Category Archives: Knitting

Needles

29 Thursday Nov 2007

Posted by in Knitting, Knitting Sites

≈ 5 Comments

One of the Internet’s strengths is its ability to help consumers
find the right needle in a digital haystack of data.
[Jared Sandberg]

Wouldn’t you think I’d have every size of knitting needle after all of these years? Wrong. My grandson has already out-grown the red Wallaby I knit for him for this Christmas so I’m rapidly knitting a larger one. I’ll post a photo when I’m finished. I’ve worked up to the underarm on #5 circular needles but, when I started the sleeves, I discovered I have no #5 double-points. I also have no local yarn shop. I searched the internet and ordered a set of needles from The Local Needle in Florida. I received an email from them that they had mailed it the same day. Wow. Somebody knows knitters and their needs.

Almost there

18 Sunday Nov 2007

Posted by in Knitting, Thoughts

≈ 2 Comments

The toughest thing about success is that
you’ve got to keep on being a success.
[Irving Berlin]

I have half a sock to finish and my Christmas knitting will be done—a scarf, a sweater, and six pairs of socks. Ah, success. Now I need to find where I stored the wrapping paper.

My youngest daughter has never learned to knit. I offered to teach her once and she replied, “I’d rather not. If I learned to knit, people would expect me to.” I can understand her point. If I learned to cook better, people would expect me to. I’ve invited people over for Thanksgiving dinner next Sunday. I’ll do my best to serve them the yummiest of meals, but I don’t have the pressure of them expecting me to—they have all known me for years so they know I knit better than I cook. I’ll make up for it when they get their Christmas gifts.

On a roll

04 Sunday Nov 2007

Posted by in Knitting

≈ Leave a comment

The only place where housework comes before needlework
(or knitting)
is in the dictionary.
[Mary Kurtz]

Alpaca SocksMy bed is made and my dishes are washed, but that is it for today. I’m on a roll. I’ve finished one sock mate and am almost to the toe on another. That leaves only four more sock mates to knit for Christmas (except for the mate to the sock at the left which isn’t a gift so it can wait).

As I knit, I noticed I can do 20 rounds (72 stitches per round) an hour. That means I can finish a sock in about 11 hours. I don’t usually time my knitting but I’m racing the clock on this project. Too bad I can’t knit and walk at the same time like some people do. This gives a whole new meaning to the word “sedentary.” I’m going to have to take a break and run to the grocery. I can do without food, but I don’t want to run out of toilet paper for Pete’s sake.

For those in search of the perfect sock, this gray one is as close as I’ve ever come. The cable is pretty. The ribbing in the heel gusset makes it snug in around the ankle. Meg Swansen’s fitted arch and the saddle toe softly cradle my foot. And, the fiber is delicious. It is alpaca.

Meanwhile, I also have my day work to do—client websites to update, print proofs coming in, etc. As soon as I see the light of day past all of this, I am determined to get back to sweater pattern production. I’ll offer them for sale individually and electronically until I have enough to compile into a book.

I received an email newsletter from Firefly that has a link to her blog.  This blog is beautiful and her paintings are outstanding. What a joy.

Okay, I have to go knit 10 rounds.

Six Socks

30 Tuesday Oct 2007

Posted by in Knitting

≈ 4 Comments

True love is like a pair of socks:
you gotta have two and they’ve gotta match.
[Anonymous]

Six Socks

And soon there will be twelve. These six socks (plus the mate to the first one) are the results of my October knitting. The last three are ribbed like crew socks. The last two have shaped arches (Meg Swansen style). So, I figure that I ought to be able to knit the last five mates in November and have them wrapped for Christmas in plenty of time. I figured it up. If I factored in minimum wage for the hours I spent plus the cost of the yarn, each pair would be about $175.00! But who is counting? Knitting these tied my thoughts to the people who will receive them. That is priceless.

Home again

25 Thursday Oct 2007

Posted by in Knitting, Thoughts

≈ 4 Comments

When preparing to travel,
lay out all your clothes and all your money.
Then take half the clothes and twice the money.
[Susan Heller]

lee and me… twice the money, especially if you are going to a yarn shop. My friend Lee (on the left) and I spent time knitting with her friends at Yarntiques in Johnson City, TN.

Here is a suggestion for people who consider paying big bucks for marketing strategy advice. Provide a comfortable knitting area in a room that has the walls lined with yarn floor to ceiling. See the look on my face? The words that go with that expression are, “Looky there. I didn’t see that yarn yet. I may just have to buy a skein and try it out.”

Last night when I got home, I sat here knitting on one of the new skeins I bought and thought about my trip. That is a fringe benefit of buying yarn. It makes my trip last longer because the yarn triggers memories as I knit. I can relive the lovely meals and conversations we shared. Thank you Lee for your friendship and the wonderful visit. And thank you Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee for sharing your autumn beauty.

Luxury

21 Sunday Oct 2007

Posted by in Knitting

≈ 2 Comments

It is impossible to overdo luxury.
[French Proverb]

Alpaca Socks

Okay folks. Now you are going to get a view of my dark side. I’m keeping these socks for myself! The yarn is Classic Elite, Alpaca Sox. I used my children’s inheritance to buy enough for one pair, and I may name it and keep it as a pet—it feels so good that it must surely be sinful.

Since I’m working three of these cable patterns on every round, it took me all day to knit just four inches (72 stitches on size #0 needles). Whew. I keep asking myself if I’m really going to work the cable on the top of the foot to the toe or am I going to stop this when I start the heel shaping. The cable is very flat so it wouldn’t be uncomfortable inside a shoe. The cable moves over only one stitch at a time instead of two over two.

Actually, I’m going to have to put these aside for awhile and finish my Christmas knitting.

Knitting Christmas

20 Saturday Oct 2007

Posted by in Knitting, Thoughts

≈ 1 Comment

It is better to give than receive—especially advice
[Mark Twain]

Okay. I know. It is not even Halloween yet, but if you make gifts, you have to start earlier. For the past few years, last-minute and store-bought would have described my gifts. This year, I’ve been knitting gifts in response to, “I wish you’d knit … for me.” Well, Santa Kate has kept track and is checking her list so, if you are kin to me, you will probably get your wish. I’m not even considering whether you have been good or not.

I’ve been collecting other little goodies too. My spare bed is off limits to visitors because I haven’t wrapped anything yet. Toby dog prefers it when I knit socks instead of sweaters. He is a lap-sitter by nature and likes all of the room he can get. He also knows what everyone is getting but I’ve sworn him to secrecy.

Ravel/Unravel

30 Sunday Sep 2007

Posted by in Knitting, Thoughts

≈ 2 Comments

Never be bullied into silence.
Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.
[Harvey S. Firestone]

Speaking of definitions—ravel and unravel have about the same definition! They both refer to separating the fibers or threads of something (among other definitions). Wordsmiths might write a dissertation on the subtle differences between the two, but they can be used interchangeably. One would think that, whatever one meant, the other would mean the opposite like do and undo.

Speaking of unravel—I’m knitting a sleeve on the textured argyle sweater and have only unraveled it once. I always do the calculations for the taper on sleeves but still end up unraveling them at least once before I get them right. My daughter looked at the sweater, loved it, then added that she didn’t like rolled necklines. She thought it would be better with a V-neck. I must have gotten a dismayed look on my face because she immediately back-peddled. She said, “You wear turtlenecks so the rolled neckline will look good with those.” Good save, Rachel.

Textured Argyle Update

26 Wednesday Sep 2007

Posted by in Knitting

≈ 2 Comments

Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way
as best to accomplish a particular purpose.
[Charles Eames]

Cotton Argyle

Several posts ago, I showed a photo of a huge cone of cotton string. Here it is knit into the body of a sweater I’m designing. It is a seamless Gansey-style construction. I started with the ribbing at the bottom then:

  • put the underarm stitches on string
  • knit the back so I could use it to figure out the neck hole
  • knit the front
  • Kitchner joined the shoulders
  • picked up the neck stitches
  • worked several rows of ribbing
  • finished with reverse stockinette for a rolled effect.

Right now, it is drying from being blocked. I usually do that before I start the sleeves so I can calculate how many stitches to pick up along the armhole. I’ll decrease the underarm stitches like a gusset. I plan to knit the sleeves in stockinette without the argyle texture pattern.

Nooks and Crannies

25 Tuesday Sep 2007

Posted by in Favorite Things, Knitting, Thoughts

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past,
trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes,
and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.
[Winston Churchill]

New Harmony
Photos of New Harmony by Robert Pence

Every place has its interesting nooks and crannies but some places have more than others. New Harmony, Indiana is one of those places. Robert Pence writes the following about that lovely little town:

A communitarian German religious sect, the Rappites, under the leadership of George Rapp, established a settlement first called Harmonie along the Wabash River in Posey County about 1815. They were industrious, producing silk, lumber, woolens, bricks and wine, which were traded as far away as New Orleans via the rivers. Their brick homes and buildings were among the most imposing and their standard of living among the highest in Indiana at the time.

Frontier isolation and distance from eastern markets for their manufactured products led the Rappites to return to Pennsylvania after only ten years. They sold the settlement to Scottish industrialist Robert Owen, who envisioned a utopian communal society based on learning. He brought in a “boatload of knowledge”, via the river, brilliant scientists, educators and scholars, but the community failed to prosper because it lacked people with knowledge of or inclination toward the basic skills of growing food and creating the artifacts necessary for the physical functioning of the community.

This village of less than 1,000 people is the site of many firsts, such as the first continuously operating library in Indiana. It is more than charming. It is a haven of culture and history so well hidden in a nook of Hoosier farmland that a traveler might miss it while speeding along the interstate.

It is also the place where we gather to knit, visit and share at the Barn Abby each October on a weekend retreat. I’m already gathering stuff together to take on our trip. I can hardly wait.