from under a rasta hat.

Hmmm… I wonder if that sounds like anybody I know?

I almost can’t wait to start, except there’s this shawl… back to that–tomorrow.

Shawl progress

One of my biggest faults is that I worry so much sometimes about doing something wrong that I over-study, and over-study the problem, and then that leads to progress paralysis. You’re familiar with project paralysis, right? It plagues every knitter, every writer, every doer of anything creative from time to time. Well, I seem to have an extreme case. I have consulted all of these books for inspiration over the last week:

• Victorian Lace Today
• A Treasury of Knitting Patterns
• A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns
• First Book of Modern Lace Knitting
• Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting
• Successful Lace Knitting: Celebrating the Work of Dorothy Reade
• Crazy Lace:an artistic approach to Creative Lace Knitting
• Folk Shawls
• Knitted Lace of Estonia: Techniques, Patterns, and Traditions
• Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume Five: Lace Knitting
• Knitting Lace

That’s an entire library on knitting lace and a practical encyclopedic collection of lace stitches. And you know what? I’m confused! I’ve gone overboard, again.

I’ve narrowed the field to a few criteria, but I have to go through the stitches again to find things that I think will work. Here are my thoughts:

• It has to somehow fit into the area that I want to knit it into, not exactly, because I can use filler stitches and rows, but close enough.
• It should be different from, but not clash with, the stitches that are already there, and the ones that follow (as if I know what that means yet)
• The stitches have to be just complicated enough that they will keep my interest, but not so complicated that they make my brain hurt or that I can’t learn them, or read them from my knitting, after doing a couple of repeats
• I’d like my stitch choices to be something that adapt easily to garter stitch
• And they have to be beautiful, without looking too much like “old lady” lace, whatever that means. I have purple hair, for goodness sake, and I’m going through a bit of a midlife crisis. Not that old fashioned lace can’t be simply stunning, I’m just not sure it’s me.

So, have I driven you mad with my craziness? Does anybody out there have any thoughts on this? HOW the heck do I sort this all out? I feel like I’m only taking my first, tentative baby steps with lace knitting, and yet, I’m seeking a master’s degree straightaway. I am nuts, and I know it. For now, I’ll keep knitting, since I still have another 14 or so rows before I must commit. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Help?!?

As always, I thank you in advance.

Shawl beginnings

For some reason, I got it in my head a couple of weeks ago that I want to make a shawl. I’ve been wearing wide scarves over my shoulders all winter. They all have been store-bought, and I have had a bit of knitter’s shame in that none of what I have worn has been anything I’ve made. You wanna know why that is? There IS nothing I have made. A few hats, an i-cord scarf, and lots of unfinished objects. I am the true embodiment of a process knitter; I start a project, eager to learn something new, and then once I get the concept, I quickly get bored. So, there’s not a lot to show for my “career” as a knitter.

But, back in November, when I visited Woolstock, I discovered the wonder that is Koigu. I bought 8 skeins, intent on making a shawl. Of course, it can’t be just ANY shawl. It had to be the PERFECT shawl. And so, the agonizing began.

Agonizing, because… here’s the thing. I love the idea of lace, but I really don’t like “old lady” lace. I’m 45 with purple hair for gosh sakes, I’m fighting my age tooth and nail. So, I had to find the right stitch patterns, and style and shape of shawl.

Enter the book, Crazy Lace:an artistic approach to Creative Lace Knitting by Myra Wood. (Whoa! Check out the CRAZY price on that thing! I swear, I paid less than 20 a few months ago. Is it out of print already?) This book is a really cool concept, and explains that lace can be whatever you want it to be, symmetrical, or not, orderly, or not… that as long as you understand some basic concepts for the shape you want, you can do anything you want with the holes and the decreases. Really. ANYTHING.

The thing is, I’m not quite that brave. Not yet. I want to be, but I’m not there. Still, the book was a great read and I will refer to it often every time I need a knitting confidence booster.

Then I thought I would love to try knitting a Faroese Shawl. The concept of this shawl appealed to me because as a person in a wheelchair, I have trouble keeping shawls in place on my shoulders. And the shaping looked like just the thing that would make this shawl easy to wear. I looked at some basic shaping instructions from this site. I understand the concepts laid out in this site, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Not yet. It was making my brain hurt, so I ripped it out after only the first few rows. I tried again and again, but the confusion never lifted. So there went that idea.

Then I looked around Ravelry, and there it was: The Pi Are Square shawl. (There’s a good example of one in this photo on Flickr.) Put simply, it’s round in the back, and square in the front. with shoulder shaping. This seemed perfect. Of course the creator of this beautiful design was none other than my knitting herone, Elizabeth Zimmermann. I have most of her books so I pulled my copy of Knitting Around off the shelf, and luckily, it made perfect sense! And off I went. I am enjoying looking at all sorts of lace books, coming up with patterns and ideas. Maybe I’ll even get a little crazy.

If I’m brave enough. We’ll see.

Toe Up Socks in a Box

Yeah, ok… it seems like a rehashing of Wendy’s popular book, “Socks from the Toe Up: Essential Techniques and Patterns from Wendy Knits,” but the format is ingenious! It’s a box of index cards, with a card for each pattern, and tips for things like heels on one, and toes on another, etc. I think this solves the one thing I hate about knitting books… lugging them around. Now all the patterns are on individual cards and they’re so easy to throw in the knitting bag and don’t weigh it down. This is especially important for sock knitters, who, as knitters go, travel light. They know that one of the major attractions to sock knitting is that socks are small and can be worked on anywhere, and packed in almost anything without taking up any major amount of space. Knitting books, by their very nature, cancel out this benefit, unless you have access to a personal copier and remember to copy all your patterns before you leave the house. (My office would frown on me using their copier to make copies of my knitting patterns for sure.)

So, this is great! I am certain that when I become a sock knitter (and, I have a feeling that I am now on my way), I’ll turn to these patterns often, just because it’s been made so easy for me to do so. I already own the book, but these patterns in this little box are the ones that I’m sure will get the most use.

I wish more patterns would come this way! If you like Wendy’s socks, you might want to give these cards a try. And then hop on over to Wendy’s Blog and tell her how much you like them. I’m headed there now.

I’ve discovered that one of the hard parts about doing a long-term, never-ending project like the one I’m working on now is that it gets monotonous to talk about and blog about over and over. And then it gets monotonous to work on. So, as much as I love this project, my enthusiasm for it, alas, is waning. I am still, however, determined to get it done.

Here is tonight’s photo update:

Blanket in progress

By now I guess I can say that it is a baby blanket, for a special boy who has now been born. It seems at this pace that it will be a while before he receives it, but then I guess that means it’s a good thing that it’s something of a large blanket, because maybe he’ll be a grown man before it is done! I certainly hope not, though, because even though I love this project and will probably produce a pattern on it someday, there are many times I wish to be knitting something else! The cowl bug is biting me, hard, and the shawl bug, and the hat bug. And I still have my February Lady Sweater to finish, that was halted to accommodate this project, and I’d like to try my hand at other sweaters as well.

The other day on my Knit Talk group we were discussing various patterns that different people like to knit over and over. My good friend Joanie mentioned that she loved to knit basic raglan sweaters from an old Leisure Arts booklet that was first released in the 1970s. “The Complete Book of Raglan Sweaters,” contains several variations on a basic design in just about every size. Of course, my curiosity was piqued and so I ordered a copy for myself. It’s a great little book, if you like raglans, of course. In general raglans look just about as awful on me as they do the next fat girl but I kinda like their relaxed, “wear it on Sunday” appeal. So, I think I may try one. Maybe I’ll do one for my son first, since he’s the smallest person here, just to see how it goes. If that goes well then maybe I’ll be on a roll and be brave enough to try other kinds of sweaters. I keep hoping for that magic design that will prove to me how easy making garments that fit can be, so I can get over my fear of them and just start making — and finishing — actual sweaters. Then I’d feel like a real knitter.

Yep, I’ve been knitting for six years now and I feel like a poser. Still. I think that’s why I don’t finish very many things. I don’t feel like an accomplished knitter most of the time, so I don’t allow myself to accomplish many things. Does that make sense? Why, oh why do I hold myself back?

I suppose that’s a discussion to be continued on another day. I think I’m getting too philosophical for this late hour. Bedtime beckons. And, for once, I’m listening. See you soon.

So, with thanks to the old-school approach, here is my review of “Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Patterns That Go Way Beyond Socks!,” edited by Judith Durant. I admit I waited for this book for a long time. I am a professed Not-Sock-Knitter, and yet, I have bins of beautiful sock yarns with nowhere to go. I like a beautiful yarn as much as the next knitter, and so many of them these days are sock yarns. I have amassed many skeins, and have a total of ONE pair of socks in my Finished Object collection.

(Why, then am I taking an all-day sock workshop with Lucy Neatby in just three weeks? Ok, I know HOW to make socks, but have never been excited by them. I am, however, very excited by the prospect of learning from Lucy Neatby, and who knows? Maybe after spending a day in her company I WILL get excited about socks, and then… well…)

So. In the meantime, there’s this fabulous little book. I have the other books in the series, and by far, a thousand times over, this one is my favorite. There are so many patterns to choose from, as with the other books, but for some reason, the quality of the patterns seems such that I would be apt to make many more of these than many of the designs in the other books. I can’t say why. Just a gut feeling.

The book opens with a chapter on hats, mitts and socks. Several of the hat designs are ones I would make, and the mitts, mittens and gloves are almost all interesting. I do have to admit that I wasn’t expecting sock patterns in this book at all, given that there are so many sock pattern books, but there aren’t many, and well, I guess I should expect at least a few sock patterns from a book all about sock yarns. So I’m not complaining.

The scarves, wraps and shawls chapter has so many lovely patterns that if I only ever knit from this book it would probably take me three years or more to get through the ones I want to make.

The chapter on baby, toddler and doll clothes has so many adorable options including dresses, hat and bootie sets and adorable little sweaters.

Then there’s a chapter called, “Bag It and More,” for which I found the “more” part to be quite interesting. everything from a lampshade to a netbook cozy, to beautiful Christmas ornaments, to a filet crochet window curtain. I loved them all.

This book is definitely worth the Amazon price of $10.99. In my opinion, it’s a steal at that price. Get together with all of your knitting friends and order a bunch of copies among you to get free shipping. I believe this is the must-have book of the season.