11.01.08
Posted in General at 12:33 pm by Rachel
A sheepish hello to the few lingering blog readers who may occasionally still check this site. I had every intention of blogging occasionally over the past few months, but between a move and a physically taxing pregnancy, it just never happened. I had wanted to thank all the wonderful blog friends who sent baby gifts and show you a few of the things that I knit on my own. And in fact, a comprehensive blog post was on my relatively short list of things to accomplish during the last week of my pregnancy (it was all about the sitting-down tasks at that point). Unfortunately for that post, the first thing I accomplished during what was supposed to be my last week of pregnancy was to have two babies.
My son Julian and my daughter Eloise arrived at 5:27 and 5:28 a.m. respectively on Sunday, October 19, weighing just about 5 pounds apiece. They are healthy and beautiful and they sleep perfectly through the night. (Okay, two out of three ain’t bad.) Waiting for them in the world were:
inverse booties and tie-dye socks from saripinksparkles,
babylegs, receiving blankets, onesies and socks from Emily (Yarn Miracle),
and flippin’ adorable baby sweaters and turkey hats from MiniLaura. Thank you so much for all of your wonderful generosity! The babies will get great use out of all of these things just as soon as they grow to the size of normal babies.
I also knit them a very modest number of things myself in anticipation of their arrival, including some mittens, a dress (even though I didn’t know whether we were having boys or girls, the dress just kind of got knit), two sweaters, a hat, and the blanket pictured in the cradle above. I have not knit a stitch since they arrived, and I expect it may be some time until I have a chance to do so (given that I haven’t even had a chance to photograph the few things I finished before they were born).
Speaking of things I probably won’t have a chance to do for a while, you could probably guess that Lickety Knit will stay in hibernation for the foreseeable future. I am not declaring it closed for business forever, because I take great inspiration from supertwinmoms Earthchick and Amylovie, who have clearly demonstrated that there can be knitting after twins — eventually. I am not saying I expect my readers to stick around in the interim; I’m just reserving the right to start back up again someday. I have met amazing people through this whole blogging endeavor, and it has made me challenge myself as a knitter and a writer. While I am ready for it to take a back burner for a while, I expect I may very well find myself with the inclination and (dare I even dream it) the time to return to it at some point.
In the meantime, if you’re the sort of person who loves pictures of babies (I am not one of those people, except in the case of my own, but I hear that these people do exist), Matt and I are attempting to keep up a family blog over at www.sparveys.com. Baby knitting will be featured whenever possible.
Finally, I leave you with a couple more pictures of my sweet children. Because this is a blog that for three-plus years featured my handiwork, and they are without question the best things I’ve ever made.
Julian (I finished that hat about 2 hours before my water broke)
Eloise (I totally owe her a hat)
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05.04.08
Posted in General, Works in Progress at 11:26 am by Rachel
See? Less than a month since my last post! Didn’t I promise you? Now I just have to come through on the “more exciting” part.
I recently received notification via email that Lickety Knit has been featured on findingDulcinea, self-described as “Librarian of the Internet.” I’d never heard of this particular web guide, but it looks nice and I’m always flattered to be noticed within the large and noisy and varied knitblog world.
The one thing that confused me a bit was its description of my site, found here:
Lickety Knit is for those knitters who want a bit of sassy humor with their blog reading. Read about the author’s knitting projects, her cats and thoughts on life, and take a gander at her finished projects, photos from her travels and (of course) some pictures of her cats.
Certainly very kind, but it gave me pause because, quite frankly, I make a concerted effort to minimize the cat content on my blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love my cats, and with three of them, they play a significant role in my home life. And if they had their way, they’d be in every knitting photo I take. But I realize that they are just plain old cats, and therefore of limited interest to a general audience. (There are certain exceptions to this rule, including cats that are ludicrously photogenic and cooperative.) Worried that I had become a cat blogger without noticing, I went back to check: my cats appeared on my blog exactly once in 2007, and zero times so far in 2008. Why on earth were they so heavily featured in that description, then?
This question did not keep me up at night, but it did get me thinking about how I would actually describe the content of this blog. I’ve decided it breaks down as follows:
- 25% knitting content
- 15% sarcastic humor
- 15% self-deprecation
- 45% repetitive excuses as to why I haven’t knit or blogged much recently
The rest of this post is going to be rooted in that last 45 percent, because (and this is for real), I haven’t read a single knitting blog nor knit a single stitch in about 8 weeks. That’s my most egregious truancy ever, so it’s only right that I come up with the best excuse for it ever. Will it be good enough? You, my blog readership (or “bleadership,” as my sister-in-law calls it) will have to be the judge of that.
Let me begin by admitting that deep in the recesses of my basement, carefully tucked away in gallon-size ziplock bags, in a box inconspicuously labeled “curling irons and hair notions,” is a small treasure trove of tiny knits that I’ve accumulated over the last three years. Some were originally intended to be gifts, some were started for no reason at all, and some were made with the faint hope that I might have a use for them myself someday. (Two were started with the intention of donating them to Project Linus, and the fact that they never made it there is admittedly embarrassing and more than a little shameful.)
Hmm, I kind of made it sound above as though I was going to be dropping a series of hints that would lead you to my excuse, but I can’t imagine that there are many of you who haven’t already arrived at the correct conclusion…well, at least part of it. For the 5 percent of you who are slow on the uptake (no, you don’t have to admit who you are), I will tell you that last year at the Yarn Harlot book launch in New York, a knitter in the audience asked Stephanie whether she’d ever heard of knitting causing or aggravating severe nausea during the first trimester of pregnancy. Stephanie answered encouragingly (”yes, but I promise you it goes away”), and while at the time I was only half-listening (because I was furiously knitting away at my charity blanket square in a futile and ultimately humiliating attempt to keep up with Minty), lately I have replayed that exchange over and over in my mind in an attempt to convince myself that my favorite hobby is not lost to me forever.
Anyway, by now I’m sure all of you have figured out that I’m pregnant. Yep, thirteen weeks tomorrow. Most of you probably have not guessed that I am pregnant with twins.
I know, seriously. I don’t really know how it happened either. (The TWIN part, people. Please do not transcribe the chapter on the human reproductive system from your college physiology textbook into the comments.) This news has thrown the Lickety Knit household into happy turmoil, and in the last three weeks we have entered an agreement to buy a new house (ours, which I adore, is definitely too small for us + twins + their crap + the parade of friend and family helpers that we are lining up), put our house on the market, signed an agreement with a buyer (whew!), and begun to contemplate our lives without any sleep whatsoever. Actually, I don’t have much time left over to contemplate that, thanks to the bone-crushing exhaustion that sends me to bed at 8:15 every night.
Here they are looking vaguely less like nothing. Still, thank goodness for the tech’s helpful labels.
So that is the best excuse I can come up with as to why I have neglected my knitting and blogging and blog-reading (bleading?) duties for so long. (And Andre and Meghal, if you’re reading this, now you know why your son has had to endure the first weeks of his life without the knitted turtle I promised you ages ago. It’s coming, I swear.) I wish I could assure you that it will get better from here on out, but I can’t be certain it will. I am clinging to the hope that my nausea will subside and I’ll get at least a sliver of my former energy back, because I have twice as much knitting to do as I originally thought I would! Suddenly that little secret treasure trove of baby knits is looking mighty paltry.
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04.14.08
Posted in Finished Objects, General at 8:14 pm by Rachel
Has this ever happened to anyone else? For the last week I have been thinking more and more that I really ought to get a post up here, and I sort of half woke up in the night last night thinking about it. As I lay there semi-conscious, I started composing the post in my head, and I remember thinking it was really, really good, and all I’d have to do today is type it up from memory in the morning (of course I’d remember it perfectly!). As you might have predicted, I remembered almost nothing, and the highly questionable quality of the few bits I do remember suggests that I should not mourn the loss of the rest. For example, central to the post was going to be the excuse that I haven’t posted for so long because I lost the keys to my blog, and then when I found them I couldn’t get the blog to start. You totally would have accepted that explanation, right?
Readers, there is much happening at Lickety Knit Headquarters these days, but very little of it has to do with knitting. I hope this will change very soon, but in the meantime, I do feel as though I ought to give you a mini-post just to stem the tide of very thoughtful emails I’m getting inquiring after my health and well being. My health is good and my being is well, thank you — just otherwise occupied at the moment. You will have my undivided attention again shortly.
I did recently knit this itty bitty sweater out of leftover sock yarn for a figurine on the top of a bowling trophy. Isn’t it cute? I’m rather proud of it. Please leave your impressed and envious comments below, and thanks for reading my blog this month! See you all next time.
Oh, what, you want to know why I knit a sweater for a bowling trophy figurine? A girl can’t just knit mini sweaters for inanimate objects without getting the third degree? When did you all get so demanding? And after I was just telling you how busy I am. Okay, okay, fine. It’s a good thing I love you all so much.
It’s sort of a random story. I have a good friend/colleague named Cory. I’ve mentioned Cory on this blog before: he’s the one who is always threatening to sneak a particularly ill-considered photo from this blog of me knitting in the shower into a work PowerPoint presentation. Anyway, when he started reading my blog, I added “this awesome sweater for my friend Cory” as an item in my on deck list in my sidebar, and it linked to a site selling the pattern for the awful sweater pictured here (tragically, and to the unquestionable detriment of the internet, the original link is now defunct). No real reason, I just thought it was funny.
Well, so did a mutual friend of ours, Leigh, who also happens to be a bit of a Photoshop whiz. Leigh felt inspired to bring the dream of Cory’s very special sweater one step closer to reality by applying it to a photo of Cory as realistically as possible; her artistry is seen here. The photo has since found many uses in the service of making fun of Cory (something I know I do at my peril, since he has access to that aforementioned shower knitting photo), including being circulated among all the members of our team at work via email. It has become a bit of a running joke.
Speaking of our team at work, ever year we have our holiday party at a local bowling alley, and the competition for the top prize is vicious. Winning comes with a truckload of bragging rights and this chintzy trophy. Cory has been out-bowled every year since the inception of the competition, but this past December, due mostly to steep attrition among the more talented bowlers in the office, he managed to capture the top score. He was overjoyed about his victory, and he wasted no time becoming quite insufferable in his boasting about it. The trophy was displayed on an elaborate pedestal right in the doorway of his office. He brought it up at every meeting. In the face of all that, what else could I do but bedeck the trophy a mini version of the pig sweater? I have no doubt that any one of you would have done the same when confronted with the same circumstances.
The thing that makes me particularly happy is that the sweater had to be seamed directly onto the trophy, because one of the arms is continuous with the base. Therefore, the only way it’s ever coming off is with scissors, and I am confident that no one is heartless enough to take scissors to handknits. (If someone does, I have the full fury of the knitblogging community behind me, right?)
By the way, this sweater would not have been possible without the generosity of Laura and Minty, who between them sent me three different pink sock yarns. Because the two of them fight constantly for my affection, I won’t tell you whose I ultimately chose. As my mom used to say when she didn’t feel up to figuring out why my sister and I were fighting, “Girls, you’re both pretty.”
I know this post was much ado about nothing (possibly also sound and fury signifying nothing). And I know I’ve been abysmal about reading blogs recently. But I promise that my next post will be more exciting, and I promise it will come within a month. Have I ever let you down? Don’t answer that.
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03.09.08
Posted in Finished Objects, General, Yarn and Tools at 8:58 pm by Rachel
Frankly, the reason it has been so long since my last post is because I’m disappointed in you, readers, and I’ve been counting to ten (one number every 2.5 days) to avoid posting in anger. In my last post about darling childhood stuffed toys, I made an innocent comment (accompanied by an innocuous photograph) about how funny it looked when I had only part of the second elephant finished. Some of you, inexplicably prompted by my clinical, non-titillating description of a sensitive surgical procedure, assumed all sorts of appalling things about illicit and tawdry acts that were, in your polluted minds, being committed in the picture. That was never my intention, and I hope you’re ashamed of yourselves. This is a family blog. In that my family reads it, so please, don’t embarrass me again.
Forgiving and forgetting. I have amassed a lot of random blogging material in the past few weeks, so let’s not waste any more time getting right down to the important work of linking those topics with non-sequitors. First, I’d like to bestow the inaugural Lickety Knit Open-Minded Business Award on Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts for its wholly enlightened Valentine’s Day flier:
Please take a look at the scene playing out here. At first glance you might think the boy on the right is bringing a flower to the girl to demonstrate his blossoming affection for her, but that would be unforgivably hetero-assumptive of you. A closer look reveals something quite different: the boy with the flower and the boy on the left are clearly locking eyes, with the boy on the right obviously angling his head to see past the girl (who, by the way, is in for a rude and probably very confusing surprise). The boy on the left is giddy and nervous and overjoyed that he is not the only one who has these kinds of “different” feelings. The girl is clueless and, frankly, incidental to all this. Congratulations, Jo-Ann Fabrics, on your demonstrated commitment to challenging society’s assumptions about romantic love!
Moving on. Last month marked the thirtieth anniversary of my birth. It was celebrated without a significant amount of fanfare except for two things: a) an off-season getaway to Cape Cod, where our amazing B&B room had, among other amenities, a spinning wheel in front of the fireplace, and b) yarn! In the mail! From Laura!
Laura truly honors me with this gift, because I believe it marked the first time in her knitting life that she bought yarn that wasn’t predominantly pink. In fact, when I first received it and the label was covering the pink bit, I wondered if I could possibly be thinking of the wrong Laura. Everything clicked into place once I removed the label, however, and I am a big fan of this colorway. The muted blues and browns are very much to my taste, and the hint of pink will always remind me of the kindness and generosity and single-minded color obsession of one of my first and favorite blog friends. Thank you, Laura!
The past month featured not only gift-receiving, but gift-giving. Some of you may recall that back in the early fall I made a hat for my sister-in-law (Rachel Sr.), knit to her exact specifications. Like any appreciative and well-adjusted adult, Rachel immediately declared it both the best hat and the best friend she’d ever had, and since then she has taken it with her everywhere. And I really do mean everywhere; as just one example, the hat managed to make it into in just about every single photograph taken of anyone or anything this past Thanksgiving.
In fact, over the course of that particular hat-filled family gathering, it started to become clear to me that perhaps equivalent hats for the rest of the family might be well received. My hunch was correct:
The only problem is that, as I suspected might happen, I improved upon my improvised pattern on each subsequent hat. Each hat has a bright contrast lining knit with Knitpicks Crayon (making it extra warm and extra soft), and I got better at concealing this lining to the proper degree. I also began holding the yarn double for the ribbing, and I made the ribbing quite a bit taller, resulting in a warmer and better-fitting brim. Additionally, I made slight aesthetic adjustments to the position of the stripe. I know, that sounds like an awful lot of fine-tuning for such a straight-forward hat, but believe me, it’s the little things that make the difference. All in all, the last hat I knit was significantly better than the first, thus making my very special custom-knit hat for Rachel Sr. rather a bit pitiful by comparison. I think I owe her a do-over.
(Side note: It was only a leeeettle awkward that shortly after I presented these hats to my in-laws, Matt’s uncle tragically passed away and the whole family gathered for the funeral. I’m not sure the immediate family of the deceased knew quite what to make of the fact that their cousins were all wearing coordinating hats at the grave site.)
(Other side note: You may notice the glaring omission of Matt from the band of hat wearers. All along he said he just didn’t want one. He won’t admit it, but his resolve was breaking by the end. I know he can’t hold out forever.)
If it’s not clear already, I’ll be very explicit: I have really great in-laws. As just one example of their greatness, when they asked me what I wanted for Christmakah this year and I said, “Socks That Rock mediumweight in Farmhouse and Watermelon Tourmaline,” they didn’t say, “You want what what in what and what?” No, they simply shrugged and obliged. You see, I had adored Ashley’s chevron scarf in that very color combination (I know, me and the rest of the known universe) when I’d seen it in person last year, and I’d been dreaming of having one for my very own.
It turns out, sadly, that this color combination, while glorious and certainly to be admired on others, is just not for me. I simply can’t see myself wearing it. I want to be the kind of girl who wears bright and vivid colors, but I am in fact the kind of girl who wears colors that look like they were dyed solely with different varieties of dirt.
Therefore, I am offering this yarn up for trade. I will send it either unraveled and rewound, or with the partial scarf still intact (about 19 inches unblocked). I’d like to get a single skein of Socks that Rock in exchange, but I’ll entertain other offers. Just send me an email (rachel at licketyknit dot com) or leave a comment. (In-laws: Remember when I said you were so great? I hope that extends to not being super pissed off that I am parting ways with the generous Christmakah gift you got me.)
Next time: a very small sweater and a well-dressed turtle.
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02.14.08
Posted in Finished Objects at 11:08 am by Rachel
Do you think it’s odd that while I could never be described as someone who just! loves! children, I do love making baby things — baby sweaters, baby socks, baby blankets, baby toys? Actually, I’m guessing it’s not that odd. I’m guessing there are a lot of us out there like that. A lot of us who are delighted to handknit the baby a laceweight heirloom Christening gown or somesuch, but to hold the baby? Oh, that’s awfully nice, but no thank you. I’ll just wave to the baby from over here on the other side of the room. Quite frankly, whenever possible, I prefer to experience people’s babies solely through the Shutterfly albums emailed to me by their parents.
Perhaps I slightly exaggerate my aversion to children, but I do not exaggerate my love for knitting their clothing and accessories. So when my friend Catherine told me she was expecting her second baby, I managed to delay my mad rush to Ravelry to browse pattern ideas just barely long enough to stammer out a heartfelt if somewhat distracted “congratulations when are you due will you find out if it’s a boy or a girl how are you feeling.” I had assumed I would pick a sweater pattern, since that’s what I made Catherine when she was expecting her first child (the Aran Pullover from Knitting for Baby by Melanie Falick; shown here on the very handsome James, age two-and-a-half — can you believe I estimated this would fit him at six months?), but the moment I stumbled upon this knit elephant pattern, the decision-making process was over.
Pattern: Elijah by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton, color violet (I think), about 1.25 balls per elephant. Scraps of Knitpicks Shine Sport for the scarves.
Needles: Size 2 birch DPNs
Notes: I fully agree with others who have said that the Elijah pattern redefines “well written.” There are numerous photographs; every instruction is clearly delineated, with extra touches like reminders of how many stitches there should be on your needles after each step; and the whole pattern is attractively laid out and highly readable.
This is not a difficult pattern to knit. It is somewhat fortunate, therefore, that it is a bit fiddly and hard on the hands in places (picking up stitches from an already-stuffed body or head and knitting them for the first few rows), or it is possible that I would never knit anything except stuffed elephants again. In fact, the astute among you will observe that there are actually two knit elephants pictured. Matt — whose standard response to my knitting is a half glance and a vague “looks great, honey!” — went nuts over this elephant. His voice rose several octaves as he proclaimed the elephant “Heffy the Heffalump” and proceeded to make him bop around the sofa in a jaunty way for several minutes. Repeatedly. Over quite a few days. What could I do but make another one so he could have one of his own?
(Incidentally, while I flew through the first elephant in about four days, the second elephant was more of a stop-and-start project. I admit to being alternately amused and disturbed by tableaux like this that kept arising. It’s hard not to interpret this as possible foul play or a scene from some kind of Elephant House of Horrors.)
For those making this pattern, I recommend overstuffing the body and understuffing the arms (and averagestuffing the legs and head). I wound up stuffing the body of the second elephant quite a bit more full than I did the first, and the superiority of the denser stuffing was quite clear, requiring me to do some careful elephant gynecological surgery to remedy the situation on the first elephant. I was surprised by how awkward I felt about violating the elephant in this way. Society’s taboos run deep.
And on that very odd note, let’s call this post finished before I start writing things I’ll regret later. If I’m willing to muse on the subject of elephant crotches, who’s to say what other misguided topics I might address if I allow myself to go on any longer. You can express your gratitude for this uncharacteristic display of self-discipline in the comments.
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02.05.08
Posted in Finished Objects, General at 11:06 pm by Rachel
Oh boy, after such a long hiatus since my last post, I really ought to have something really great for you, loyal readers, oughtn’t I? Sadly, aside from my use of the underappreciated contraction “oughtn’t,” I must suggest that you prepare yourselves to be profoundly disappointed several times over. Let’s just say this post is not going to be voted Post of the Year. I predict disorganization, non-sequitors, self-aggrandizement, irrelevance, and dullness. At least it will be overly long. Ready? Let’s go.
DAYS HAVE BEEN MADE
First off, a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who bestowed a “You Make My Day” blog award upon me. I had a couple of crappy days last week, but receiving the news that I make a few people’s days simply by posting some nonsense to my blog once per presidential administration or so actually made me feel pretty good. Thank you so much, Brooke (Drunken Monkey Knits), Emily (Yarn Miracle), Claire (New York Minknit), Minty (Pepperknit; more on her later), Hanna (Ever Green Knits), Allison (The Whole Ball of Yarn), Specs (Specs Knits), and Adriana (Friends Knit Together). I’m going to go ahead and be unoriginal — but sincere! — here and tell you that you all genuinely made my day.
As a rule, I don’t generally do memes on my blog. However, there are definitely a goodly number of bloggers out there whose hilarious posts have the power to make my day, and so I throw the names of just a very few of those out there in case you’re looking for some new blogs to read.
Earthchick – This is the most under-read blog in the knitblogosphere, in my hyperbolic opinion. Earthchick is talented, thoughtful, and a freakin’ laugh riot. She also consistently cracks me up in her comments on my blog. If you do nothing else today, add her to your Bloglines.
Nova – Go for the knitting, stay for the pie. Go for the lovely photography, stay for the adorable kiddo. Go for the creativity, stay for the seething jealousy that everything she makes is cuter than everything you make.
The A.D.D. Knitter – Her awesome sense of humor would make my day even if I didn’t have an automatic fondness for her because we share an alma mater.
Minty Fresh - I’m guessing the overlap in our readership is already pretty high, but I have to mention her because last week she made it her personal mission to make my day (it’s possible that I suggested that if she wanted to make this list she was really going to have to earn it). I was in New York for work, and during our evening together Minty bought me a cream puff (that’s not a euphemism for anything, I swear), found me the perfect fabric for a little craft project I may do one of these days, and insightfully bossed me into buying three skeins of gorgeous Koigu at Purl Soho. Oh, also she has a great blog that she has been posting to at an alarming rate recently (she has achieved quality and quantity, damn her), so the two of you who don’t already read it should start.
TWO MINOR FINISHED OBJECTS
Shifting gears, I might as well tie up loose ends by posting a couple of finished objects from back in December. I sat down and made this hat in one evening using stash yarn (Wool of the Andes). I didn’t really have a particular pattern or vision in mind, so I just started knitting.
I have to tell you that I originally intended this hat to be for a homeless guy who took up residence just outside a parking garage near my office for several weeks this fall. He was there every morning when I got off the bus, and as the weather got colder, I thought about how easy it would be to make him a hand-knit hat. Feeling mighty pleased with myself for having this charitable impulse, I cast on that night. Unfortunately, I had less yarn than I thought I did, so I was either going to have to use some random supplemental yarn that wouldn’t fit with my color scheme, or have it come out smaller than planned. Because I am a terrible person, I chose aesthetics over charity and, as expected, it came out too small — definitely too small for the homeless guy. Also too small, it turned out, for Matt, my backup plan for the hat. Nothing to do but keep it for myself, then! So much for charitable impulses. The guy hasn’t been there in a while now, which is kind of good for me because I would probably feel guilty walking past him wearing his hat.
These are the Merino Lace Socks (Ravelry link; login required) from Favorite Socks. The yarn is Claudia Handpainted, colorway Antique Jeans. As seems to be the case for me with most all-over lace patterns, I find that I don’t like these finished socks as much as I thought I would. I’m not sure what it is, but somehow they don’t look elegant on my feet; they just make my ankles look kind of chunky (although I think Matt did a good job minimizing that in most of these photos). Also, it doesn’t help that in spite of very careful, repeated counting, I managed to knit one fewer pattern repeats on one leg than on the other. Oh well, I won’t be wearing them with shorts for at least a few months yet.
Why bother going to the trouble of slapping up these fairly non-exciting finished objects? Maybe to get some closure before posting my
2007 KNITTING RETROSPECTIVE
Stop giving me that exaggerated look of incredulity. I know it’s February. I won’t dwell on it, but I did want to put up a quick accounting of my knitting accomplishments in 2007, almost entirely for my own benefit. Mixed in with the finished objects are some of the knitting highlights of last year: knitting on the beach in Grand Cayman, doing a crappy job of dyeing yarn for the first (and so far only) time, and spending time with bloggers Ashley, Minty, Laura, and Erika.
In 2007 I made 2.5 adult sweaters (one was begun in 2006), 2 short-sleeved tops, 4 baby sweaters, 5 hats, 9 pairs of socks, and 1 stuffed turtle. Not actually too bad, given that the goal I set for myself last year was to knit mostly sweaters and socks (the latter because I get bored on the bus otherwise, the former because I have a deluded opinion of my own knitting prowess).
The logical thing to do after a retrospective is a look ahead, I bring you my
2008 PLANS AND GOALS
The theme of 2008 is going to be: knitting. I know, it’s bold. But I really do want to knit more this year. Doing this means that I am going to try to be disciplined about making myself set aside my laptop sooner and more often, so you might see me around the internet a little less this year. I am still committed to posting at least once a month — in fact, I have a fair number of posts in the queue at the moment — but I want to cut down on my internetting time in general to make room for more knitting. Because it turns out I love knitting. Did you know that about me?
My knitting plans aren’t going to be nearly as structured as last year. I have already added quite a bit to my stash, so the theme can’t be “knit from my stash.” I have knit 2.5 hats, 2.5 stuffed animals, a sock, and a miniature sweater, so if anyone can discern a theme there, please do let me know. I am thinking that I will not hold back from indulging my secret pleasure: knitting baby sweaters (Laura recently suggested that this might be my calling) — they’re so cute and quick and since people are always procreating, they’ll all find homes eventually. But I am not making any sort of official commitment to that. So the theme isn’t to knit particular types of things; the theme is just to knit a lot of them. Want a concrete goal? I would like to increase my knitting output by roughly 50 percent this year over last year, as measured by a convoluted formula that takes into account pattern complexity, size of project, amount of frogging, number of needles sat upon, and swear words uttered. So if you notice less of me on the blogs/Ravelry/knitting message boards, it’s not that my anti-social tendencies are taking over; it’s because I’m knitting furiously away.
AWKWARD WRAP UP
And so we’re off and running in 2008 (as of five weeks ago)! One highlight so far was the Super Bowl sale at Yarns at Lace Wings (everything 40 percent off in the first hour). By using a $50 gift I’d forgotten I had, for almost nothing I managed to pick up 10 balls of Berroco Pure Merino, 4 balls of Mission Falls 1824 cotton, and these five balls of 100 percent silk (Laines du Nord Mulberry Silk). I have never knit with 100 percent silk before, and while I adore the way this yarn looks and feels, I’m not sure what to make. I have 680 yards. I don’t think I really want to make a shawl/stole/scarf, which seems the obvious choice, but I’m not sure what else might be appropriate. Any ideas?
This was definitely one of my lamest posts ever. (And I forbid any of you from very kindly trying to claim otherwise in the comments or I will ban you for life.) Just think how much better all my future posts will look by comparison, though!
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01.02.08
Posted in Finished Objects, Year of Sweaters at 5:16 pm by Rachel
Unless you’re going to to hold me to a technicality concerning the buying and sewing on of buttons, on New Year’s Eve I finished one last sweater for the Year of Sweaters!
Pattern: Henley Perfected, from the winter 2007 issue of Interweave Knits, smallest size.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, somewhere between 8 and 9 balls, I’m guessing.
Needles: Size 3 Addi Turbos and size 4 Knitpicks Options
Began: November 11, 2007
Finished: December 31, 2007
Notes: Okay, here’s the thing. I have some notes, but not many. What I do have many of is photos. This sweater loves the camera. (Or perhaps more accurately, I love this sweater and, apparently, taking pictures of myself.) So I have three choices: 1) limit the number of photos so it’s commensurate with the amount of text I have, 2) make the post very photo-heavy because I can’t choose, or 3) put up lots of photos but generate virtually content-less text just to fill up space and make it look balanced. Longtime readers of my blog know that I am a fervent adherent of option three. As a New Year’s resolution, however, I am going to attempt to limit pointless prattle and just stick with the essentials. At the end of the post we can review how I did.
I know I say this after every project, but this is my favorite sweater I’ve ever made. I loved the pattern the instant I laid eyes on it. (Oddly, that’s not always the reason I’ve chosen patterns in the past. For example, although I loved knitting the Cable-Down Raglan, it’s not the sort of thing I would ever pick out at the store. It just happened to call for the right amount of the right weight of yarn and offer some of the knitting elements I happened to be in the mood for (cables and no seaming).) Not so with the Henley Perfected. I did not simply want to knit this sweater; I wanted to have this sweater.
When I realized that I could reclaim the yarn from my rejected Gatsby Girl Pullover, there was nothing to stop me from casting on almost immediately. Incidentally, therein lay one of the few frustrations in an otherwise smooth-sailing project. I frogged the half-finished Gatsby Girl, carefully skeined and washed the yarn to remove the kinks, hung it to dry, and wound it into balls. That was all it took for it to start fraying in several places. Any time I had to reknit a portion of the Henley Perfected, I threw away the yarn I’d frogged because I didn’t think it would hold up well to another round of knitting. Fortunately I had enough yarn to do that, but it does make me worried about the long-term durability of this sweater. I’m afraid this one is also destined for a vacuum-sealed bag in a climate controlled, air-tight chamber. Appealing though it may be in many ways, I think I may have used DB Cashmerino for the last time.
Other than that, I had few problems. The pattern was very clearly written and I can’t think of any changes I made at all. My only general criticisms of the finished garment are that the sleeves are a little too short and the bust is a little too tight (I usually go for a decent amount of negative ease because handknits stretch so much over time and I’d rather they not be baggy, but I forgot that with buttons running down the front, a too-tight fit can create the impression that the wearer is about to bust out, if you know what I mean. I don’t think the effect is scandalously extreme here, but an extra inch of circumference probably would have been better.)
The buttons, by the way, are from JoAnn Fabrics, which I must say continues to impress me with its button selection. (Support your local small businesses everyone! Do not do as I do!)
Finally, the one complaint I have about the actual pattern itself is that the stockinette button bands, unsurprisingly, have a pretty serious curling tendency. I appalled the knitting gods by spraying them with starch and ironing them through a pillowcase, which helped a lot, but I think someone more ambitious than I could probably come up with a pattern edit that eliminated the problem at the source. Although do you think it’s just cognitive dissonance if I say that the curling is kind of growing on me?
(This photo, by the way, is in black and white because the color cast was crappy. This violates my strict belief that bad photos cannot be made into good or artsy photos just by turning them black and white; in fact, the lack of contrast here makes this a pretty lousy black and white photo, too. For some reason I like the composition, though (plus I had some fun playing with the Picnik editing tools in Flickr — oops, too much vingetting), so here it is anyway, along with an earful of my opinions on photo editing.)
Ladies and gentlemen, thus endeth my year of thweaters. It was neither an abysmal failure nor a resounding success. You’d think that I might have learned a lesson about the hazards of year-long knitting themes, but I’m already weighing my options for 2008. My year-in-review and year-ahead post is forthcoming. That’s right, you can hardly wait.
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Let’s see, how did I do with not prattling on vacuously just to fill space? Well, I’ve certainly posted much longer things than this in the past. On the other hand, you probably didn’t need all that nonsense about my opinions on black and white photos. Or even really any of this nonsense about my pratting tendencies (ooh, meta prattle!). All in all, I’d say I merit nothing better than a C-minus on my short-lived resolution.
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12.09.07
Posted in Finished Objects, Year of Sweaters at 9:21 pm by Rachel
Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my Cable-Down Raglan! It has been lovingly folded up for permanent storage in an acid-free, museum-quality box to protect it from moths, pills, snags, stains, light, friction, and bombardment from overly aggressive molecules. I so rarely make anything that allows me to hold my head up high and declare myself a solidly intermediate knitter that when I do, I need to do everything I can to preserve it.
So, in my last few posts I have lamented my pitiful showing during what was supposed to be the Year of Sweaters. And it’s true, I have only made one adult sweater from start to finish so far during 2007, though I am optimistic that I will double that number to two by December 31. (You can guess what kind of rockin’ New Year’s Eve I’m setting myself up for with that goal.)
In all my self-berating for failing to adequately dedicate myself to the simplest of challenges, I had sort of forgotten about the multiple baby sweaters that I knit this year. I’m not saying baby sweaters “count” as much as adult sweaters, but at least they’re in the spirit of the Year of Sweaters. But two of the three little items below have been languishing in my knitting bag for several months, and the third was gifted long ago, each failing to seem interesting enough to blog. As a trio, however, perhaps they are worthy of taking up space on the internet. (I know there’s a strong tradition of self-imposed quality control on internet content, and I certainly wouldn’t want to violate that.) So here they are, in no particular order:
Pattern: Kai Cable Sweater from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding
Yarn: Rowan All-Seasons Cotton, color 191
Notes: I made this sweater once before, in the same yarn. I have all the same things to say about it that I did last time, and since most of you probably don’t re-read all my blog posts once a week just to keep them fresh in your minds, I could probably get away with repeating those same insightful comments without anyone noticing. My moral compass points to “not entirely kosher” on that idea, though (I’m assuming here that moral compasses have something other than north and south on them, because that wouldn’t be terribly useful, outside of the rare morally uncertain navigational scenario). So if you’re interested in what I think of the pattern (adorable!) and the yarn (mostly wonderful!), go read my old post. (And if you’re not interested, I’ve just saved you valuable blog-reading time. You’re welcome.)
One thing I did very slightly differently this time is the neckline. The neckline section of the pattern is written pretty terribly, and as far as I can tell it wants you to knit the cable split in front (seen here, and a nice pattern detail, in my opinion), plus an opening at the side of the neck, presumably to allow the sweater to go over the baby’s head more easily. Well, I thought that looked pretty lousy, and last time I reknit the neckline to have the second opening in the back. Not loving how that looked either, I decided that I cared more about the baby’s vanity than the baby’s comfort (why no, I have no children of my own, why do you ask?), so I just left the neckline intact except for the cable split. I did try to bind off loosely — I’m not a total child-hating monster.
Pattern: Milan Jacket from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding
Yarn: Cascade 220, exactly two full skeins, colorway 9429
Notes: This is the third pattern (for a total of four sweaters) I have knit from this book, which most knitters will recognize as a rare and nearly holy occurrence (and there are still others I hope to knit!). Unfortunately, it took me until after I was finished with the fourth sweater to diagnose a consistent problem with the patterns: the armholes are (in my opinion) too small. This is such an easy problem to fix that I should have been able to nail it down a lot sooner, but instead I spent rather a lot of time thinking, “Boy, the armholes on all these sweaters seem so constricting. I wonder why that could be? If only there were some way I could figure out what’s causing this. Oh well!”
Anyway, armhole size aside, I am fairly happy with how this sweater came out. However, the one problem with “classic” baby sweaters (the kind I generally prefer, as opposed to bobbles and fiddly intarsia barnyard animals and what have you) is that there is a fine line between “classic” and “dullsville.” This sweater was probably on the wrong side of that line when I stumbled upon these adorable bumblebee buttons at Jo-Ann Fabrics when I was looking for standard toggles. I think that they would run the risk of being overly cutesy if the rest of the sweater weren’t fairly conservative; as it is, I think they add a sense of whimsy that was definitely lacking. (My one gripe with the buttons was that they came with instructions that they should not be allowed to get wet, nor should they be subjected to dry cleaning. Seriously??? I hope the eventual recipient of this sweater loves it enough to be willing to give it careful sponge baths, because I can think of no other way to clean it that wouldn’t offend the buttons.)
Pattern: Child’s Placket-Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash, which I think I recall was nice enough to work with, although the red bled like crazy when I (hand) washed the finished sweater.
Notes: Speaking of sweaters I’ve made before, I’ve, well, made this sweater before. At least twice. That’s because it’s a great, quick sweater that can usually be made to work with whatever yarn you have on hand (provided you are flexible about the sizing, or, like me, happily clueless about the standard dimensions of babies at different ages).
This is another sweater that was dramatically improved by the addition of cute buttons. This bothers me a little, because I can put hours of work into creating a sweater stitch by loving stitch, but it’s only when you slap on the store-bought novelty buttons that the damn thing looks remotely cute.
While I really like making baby sweaters, I so rarely get to see them in action. And let’s face it: baby sweaters just aren’t nearly as cute when they are unoccupied by babies. I’ve tried various ways to get around the shortage of live babies in my life (including awkward arm’s-length hand modeling and the use of wholly unsuitable stand-ins). Happily, the recipient of this one (my friend Josh) sent me a whole series of photos of his little girl modeling it, and in fact told me that she would likely be wearing it in their family Christmas card photo. This is a tremendous honor for me: never before has my knitwear been featured prominently in such a high-profile publication. I expect that the back of the card will contain the following credit: “Skylar’s wardrobe made possible in part by Lickety Knit Apparel — fine clothiers since 2003.”
Pretty adorable, right? (I do actually mean the baby, as knitting-centric as I may be.) I expect my blog hits to go way up once that Christmas card starts hitting people’s mailboxes.
So there you have it: three baby sweaters. Year of Sweaters. It all comes together. Woo.
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11.18.07
Posted in Finished Objects, General, Year of Sweaters at 1:15 am by Rachel
Welcome to the November 2007 issue of Lickety Knit Monthly! Don’t forget to lock in your 2008 subscription soon to guarantee yourself the lowest rates. [Disclaimer: Lickety Knit Inc. cannot guarantee a full year of issues. Subscription fees are non-refundable.]
Our cover story this month: the first adult sweater from my Year of Sweaters!
Pattern: Cable-Down Raglan by Stephanie Japel from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits, second-smallest size
Yarn: Rowan Silk Wool DK, colorway “Greenwood,” just over 7 balls (only 785 yards!)
Notes: I looked like an imbecile in every one of the several dozens photos that I made Matt take. For about 10 low-self-esteem minutes I declared that this was the only one I liked and was willing to post. In the end I chilled out a little and just decided to go heavy on the headless shots. I have talked before about how uncomfortable it makes me to put pictures of myself on the blog because I feel as though I might be perceived as self-absorbed, but when it comes right down to it, I’m terribly vain and I can’t bear to post pictures in which I look as though I just ate a bug or emerged from solitary confinement or got collagen injections to my whole face or got attacked by bats. All of which I managed to convey in my photos today.
Oh, you wanted notes on the sweater, not on me and my appearance? Fine. My mistake. Here we go, then: I am mostly very pleased with this sweater. The top-down construction was really easy, leaving the intricate cables as the only challenge (and even they were pretty easily memorized). It knit up amazingly quickly: Casting on for the swatch through unpinning the finished sweater from the blocking board took just 29 days. Best of all, it is entirely wearable, which I’ve attempted to demonstrate with these action shots. It fits, it’s comfortable, and it’s practical.
Unsurprisingly, given the content and the manufacturer, the yarn was great. It knit up evenly, it has that lovely silky sheen, and it can be worn right against the skin. I bought it for 25 percent off at a LYS Superbowl Sale last February, which helped make the steepish price a little less painful.
A couple drawbacks to the pattern: first, the long cable repeats made it a little difficult to customize the length of the sleeves and body, assuming you don’t want to end abruptly in the middle of a cable. And because the two cable designs are, oddly, not the same length (30 rows and 28 rows), it’s difficult to get them to end at the same time at the hem unless you’re willing for the sweater to be a floor-length ballgown. I stressed out about this a lot, ultimately choosing to knit the first 6 rows of a new repeat of the main cable while finishing a repeat of the auxiliary cables, though if I weren’t too proud to admit it, I think I’d say that in the end maybe it doesn’t matter as much as I thought it did.
Second, too much purling. I know I’m not the only one who would rather scrub grout than purl for long stretches. I didn’t entirely realize what I was getting into until it was too late to turn back, however, and in the end I’m glad I’m persevered. That’s not to say I won’t avoid purling on DPNs ever again; if there is a knitter out there who can do so without getting ladders, I don’t want to know about it because my fragile knitting self-esteem depends on believing that it simply isn’t possible. I tugged and cajoled and gave stern looks, all to no avail.
So what did I do? Well, let’s just say this post article wouldn’t be complete without an ode to blocking. Dearest blocking, does a knitter have a better friend in all the world than you? I admit that I doubted you: I looked at all the flaws of my finished and unblocked sweater and I thought, this is insurmountable. The uneven stitch columns in the purling, the asstastically uneven cables, the absence of drape, the too-short sleeves, the bad hair it gave me when I wore it…I really thought you’d met your match.
Never again will I doubt you. You are my savior, blocking, and you deserve to have a religion founded upon your miraculous works.
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What other goodies do we have in this issue of Lickety Knit? How about the announcement of the winner of the contest from my last post? “Whaaa?” you all say. “A contest?? I don’t remember a contest!” That’s right, you don’t. Because I am introducing a new contest concept into the knitblogosphere that I expect will catch on like wildfire: the secret contest. A contest in which the blog author decides on the parameters, does not share them with his or her readers, and then surprises and delights everyone with the simultaneous announcement of the contest, the prize, and the winner. I figure I stand to win a lot more prizes this way, given my poor track record at actually jumping through the hoops required to enter most blog contests (you know, like posting a comment before a stated deadline — who comes up with these draconian rules???), but it is not for myself that I propose this new style of contest. It is for…well, okay, it’s for me.
Anyway, the winner of my inaugural secret contest is: Specs! Specs correctly identified the source of my very obscure reference in my last post to a 1997 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 called “Prince of Space.” I had thought about having an official contest, but I realized that the quote I referenced was easily Googleable, so I decided that if anyone identified it anyway, I’d give that person a prize. Therefore, Specs, you have won two skeins of Koigu PPPM sock yarn in the color of your choice! Congratulations! Email me to let me know your choice and your shipping address.
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I want to belatedly thank all the wonderful people who nominated me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger over the last several months. The fact that I have not acknowledged this or nominated any RGBs of my own clearly makes me a Jackass Girl Blogger. Seeing as that particular meme is long past, I think I will not try to make amends now, but please accept a free yearlong subscription to Lickety Knit as a token of my sincere thanks for nominating me. (That came out a lot more sarcastically than I meant it to. I really did appreciate being singled out, especially since I clearly don’t deserve it!)
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Coming up in the December issue*: progress on my new project, the Henley Perfected sweater from the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits. I am reclaiming the yarn (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino) from the now-despised Gatsby Girl Pullover. What do you think? Can I really make two adult sweaters before the Year of Sweaters is out? (And by adult, I just mean grown-up sized, notwithstanding everyone’s tasteful catcalls provoked by my knockers in my last post.) (Sorry, Dad, for bringing that up again.)
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
*Yes, I will eventually give up this joke, but seeing as I can’t think of any new ones right now, I figured I’d try to eke a little more out of this one.
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10.24.07
Posted in Finished Objects, Works in Progress at 8:43 pm by Rachel
Thank you all for your incredibly enthusiastic responses to my Lotus Blossom Tank! You made me so happy that it caused me to post yet another bonus issue of Lickety Knit Monthly.
I have never really been what you could call an early adopter, fashion-wise. In fact, I am probably better characterized as a complete non-adopter at best, and a tragically late adopter at worst. I don’t want to go into lots of embarrassing examples, but suffice it to say that I began pegging my pants in 1992. (Is this back in, now that the 80s are back in?) (Or are the 80s not actually back in, but I’m just picking up on them now for the first time, in my late-adopter style?)
Anyway, this trait generally extends to my knitting, which means I rarely knit anything that people haven’t seen several dozen times before. But when Minty sent me her pattern for her recently designed Roman Earflap Hat and asked me to proofread it (UPDATED: here is the direct link to the pattern, and here is its Ravelry page), I was seized by two things. Okay, three. Actually, no, just two. (I probably should have deleted that moment of self-doubt rather than just leaving my thought process right on the screen, but I think it probably makes me seem more nuanced and compelling if I reveal some inner conflict; otherwise you might be tempted to think that this is just a plain old post about a knit hat.) The first thing (remember, half a paragraph ago, the two things?) was a total adoration of the hat itself. The second thing was the realization that I could be the FIRST PERSON IN THE ENTIRE KNOWN UNIVERSE to knit this hat (after the designer). Years of being made fun of because I was finally curling my bangs straight up a full three years after everyone else had stopped suddenly gave rise to a burning desire to do something first. So I knit this hat.
Isn’t it so cute? I am not a pompom kind of girl in the slightest (partly for looks, and partly because, when handmade, they seem such a precarious proposition), but I make a giant exception for this hat. Without the pompoms, this hat doesn’t really work. I originally thought maybe I’d leave them off, but take it from me, that would have been a mistake. Without pompoms, this hat is a sad and ill-fitting assemblage of knotted wool. With pompoms: a total party for your head! (Don’t ask me how adding pompoms improves the fit, it just does.)
I knit the hat pretty much exactly as written in the pattern, except I used a sport-weight yarn to get the stitch gauge Minty did, which resulted in a wildly different row gauge, so I knit for an inch or so longer than called for in the pattern before beginning the decreases. The yarn is Sheep Shop Yarn Company “Sheep 3,” a two-ply yarn that is 30 percent silk and 70 percent wool. I like it very much. (Most of my family should now be thinking “What’s the matter with bootblacking?” in reference to an oft-cited line from an old favorite TV show, but the rest of you needn’t trouble yourselves with it.)
Please everyone, knit this hat, because until you do, I’m actually still just the last person to have done so–making it no different from every other fashion choice I’ve ever made.
In progress now: the Cable Down Raglan by Stefanie Japel from the spring 2007 Interweave Knits. I swear this is actually where I am with the sweater, and I’m not just trying to find reasons to get my rack on the internet. This photo is purely for informational purposes.
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