Major Knitter

Weekend Warrior Attacks 4,840 Stitches

There.  I did it.  I attacked the edging on the Faery Ring jacket - all 4,840 sts.  It's not really all that many sts, but for some reason it was an onerous task.  I think it's because it's 440 stockinette sts in one stretch... and I'm holding he entire weight of this massive project in my lap while doing it.  But during many baseball games, I managed to finish.

I stuck the needles in to prevent the edging from rolling over for the picture.  Of course, my next Weekend Warrior project will be to fold over the edging and invisibly stitch it on the inside.  That's going to take a bit of courage and commitment.  I think I can do it.

 

Project Spectrum - Back to the Basics

Lolly is at it again.  And I mean that in a good way.  She's resurrecting Project Spectrum this year with a whole new blog - aka Project Spectrum Central

Project Spectrum 5:  The Basics will go for six months and focus on the technical side of color.  Apparently I have a lot to learn, so this will be a good thing.  I didn't even know there was a technical side to color.  Anyway, here are the colors for the next few months:

May - Red ::
June - Green ::
July - Blue ::
August - Pink ::
September - Yellow ::
October - Cyan/Aqua ::
November - Black/White/Grey ::  

The colors can be knitting, photographs, objects, discussions, etc.  It will be great fun and add some creativity into the mix.  Thanks Lolly!

My Knitting Time - 2KCBWDAY7

It's Day 7 of the Second Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - 2KCBWDay7 - and we're supposed to talk about our knitting and crochet time.

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

Tips: Last year we had a topic asking about the actual location of where you knit or craft, this is similar but not the same. Try and concentrate on all of the little aspects that make up your knitting time. Maybe you always head for for your Flaming Lips CD when taking on simple knitting but prefer a bit of Brahms when tackling more intricate work, or maybe you enjoy knitting with audiobooks or complete silence. Perhaps your crochet time is never complete without a cuddle from Tiddles the cat.

It's probably easier to tell you about the times I don't knit.  Seriously.  I am always knitting.  

1. I don't knit while I'm driving a car.  The fact that I actually have to say this out loud is a little scary.  There are people who knit and drive.  People.  Really?  Don't knit and drive.  
2. I don't knit in Church or any house of worship.  This includes weddings, funerals, etc.  I was brought up to understand that a house of worship is for worship, prayer and meditation.  
3. I don't knit during my doctor's visit.  You probably think you've caught me in a lie here.  I definitely knit while waiting for the doctor... but once the doctor or nurse shows up, I put my knitting away.
4. I don't knit in bed.  I know many knitters do.  I'm not one of them.  I'm just afraid of what might happen were I to start.

Here are the most common places you'll see me knitting

1. In front of my computer while watching my latest Netflix addiction (Right now I'm watching Angel - the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off)
2. In front of the TV while watching something with BF like baseball or one of our favorite shows.
3. While a passenger in a car.  I LOVE being a passenger.  I especially love being a passenger on a long road trip.  Passenger time = lots of knitting time.  What could be better?
4. During my weekly knitting group.  This only happens once a week, but it's by far my happiest knitting time.  That doesn't mean it's my most productive, but it's definitely a very happy time.  I love hanging out with the wonderful friends who make up my group.
5. While on the plane or train.  Anytime I can travel, I will definitely have a project in hand -- most likely hand knit socks. 

That about sums it up.  My knitting time is just about any moment of free time.  I probably knit even when I should be doing something else.  But the knitting just keeps calling my name.  What can I say?

Something to Aspire to... 2KCBWDAY6

It's Day 6 of the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - 2KCBWDay6 - and we're supposed to post about something we aspire to.

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make bu can admire the result of those that have.

Tips: If you think you have learned all you ever want to in your craft then say so. Maybe you have been knitting for nearly 30 years and yet never learned to purl (many my think this is impossible, but I met a woman on the bus who told me exactly this once… Maybe she was following the E. Zimmerman school of thought to closely?).

Well, I have a designer and a specific pattern that I aspire to emulate.  It's a "challenge project" for me and I'm going to need a bit of hand-holding during the entire process. But I'm committed to making this my 2011-2012 Epic Project (once I finish the others on the plate).  I already purchased the yarn during a recent yarn crawl to Knit New Haven.  LOVED the store! 

I purchased 4 skeins of Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk (85% Merino Superwash and 15% Mulberry Silk).

I selected a classic ivory for my heirloom epic project.

The pattern I aspire to make is Anne Hanson's Honey Baby.  This will be a challenge for me because I'm a very social knitter.  I like to do many things while I'm also knitting - and this pattern will cause me to concentrate and focus solely on the pattern at hand.  I think that will be a very good thing for me.  Focus.  Calm.  Concentration.  Those are all good things to aspire to.

 

 

And now for something completely different - 2KCBWDAY5

It's Day 5 of the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - 2KCBWDay5 - and we're supposed to do something completely different.  I thought that in honor of opening day of baseball, I'd share some of my favorite Mets memorabilia around the house.

Let's Go Mets!

 

Whatever happened to your __________? 2KCBWDAY4

Well, this 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is going quite well.  On 2KCBWDAY4 - Today's topic is a bit painful.  I have to answer a very tough question.

Whatever happened to your __________?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

There are a lot of different aspects to look at when looking back at a knitting project and it can make for interesting blogging, as much of the time we blog about items recently completed, new and freshly completed. It is not so often that we look back at what has happened to these items after they have been around for a while.

How has one of your past knits lived up to wear. Maybe an item has become lost. Maybe you spent weeks knitting your giant-footed dad a pair of socks in bright pink and green stripes which the then ‘lost’. If you have knit items to donate to a good cause, you could reflect on the was in which you hope that item is still doing good for it’s owner or the cause it was made to support.

Tips: This topic is similar to one we used for the first Knitting and Crochet blog week. This is purposeful and is intended to help the blogger to reflect on past items and refer back to previous posts and projects once in a while.

For any of you who read my blog, you're probably already thinking, "Yeah! I want to see whatever happened to ________!"  The only problem is -- Which _________ are you thinking of?  It's probably a much different ________ than I'm thinking of.  Thus, it's a very painful question to answer.

If you had an eagle eye, you actually saw what happened to my most challenging UFO - The Kaffe Fassett Floral Jacket.  No?  You missed it?  Well look closer.

Still can't see it?

 

Hmmm - by Jove I think we've found it!

Yes - it looks like a long forgotten project. 

Remember when it looked like this and made regular appearances on my blog?  That was before we had a falling out and it was not even invited back for guest appearances.  Now it only shows up in historical footage like this.  Poor, poor Floral Jacket.  Perhaps one day we'll reconcile our differences and you'll see the light of day once more.

 

Tidy Mind, Tidy Stitches - 2KCBWDAY3

It's Day 3 of the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - 2KCBWDAY3

Today's theme is Tidy mind, tidy stitches.

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Tips: Many people use their blogs partly as an organisational tool – logging and cataloguing projects and newly attained skills, projects and modifications. Did you bare this in mind when you began blogging?

Once upon a time there was a girl named Jennifer who only knit one project at a time.  Even then, she was beginning to purchase more yarn than necessary and there was inevitably leftover yarn.  Twenty-five years later, that "little extra yarn" has gotten a little bit out of hand.  I know have an entire room, adorably dubbed my Knit Nook that is my happy place and knit haven.  It was once a home office or library.  Now the only books found there are by authors such as Elizabeth Zimmerman or Charlene Schurch or have the phrase "Vogue Knitting" somewhere in the title.  The bookshelves now showcase my overabundance of yarn which cause this bright room to be thought of as The Happiest Place On Earth

Since it's a creative place, it's an organized mess.  There is sock yarn on the upper right hand shelves, Wonderful Wallaby yarn (aka Encore) on the middle top shelf, donated yarn on most of the middle shelves, yarn for felting on the upper right, miscellaneous baby yarn on the bottom right, cotton, filing, and "all other" yarn on the side shelf.  The mess on the floor by Curious George's feet is the hiding place for all the knitting bags with WIPs in them.  If it's not organized, at least it's hidden.

This is the happy shelf across from my desk.  It showcases the entire KnitPicks Palette.  Isn't it beautiful?  The white binders are my filing system for printed out patterns.  I thought about doing away with these once I got into Ravelry, but I'm so glad I didn't.  Some websites and patterns of old favorites have up and disappeared with all traces of aforementioned favorite patterns.  Now I have my own collection of print-outs if and when needed.

OK - not sure what happened there... but half my post disappeared.  Hmmmm.  Here I go and try to recreate it.

A favorite part of my organization method is the way I keep my knitting needles.

This antique Hero Standard knitting needle store display was a treasure I found on ebay.  It took a lot of elbow grease, disinfectant and TLC to get this puppy to its current state.  I store old needles that are mostly for show - but sometimes used for teaching or whimsical knitting.  Some of these needles may have been used for a recent hen party.  

My truly fastidious nature comes out in the filing system I came up with for storing my favorite circular needles.  I use a file box with hanging file folders.  The needle sizes are visible on the right from US 000 to US 15.  

Why so many US Size 4 needles?  Well, despite my desire to be organized, I go all wild and crazy when it comes to knitting projects.  It used to be a common occurrence for me to have 25+ projects going at once.  I'm proud to say I keep it under ten nowadays.  But with so many WIPs and UFOs, I would often go to start a new project only to discover that the needle I wanted was in use.  I would also visit the LYS when I traveled and get inspired to start a new project, so yarn and needles were purchased and the stash just kept growing and growing and growing.  Turbo Addis are my favorite by far, but Brittany Birch 5" dpns and Lantern Moon straight needles tie for second.  While I don't knit much lace, there is nothing like Signature needles with their sharp points for doing K2Tog and YOs.  But I digress.  Back to my filing system.  I know there are many methods out there, but this is the best one for me.  I save the original packaging for each needle.  After I finish a project I put the needle back in its pouch and refile it.  Sometimes, all mismatched needles go into one tote bag - a mess of needles and pouches - waiting for a day when I'll devote myself entirely to needle sorting and filing.  It's worth it to me as it means I always have the needle I need at my fingertips.

How about you?  Which method do you prefer?

Skill + 1 Up - 2KCBWDAY2

It's Day 2 of the Second Annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week - 2KCBWDAY1  

Today we're challenged to do the following:

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Tips: Don’t be abashed at admitting your own skill and progress. If possible, include pictures of projects that you gained new skills from.

So what can I post about?  What skill have I improved?  What have I learned this last year?  Looking through the last year's worth of posts, I discovered the following about myself in black and white

I-like-to-get-on-a-project-high-and-stick-with-it-until-the-well-runs-dry

Case in point:

• March - April 2010 - more Wonderful Wallabies (x4)
• March 2010 - dedicated focus on the Faery Ring (before it was cast aside) 
• May - August 2010 - Christine's Stay-on Baby Booties Craze
• September - October 2010 -  Chemo Cap Series
• October 2010 - January 2011 - Miniature Sweater Ornament Frenzy
• January 2011 - Miniature Stocking Obsession
• January - February 2011 - blue socks side-by-side focus
• February - March 2011 - Compulsive Christine's Stay-on Baby Booties
• March 2011 - The Chicken Egg Cozy Craze (Can you say Hen Party?)

I'm not sure that in review I learned much in the way of new skills, but rather, I learned something about myself.  Give me a fresh horse, and I'll ride it into the ground.  Chicken Egg Cozies for example - I'm done with them.  I even cast on for two more to while away the time, but I'm so done with these that I cannot force myself to finish a simple project for love or money.  I'm done.  Finito.  I'm so over the chicken egg cozy.  

As you can probably tell by now, I'm not very good at moderation.  I do everything at 110%.  The positive lesson I learned this past year is the joy of taking a year-long class.  I'm taking Lynn Wilson's Sampler Blanket class.  We meet once a month and are given homework for the next month.  It's a great way for me to stay focused in short spurts on a long-term project.  I get bored easily, but if I get my homework done, I can put the project aside until the first Tuesday of the next month - rush like crazy to meet the deadline, and then put it aside again for a month until the next lesson.  It is actually a pretty good approach to knitting for me.  It breaks large things down into smaller more manageable bits.  I like that a great deal.  It's more my speed.  

I think that realization and skill is one that knitters with Knitting ADD should learn to live by.  

A Tale of Two Yarns - 2KCBWDAY1

Today commences the 2nd Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week - otherwise known as 2KCBWDay1.  We have assigned topics and hopefully you'll be reading about the same topic across several blogs.  Today's topic is about a Tale of Two Yarns.

The guidelines provided in the instructions from Eskimimi are as follows:

Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

Tips: It is a good idea, if possible, to choose a yarn that you adore and a yarn that just didn’t work for you. You do not need to be critical of any yarn if you do not feel comfortable in doing so, but perhaps you came to realise that one yarn wasn’t suitable for a particular project, if possible you could blog about what you have come to learn about choosing the right yarn, or your love of experimenting with fibres

I'm going to play a little outside the box.  Rather than talk about some specific yarns... I'm going to talk about two categories of yarn that make up the bulk of my stash:  Work Horse Yarn vs Souvenir Yarn.  Do you have some of each type in your stash?  You know I do -- tons of each.

Probably my favorite work horse yarn is Encore Worsted - which was my favorite child-friendly/ mom-washing-machine friendly yarn for all those Wonderful Wallabies I made for my nieces and nephews.

I love all the wonderful colors it comes in - and its durability and washability (Did I already mention that part?  Well, it's worth repeating).  It may not be the most luxurious yarn to knit with, but I applaud its wearability.  Only one nephew complained "Aunt Jennifer, it itches" so I think that's a pretty good track record.

My other type of work horse yarn is sock yarn -- any kind of sock yarn.

I love to knit socks and sometimes sock yarn is also souvenir yarn - but no matter what it is - it's my favorite kind of yarn.  Every time I wear a pair of socks made with yarn from a special trip, I remember the people I was with, the sights I saw, the fun I had.  Looking at this yarn, I see yarn from a trip to Africa, Portland, NYC, Knitting Central, Las Vegas, Omaha and more.

Here's my favorite souvenir yarn - it's some purple laceweight yarn from Morehouse Merino purchased on a yarn crawl with The Scottish Lamb.  I used this yarn to make a lace edging for a chuppah for my wedding.  It's displayed on a lovely flowered dish from my Grandma Lois.  So it's very special and has a very special place in my Knit Nook.  I knit a little bit extra lace and made book markers.  It's another use of the souvenir yarn that has made me very happy.

And my final souvenir yarn is an indulgent purchase I made and can't quite muster up the courage to use so it sits in a place of honor in the Knit Nook wishing to be made into something.

I have three balls of Qiviuk from Knitting Central.  I want to make the most exquisite scarf for myself... but haven't quite decided what the perfect pattern is for these three balls of yarn.  So, it sits on my desk as the ultimate souvenir yarn.

How about you?  Do you have favorite work horse yarns and souvenir yarns?

 

A Photo Shoot Before 7:00 a.m.?

Really?  I know.  Probably not the best idea, but I wanted to show you my progress on the Faery Ring sleeves.  I'm past the elbow on each sleeve and in the home stretch.  Probably about another 2-3 inches on each sleeve before I knit the perpendicular cable cuff.  I can almost feel the finish line.  

OK - maybe I should hold off on the enthusiasm until I've fussed and the sun has come out.  

Hopefully you can feel my excitement, too.