Finally Finals are Finished

Phew! I'm starting to recover from the finals marathon and starting to think of knitting again. I need to finish the baby kimono that I started eons ago. Preferably I'll have it done by the time the kid is born.

I just wanted to share with everyone a new knitters social networking site, Ravelry (another networking site, I know). You can't register yet but you can get on the waiting list to be a member. It sounds like a good place to go for inspiration at least.

Techknitting website

Arg...finals are killing me and my knitting projects. That said, while procrastinating before heading to school for my Torts exam (Derby Day and Cinco de Mayo, it's too much), I found this site, Techknitting. There are some great Intarsia instructions that started to inspire me to want to create my own Cosby Sweater. There are also good hints about things like how to uncurl nylon circular needles.

Thank you Knittinghelp.com

The Argosy scarf (previously referred to accidentally as the Argonaut--I think I need a style manual or an editorial board or something), anyway, the Argosy scarf requires a cable cast-on for the new little extensions out to the side. The first couple times I did made them using the backward-loop method. Sure, it's so easy it seems like cheating, but at that point I was struggling with learning the pattern, so it felt justified. Now that I'm 3/4 of the way done with the scarf, I finally looked up how to do the cable cast on. It's easy. I feel silly for waiting so long to do the thing the right way. The little extensions look so much better with the cable cast-on edge!

Maybe I'll just have to knit an Argosy II or Argosy Jr.

P.S. Emily, did you ever find the original malabrigo scarf in the lost and found? Sniff. Sniff.

It's not like it was a necklace made out of Macaroni

So I just deleted one of my entries from yesterday because I realized that it was a bit too harsh. The substance of the post was a tirade about why you shouldn't knit for non-knitters. I guess I had to learn my lesson the hard way and even though I might not stop knitting for my friends/family I will adjust my expectations of what response I get. Really, it is about the giving and not about the pat on the back in the end. No one, not even another knitter, can really now about all that you put into a piece, even if it is a dishcloth.

For those of you that didn't read my post yesterday, and I hope that was most of you, I'll give you a small recap. I think that my experience has a good discussion value.

I recently completed a scarf that I found to be rather challenging. The recipient was grateful and appreciative and all; however, when the recipient showed the scarf to one of her friends the resulting comment that it looked "like an expensive one, not one that was homemade." This incensed me even though I could see in intended compliment of quality. It is from the same type of person who would say "why make it when you can buy one in the store."

What do others think? Am I too sensitive about my knitted products? What are the elements of value? Why are people ashamed of having something homemade in the first place? When did the "store bought" items become the desired items? Is it a class issue? Why is homemade an insult but handmade is a compliment?

More me projects

So in light of my last post, I've found some more ideas of gifts of give myself. One of them is this capelet that I've had my eye on forever at the Malabrigo website. I finally hunted down the pattern, and I think I'll put it on my list of things to knit.

Spring/Summer Knitting Projects

As it gets warmer and warmer outside, I start to get a tired of knitting warm things. My enthusiasm for scarves and gloves and hats fades rapidly. So the two projects are going to be Me Projects. And both of them are handbags.

Men Knitting

Here's a shout-out to Martin (Aidan, have you told him about the site yet?). I'm learning that most men who find out that I knit try to convince me that I'd love nothing more than to knit them a scarf. My old supervisor at work, classmates, friends (is this some odd antithesis to the boyfriend sweater rule?) all try to get me to make them something. At one point, I did almost convinced the president of my old company to take up knitting again on his long business trips.

So here's a bit of a link feast for those men who take matters into their own hands.

MenKnit
Real Men Knit Trailer
Men Who Knit
Health Benefits

Mom's Scarf-Pictures

Here's what the scarf looks like on. (Boy, do I need a haircut!) I was able to mail it to Mom today so she should get it on Thursday. Phew! Next project, the baby kimono for Kristin's baby. I've already started knitting the swatch.

Finished!--Mom's Scarf

Yay! Hoorah! I finished Mom's scarf. It required knitting until 3 AM last night (good thing I'm on break), but it's done. I was very relieved to get it finished. The pattern lost most of it's beauty the longer I knitted it. It's time for this thing to go. I'm mailing it tomorrow at the latest so that she can get it in time for St. Pat's Day since it is a beautiful green color. I also blocked it last night, but it's still a bit damp so it might get mailed tomorrow. I'm posting a few pictures that aren't too blurry (I so need a tripod for the macro shots). I'll try to get a picture or two of the scarf modeled once it is dry.

Sushi Wallet--Yum

So cute!

http://www.pickupsticksonline.com/products/accessories/wallets/sushi.php

I'm putting this one on my wish list. OK, so of course kits are overpriced, but $18 is not so bad, right? Plus, I've never made anything with a zipper, or decorative sushi rolls, or (intentionally) felted anything.

In other news:

The argosy scarf has taken a back burner to warshrags for the time being. Evidently my knitting projects fall into two categories. Need to pay attention, don't need to pay attention. Argosy started off as a need to pay attention, but is now safely in the don't need to pay attention category. So, when I've been wanting to work on something that requires attention, I've been working on the liesl scarf. (I actually started making some headway, but then realized I'd missed a yo three rows back and had to undo it all again....) And when I want to work on something easy, I've been working on my latest ballband warshrag in "hot green" and bright yellow and white "daisy ombre". So far I've given all my warshrags away, but with my renewed dedication to Shining My Sink, this one may be a keeper.

Missing: My Favorite Scarf

Oh sadness! I've been fretful for the past couple of days because I've lost my prize scarf! This is the first scarf that I knitted in garter stitch last winter. I used a beautiful deep bluish-purple Malabrigo yarn and it's gone! I left it in Constitutional Law class on Tuesday and didn't even miss it until I was heading home seven hours later in 7 degree weather with a -40 degree windchill. I feel as though I've abandoned a puppy or child. I've been bugging the security office at school almost every shift to see if someone has turned it in, but, alas, no one has. I'm just crossing my fingers that my class mates are really kind and one of them picked it up for me. Tomorrow, we shall see if that's the case.

Spring Knitty

The new Spring Issue of Knitty is online!

It has warshrag links!

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTbacktoschool.html

http://www.jimsyldesign.com/~dishbout/kpatterns/knitting2.html

Thanks!

Thanks for the dishcloth pattern. Yeah, I think that I have this whole thing backwards. During school I'm knitting the super complicated scarf that I can't mess up and can't do much else while knitting it. When I'm poised for a break from school, I get the super easy pattern that I can knit while reading.

Anyway, since I've been so busy lately, I've had dreams of how to multi-task better especially when knitting. When I'm reading for school I usually have my hands full with highlighters or pens or some sort of writing utensil. Why hasn't anyone invented knitting needles that double as pens or highlighters? Huh? It seems to me to be silly to have two or more needles plus a pencil. Ok. Where's my patent attorney? Maybe I shouldn't put this on the internet.

Garter Stitch R Us

Emily--

Here is the pattern for the super easy dishrag that I saw super-sized into a baby blanket at the LYS:

http://www.jimsyldesign.com/~dishbout/kpatterns/grfavorite.html

You can watch TV and not even look at it, much less the directions. You can talk on the phone. You could probably even do your homework while you knit this thing.

It makes a very soft washcloth that you could even use in your bathroom.

So Sick I Couldn't Even Knit

Last weekend, I learned the hard way what happens when you burn the candle from both ends for too long. Last Sunday, I came down with the flu and am finally getting back up to speed with one week left until Spring Break and some major homework to catch up on. I'm still coughing a lot and my voice is on hiatus, but I don't feel like death. I had to stay home from school both Monday and Tuesday and was too out of it to even knit! I kept trying to read my Contracts homework but would fall asleep. Then I'd wake up and decide to knit and couldn't focus on the pattern. That and I thought the worst present to give someone is a new scarf infected with influenza.

I was also able to fine an extra skein of Saphire Green Malabrigo Yarn in the same dye lot as the first skein at Windsor Button where I bought the first one (image that!). Now I think that Mom's Christmas scarf will be a Saint Patrick's day scarf. I'm sure that it'll come in handy while watching the parades and such.

I'm staying in Boston during the break and anticipate doing some school work, outlining my courses and some supplementary reading. I mostly hope to go to some coffeeshops during the day and relax and knit. I find Boston to have the worst proportion of coffeeshops to people. Whenever I just want to get a coffee and read and relax for a while I have to hunt to find a coffeeshop with any room in it. Maybe during the day during break will increase my chances.

Help for the Overcolored

So, I'm not the best visualizer when I comes to color combinations and tend to play it safe. I'm am also easily overwhelmed by all the different colors of yarn when I go to the LYS and have problems deciding what colors to buy. I just saw this post at Craftzine about this website at Adobe which allows you to try out color combinations without the commitment of buying stuff at the store. Things are easier for me if I can distill it all to the color wheel.

Look at My Must-stache!

Maybe it was Aidan's description of her maybe-not-so-evil wool ease acrylic wool, but my fingers started itching for some new wool. So to be frugally minded, I had a looksee at my stash of yarn. It's a very sad stash indeed. Most of it is reject yarn: yarn I've been given, yarn I've bought for a project and then abandoned, yarn I just can't figure out what to do with yet.

In the front row of this picture, on the far left is a handsome green heather wool with flecks of red, yellow and blue in it. I have no plans for it yet. I bought it on a whim at Uniquely Yours and well... The natural wool next to it is deemed "Poor man's cashmere." It's a very soft merino wool, don't get me wrong, but poor? This might not be as expensive as cashmere, but it's surely not cheep merino.

Next is the Cascade Pastaza, 50% llama, 50% Wool yarn that I bout at Uniquely Yours. I had intended to knit Mom's Christmas scarf (yeah, it's still in progress). I found that the llama had very little give to it so when you're doing increases and decreases you have a lot less maneuverability. Plus the short fibers started going haywire once I started knitting.

The next three skeins of yarn of Red Heart 100% Acrylique yarn. Yeah, I have one in traffic cone orange and two in fire-engine red. Hmmm...what to do with them? I was thinking of making wigs. Like this one.

Next, in the acrylic spectrum, I have one skein of camouflage and a wool skein of dirt brown. That's right Dad's getting a hit new hat before next deer season. He'll be so happy.

In the back row, I have my tower of cotton yarn. It's all Sugar 'n' Cream brand yarn including the three pound bag at the bottom. I swear Mid-Missouri is the best cheap yarn deal ever (now I know why the Mormons declare that Eden is in Missouri, they must have been to a Hobby Lobby before being forced out by the military). I have no idea what I'm doing with all the cotton. Aidan has the market cornered with dishrags.

My real problem today is that Mom's Christmas scarf is only three feet long and there's not a whole lot of yarn left. I need to search for some more Malabrigo this weekend. There was only one skein of Saphire Green at Windsor Button so I maybe trekking all over Boston to find another.

Can Wool-Ease be not evil?

That's the question. Some kind in-law gave me a random skein of oatmeal colored Lion's Brand Wool-Ease for Christmas. 80% Acrylic, 20% Wool. The weird thing is, I actually really like it. It feels soft and not dry/crunchy/static-y. But I'm wary of getting burned yet again by affordable synthetics that turn out to be crappy. Obviously, acrylic sucks. It's not warm, it snags on any little piece of rough skin around the fingernails, and it pills and looks like something the cat vomited up after wearing it once. However, I do know that some acrylic is crappy and some is much, much more crappy. What if you combine only slightly crappy acrylic with wool?

Also, I had the happy coincidence of finding a patttern for a dishrag (hmm, it's around here somewhere...I'll post it when I find it) and then seeing a baby blanket at a LYS made like a jumbo dishrag. It's the exact some pattern, just supersized. So easy! But. In the past I've crocheted baby blankets with Sugar n Creme cotton. They turn out kinda heavy, and I'm not sure how soft they are after you wash them. I like the natural fibers a lot. Especially for babies, 'cause they can get rashes from synthetics (it's plastic!--traps moisture), and they can give off chemicals. Ick. But, for some reason I'm not jazzed about the idea of making a 100% wool baby blanket. Superwash is expensive for a whole blankie.

So, am I crazy in thinking Wool-Ease may not disappoint me terribly? Is it worth a try? Or am I just deluding myself?

Scarf pattern for your consideration

What do you think about this scarf pattern? It says it's easy to memorize, but I'm not so sure.

http://yummyyarn.indus3ous.com/patterns/MJG_Liesel.pdf

But maybe I can use it to make a scarf with only one skein (216 yds) of malabrigo "dusty".

Hmmm.


List of partially completed projects:

baby bib
Mom's socks
Dad's socks
argosy scarf
*new* superlong wrap from those knitting flash cards that I have

Hmmm.

Thinking about Knitting is as good as Knitting, right?

My next project to get done is my friend Kristin's baby kimono. I was surfing for some good patterns and came across this one. I also went and bought some lovely lilac yarn, Misti Cotton brand, which is sooo soft. I will at some point get around to knitting this one. I think that the blanket won't get made. It calls for thirteen 50-gram balls of yarn. My pocketbook isn't so big.

The past few weeks have been pretty brutal at school. My memo draft is done and was turned in on Monday so I've had a little more time to think about knitting. I got my hands on Dorothy L. Sayers' The Unpleasantness at the Belladonna Club on mp3 and have been listening to that while I knit.