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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02.05.08
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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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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09.27.07
Posted in Finished Objects, General, Knitterly Fraternization at 10:10 pm by Rachel
What do you know, I’m a few days early with the October issue of Lickety Knit! My editorial staff must have been working overtime. I am delighted that you are all so pleased with this blog’s reinvention as a monthly knitting periodical – the 30-odd letters to the editor in response to the last issue have validated my choice very nicely.
New in this issue: Lickety Knit in the mainstream(ish) press! Minty speaks out! Youthful indiscretions come back to haunt me! And a very special moment with Rachel Sr.
MEDIA COVERAGE
For many years I have been a big fan of writer and newspaper editor Dan Savage. Some years ago I even had the opportunity to humiliate myself repeatedly in front of him when I organized a lecture that he delivered at the university where I work. I picked him up from the train station, escorted him around campus, and said one asinine thing after another in an uninterrupted stream of idiocy whenever I was within his earshot for the duration of his visit. (Actual quote from when we were talking about his terrific book The Kid: “I thought your story? About your experience with open adoption? Was so great! It made me think maybe I’d get pregnant? So I could give my kid up for open adoption to a nice gay couple? You know, just to help the cause!”)
Anyway, imagine my delight when I discovered that Dan Savage had blogged me! (Photo from this post.) Sparkles came across it and sent me the link. Of course I had to leave a moronic comment immediately. Just so he’d remember me.
YOUTHFUL INDISCRETIONS
My appearance on Dan’s blog actually lead to another awkward moment (why yes, my life is just one long string of these, thank you). Last week I entered into uncharted waters with Lickety Knit: I revealed its existence to a work colleague for the first time. (And let me just say, totally unrelatedly, that I sincerely love my job! My co-workers are a delight! I always do my work and never surf the internet during the day!)
As I initially considered the potential consequences of this turn of events, I felt confident that I have not posted anything on this blog that would damage my reputation at work. Err, well, with the small exception of certain photographic errors in judgment from way back in the spring and summer of 2006, but I figured that my colleague’s lack of interest in knitting was a pretty strong safeguard against his ever making it back that far, so I didn’t worry too much. Of course, not one week later (today), he reads Andrew Sullivan, follows a link to Dan Savage, sees my photo there, sees the post from which that photo came, reads the comments, and follows Rebekkah’s link (in her comment) directly to one of those offending photos. (I am not providing a direct link, but the old timers here will probably know what I’m talking about, and if you don’t, you can probably follow the links yourself to satisfy your curiosity.) The end result is that I now get to live in fear that this particular (smart, handsome, clever, ethical, merciful) colleague will one day do a PowerPoint presentation at a staff meeting in which he highlights my X-treme Knitting and brings my career to a resounding halt. Pray for me, blog readers.
A CUSTOM ORDER
Some of you are probably here to see actual knitting, aren’t you? Fortunately, I recently knit something. As part of an ongoing effort to make peace between my sister-in-law (Rachel Sr.) and my knitting community, I offered to knit her a hat. You see, Rachel is nearly always cold, and she wears – indoors and out – one of those knit earband things (modeled to the right) for the entire winter, which for her spans from September 15 to June 1. (This accessory is such an integral part of her life that it even has a name. Its name is Earband.) I generated some enthusiasm for my offer by promising I could make the hat to her exact specifications. We eventually settled on colors, size, style, lining, etc. It was only after I was about halfway done that I noticed something funny. See if you can notice it:
Yeeeeah. I made Earband Hat.
Pattern: Basic stockinette hat with a 1×1 ribbed brim and a cotton lining, about 80 stitches in circumference (I really should have recounted before giving it away).
Yarn: Knitpicks Andean Silk in navy, orange, and cream; the lining is Knitpicks Crayon in orange.
Needles: Size 8, I think? I actually made this about three months ago but didn’t blog it until now. Pathetic. And I know, I know, I swore off Knitpicks, but it was easier to show Rachel Sr. some color cards than it was to drag her from one knitting store to the next looking for the perfect yarn.
Notes: Vague as usual, but I will say that I love cotton linings in wool hats. It makes them extra soft and extra warm, plus the contrasting color adds a bit of fun. The Crayon makes a particularly nice lining. I began with that, knit for a while (3-4 inches?), then knit one row in blue, then a purl turning row, and then continued on with the ribbing and the main body of the hat from there, later tacking down the lining on the inside. My purl row looks really loose and crappy, unfortunately, which I think has something to do with the fact that it abuts the ribbing. I might have been able to fix that by using a smaller needle for that row; I’m not sure.
In spite of my initial sense that I’d had a practical joke played on me, it seems that Rachel actually has every intention of using Earband Hat in conjunction with Earband. I was heartened by the fact that she continued to wear it after our photoshoot in spite of the fact that it was (seriously) 82 degrees out. “It’s so warm!” she kept saying enthusiastically, as though without it she would have been risking frostbite. One additional advantage of the cotton lining: it is very sweat absorbant! If I’m on the subject of observing Rachel’s quirks, I must take a moment to note that she has a somewhat distrustful attitude toward technology in general and blogs in particular: most notably, she thinks that leaving a comment on my blog will somehow automatically lead to the theft of her identity and the acquisition of least a dozen stalkers. However, as Minty and I have both learned, if you point a camera at her, tell her to pose in any number of ludicrous ways, and tell her it’s for the blog, she obliges wholeheartedly. I have no explanation (and don’t expect to get one from her in the comments).
ATONEMINT
So where were we off to after our photoshoot? To get together with Minty, of course! At last peace and harmony reigns among the three of us. During dinner Minty lamented that she was somewhat alarmed by the vehemence with which people had sided with me when I listed her minor offenses (stealing my husband, running over kittens with milk trucks, etc.) in my last post. In the spirit of our peace accord, I must tell you that I may have been mistaken about some — possibly all — of those. I sincerely apologize for besmirching her reputation. While I deeply appreciate your loyalty, dear readers, I hope you will join me in turning over a new leaf with Minty. The world is against us, knitbloggers, and if we don’t stick together, we’ll have no one.
On that inexplicably melodramatic note (my brain is usually pretty addled once I finally send an issue to press), I’m signing off. I am pretty sure I’ll finish my Lotus Blossom Tank within a couple weeks, so there may actually be a special bonus issue of LK before too long! Contain your excitetment, now.
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09.01.07
Posted in Finished Objects, General, Knitterly Fraternization at 11:22 am by Rachel
What’s up, everyone? Long time no post! (Hmm, I like how that sort of makes it sound like your fault and not mine.) Since I last posted I have been caught between two extremes: first a series of 11-hours work days, then a two-week lakeside vacation with no internet access, and then an immediate return to 11-hour work days. While both of these are good things (yes, even the work, in its way), neither has done anything good for my posting frequency. I never though that I’d get to the point where my standard would become “at least monthly,” but here we are. For that reason, I’d like to encourage you all to think of Lickety Knit as less of a blog and as more of a monthly knitting periodical, sort of a (admittedly low-content) web-based magazine. Instead of “posts,” I now put out “issues,” as in “Have you seen the most recent issue of Lickety Knit?” or “I was happy to receive the fall issue of Interweave Knits, but what I’m really looking forward to is the new issue of Lickety Knit.” (Oooh, I like how I look in italics.) If you all agree to do that, then I agree not to be come LKQ (Lickety Knit Quarterly).
Before I move on to scintillating tales of my vacation (please enjoy the photo prelude in the meantime), I urge you to drop everything you’re doing and head over to Brooke’s blog at Drunken Money Knits. Remember when I said that I wanted to make many different colored shells for different occasions for Sheldon? Well, Brooke was way ahead of me, and she did it infinitely better than I could ever hope to. You will not regret going over to look at them. A few examples can be found here, here, and here (OMG and here — the shell is a little zippered backpack!!!), but there are lots of others and they’re totally worth poking around for. (Brooke, have you considered creating a section in your sidebar with links to all your different turtles for easy access? If the public is not already demanding it, I expect they will be soon.)
Okay, back to me now. I cannot recommend a two-week vacation enough if you are ever in a position to manage it. A one-week vacation barely gives you enough time to stop thinking about work before it’s time to start thinking about going back. A two-week vacation allows you to forget for a while that you even have a job — and that’s when the real relaxation can begin. (I will boastfully confess that the most thinking I did about work was when my boss called me to tell me I’d been promoted — I really ought to go on vacation more often! I wonder what I’ll get over the Christmas break? A corner office?)
My vacation (on Lake Winnipesaukee, in New Hampshire) was an idyllic, soft-focus world where I just floated from one leisure activity to another: snoozing, reading, eating, knitting, canoeing, eating, sunning, knitting, eating, hammocking, tennis (not real tennis — just enough light tennis to make me sound good on the blog), swimming, napping, reading, knitting, eating, watching the Red Sox while knitting, eating, sleeping. Doesn’t that sound divine? It was.
And whenever it started to get maybe just the tiniest littlest bit dull, people showed up! Early in the trip we had a visit from bloggers Fumblerette and Kris (not technically blog friends, as I know them through my husband and not the internet). Then some blogless friends from home paid us a visit. Then for two days we actually tore ourselves away from our lakeside utopia and had a delightful visit with my friend Emilie and her boyfriend J in lovely Portland, Maine. Finally, we were just starting to talk about whether we should stay through the final weekend or go home a couple days early so as to attend to the many chores that no doubt awaited us, when who should call and invite herself up to the lake but Minty?
Some of you may recall that one of the odder features of my relationship with Minty is her heated rivalry with my sister-in-law, whom she’d never met. Feeling mischievous when Minty called, I told her that yes, of course we’d love her to come up, but did she mind that Matt’s sister (Rachel Sr.) would also be coming? (I made a quick note to myself to call and invite my sister-in-law as soon as I got off the phone with Minty.) And wouldn’t it make sense for them to rent a car together for the six-hour drive? Minty, to her credit, agreed sportingly (as did Rachel Sr., against all odds), and I looked forward to a weekend full of high drama.
Everything went according to my plan at first, and you should read Minty’s first blog post about it for the full story with excellent photos. It all began well, with stony silences and tension-filled semi-truces.
But then things began to crumble around me. It became clear, first of all, that Minty was co-opting the rivalry for her own blog. But then, worse, it seemed as though maybe Minty and Rachel Sr. were actually starting to like each other. It all began with small things, like their cutely and awkwardly reaching for the pancakes at the same time, but by the end of the weekend they were totally cliquish and leaving me out of their little in jokes — jerks.
And now that I think about it, by Saturday she and Matt had started dressing alike, like some insufferable preppy couple…OH MY GOD SHE HAS STOLEN HIM TOO! I can’t believe I didn’t see it before now. Beware of Minty, everyone. Hide your friends and family. (I’m so enraged that I don’t even want to link to her second related post, but blog etiquette demands it.)
Yes, my personal life is in shambles, but the blog must go on. And since this is a knitting blog, after all, I offer you a small amount of knitting. (Yes, I did knit quite a bit while on vacation, but I didn’t seem to finish much. It does mean I have a good stream of nearly finished objects in the pipeline to be finished over the next couple weeks, though — if my job allows me any knitting time at all, that is.)
These are the Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks. The yarn is Regia Silk. I wound up liking both the pattern and the yarn quite a bit more than I expected to when I was starting out. In fact, at the point I finished the knitting I was ready to declare them my favorite pair of socks to date.
The yarn is delightfully soft and drapey — none of the stiffness that you can often find with wool or wool/nylon blends. It showed off the pattern beautifully. The only thing that wound up tempering my enthusiasm was the fact that after one wearing (the state in which you’re seeing them here), there was already a considerable amount of fuzzing and a little early pilling. You’d think that after multiple years of being disappointed by handknits in this way I would have come to accept it as inevitable, but I still manage to be discouraged by it every time.
Nonetheless, I expect that I will wear these socks often (they’re work friendly, which is another reason I love them). I knit them exactly as written in the pattern, by the way, so I have nothing useful to contribute to the collective knitting wisdom.
Okay, I’m sure I’ve exceeded any sort of advisable word count. Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone!
P.S. I am declaring Bloglines bankruptcy, which frees me from the crushing weight of my enormous RSS feed backlog, but renders me completely ignorant of anything going on in your lives. So my apologies in advance if I come to your blog and comment that it looks like you lost a lot of weight (when in fact you gave birth to triplets) or that your cat must be such a joy to you (when he was hit by a milk truck two posts ago and you posted the photo as a silent tribute) or that it must be awfully nice to be able to buy so much yarn all at one time* (when in fact your stash storage shed burned down last week and this is the only yarn to your name).
*Because apparently I am a passive aggressive jackass in my comments.
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08.06.07
Posted in Finished Objects, General at 6:56 pm by Rachel
Okay, this last “thing” is a little bit of a stretch. Frankly, this whole themed series has been a stretch, but apparently I feel the need to arrange everything in my life into themes so as to create the illusion of order and purpose. I’d like to think that when I die, the entire story of my life could be organized by category into a number of leather-bound box sets that could be purchased via infomercial or perhaps from a pleasant door-to-door salesman. Hence my adherence to this series of posts even though I’m totally grasping at straws.
What actually happened here is that I started this series when I was having bizarrely intense yearnings to take up a bunch of new hobbies. Earthchick’s adorable sewing projects were wearing down my resistance to sewing (though it seems a little crass to talk about her sewing projects, given some of the recent life trauma she’s been dealing with); this “disappearing nine-patch” quilt is so clever and easy that I entertained serious notions of busting out some fabric scraps; and of course the yarn dyeing turned out to be so much more enjoyable than I anticipated (as did the making up of names for the colorways) that I really began to question my knitting monogamy. As I imagined myself trying all these new crafts, I couldn’t help but think eagerly about the blog content they would generate (given that it always seems to be in short supply for me). Unfortunately, the series lost steam immediately because my little bout of fantasizing about being unfaithful to my sticks and string faded about a week later. Since I’d impulsively slapped a “Part I” on my yarn-dyeing post, though, I figured I’d better come up with at least two more parts or else lose blogging credibility. (The horror!)
So, here we go. The featured thing I generally don’t do in this post is crochet. Stay with me; in spite of the fact that the picture above is of a knitted toy (Sheldon from Knitty), the aspect of the project that fueled the fires of my new-hobby obsession was the crocheted edging around the shell attachment panel. This was the first time I had ever crocheted anything other than a chain, and I was totally smitten with the nice, neat edge that it made. After finishing the required crochet on Sheldon, I raced upstairs to apply my newly acquired skill to Green Gable (many people had recommended that a row of single crochet would help with the rolling, gapping neckline, but I’d put off testing their recommendation because I didn’t know how to do a crochet edging).
Look at that perfect, clean edge! (Compare to here.) My sweater was transformed! Crochet was clearly going to change my life. Since I was deep in the throes of my new-hobby mania, it should be no surprise that I started brainstorming names for my new crochet blog and wondering whether it would be excessive to order 20 crochet pattern books at once (to save on shipping, of course), or whether I should just order the top 5 bestsellers from Amazon and then grow from there. Should I order the full set of gold-plated crochet hooks, or spring for the carved ivory set? I pondered whether I should begin my crochet career with the hat that Laura made recently (just to drive home our cosmic twinness a little more) or whether I should take on something more challenging — more epic. Whatever I chose, it was sure to generate excellent content for my “things I generally don’t do” series.
Errr, well. My plans for crochet went the way of my hand-dyed yarn Etsy shop. My total lifetime crochet output still stands at two chains, one neckline edging, and one turtle shell attachment panel. Fortunately, I have also not bought any crochet books, and I still have only my two plastic crochet hooks. My obsession with new crafts faded as quickly as it started…and I think it is a good thing. I am awfully partial to knitting, after all, and why mess with a good thing?
A few quick notes on Sheldon. What a fantastic pattern. The way the top of the shell is created is some of the cleverest knitting I’ve ever seen. And everyone who saw the finished turtle was completely charmed by the design — particularly the way he wears the shell as a little sweater. While I gave this Sheldon to my friend’s three-month-old (and can’t you tell how delighted he is to have it?), I have big plans to make another one for myself, and mine is going to have a large wardrobe of shells. Black and white for formal occasions, khaki and navy for preppy occasions, red and green for Christmas, black on black for his goth phase — the possibilities are endless.
Other good things about Sheldon: First, for the first time in a while, I learned new skills while making him. In addition to the aforementioned crochet, I did applied i-cord for the first time. That was a bit fiddly but gave a very nice result, and it was good to feel challenged. Second, if you knit only the body (no legs), you get something that looks a bit like a stuffed sperm. That may come in useful at some point — you never know. (And what child wouldn’t love it?) Finally, it introduced me to safety eyes, a very clever invention that really works — there is NO getting those eyes off once they’re attached. I know this because, in spite of extremely careful measuring and counting and eyeballing and praying, I attached Sheldon’s eyes utterly crookedly, and once I realized it, there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it but say bad words.
I made Sheldon out of the yarn the pattern called for (Knitpicks Shine Sport) on size 3 and 4 needles. It took me about 2 weeks of light knitting.
Random Thing About Me
Remember this? Remember how I was going to put one random fact about myself in every post until I got up to 7 or 8 or whatever the Meme of the Week dictates? Another example of how I like everything to have a sense of thematic structure. (Also another example of my utter lack of follow through on that impulse, but let’s not dwell on the negative.)
So, anyway, random thing #3: I am a huge Harry Potter fan, as is my husband. I am unhealthily emotionally attached to the stories. (I know that I am one of only 30 million people who feel this way, so no doubt you’ll recognize my membership in this exclusive club as a particularly compelling characteristic worthy of inclusion on a list of notable things about me.) When I bought myself Book 1 back in 1999 (when the third one had just come out), I got a nasty flu that same day. Matt offered to read it out loud to me while I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself, and it was such an enjoyable way to hear the story that we have continued that tradition and have read every book out loud — alternating chapters ever since the first one — as it has come out. Doing so has allowed us to savor each book, though it can be absolutely brutal to hear only 2-3 chapters a night, especially at the really exciting parts! We just finished Book 7 a couple days ago (Matt blogged about each chapter as we read it, which was fun), and I have to admit I’m really sad it’s over. Anyone have any recommendations for other good read-out-loud books?
Wait, I’ve just thought of an actual thing that I’m doing that I generally don’t do! I’m sending the Gastby Girl Sweater into hibernation. The damn thing has pissed me off one too many times. It has been doomed from the start, and now I’m starting to question whether I even like the sweater at all. I have never been one for officially setting aside a project for an extended — maybe infinite — period, but it is definitely the right decision in this case. I may even frog the whole thing and use the yarn for something else (another thing I’ve never done!), but I’m not quite ready for that yet. To cleanse my palate of the distaste left by Gatsby Girl, I’ve cast on a nice simple woolen baby jacket for no one. I need some quick woolly gratification. (In August — weird, I know.)
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05.13.07
Posted in Finished Objects, General at 8:53 pm by Rachel
Seeing as I have a knitting blog and all, that is. Odd to have a knitting blog and to never do any knitting. Well, except for socks. Yawn.
All work and no knitting makes Lickety Knit a very dull blog, and, unfortunately, we here at Lickety Knit are all about work these days. As I mentioned before, this is my busiest stretch at my day job, and I also have a freelance job that’s peaking at the same time (at the end of this month). By the way, a big old kiss on the lips to everyone who suggested in a previous post that perhaps this (unintentionally) mysterious freelance job had to do with a Lickety Knit book project. How I wish. Sadly, it’s just plain old extra work for extra pay. (Although those of you with ties to the needle arts publishing industry who think 248 pages of self-deprecating excuses about my knitting lameness would be a runaway hit, feel free to leave a comment.)
As an aside, the need for extra pay is because come September, my husband is leaving his decade-long career as a software engineer and going back to graduate school full time to get his master’s degree in public policy. (Someone has to save the world — it may as well be my smart and principled husband.) This aside is not at all knitting-related, or even really related to this post, but it seems odd not to let at least a little of my real life onto the blog, and this is a pretty big thing for us.
Aaanyway, because I have been so busy with work, pretty much the only knitting I’ve been doing has been socks, because I can do them while traveling or when I know I shouldn’t be knitting but convince myself that a round or two (or 25) on a sock doesn’t count. The result? My third, fourth, and fifth pairs of socks of 2007.
I still maintain that socks, while wonderful knitting projects, don’t make for good blog substance unless they are extra impressive in some way, which these are not. So I’ll just unceremoniously throw out the quick details and be done with it. Top to bottom: Cable Rib Socks (like Laura’s) from Favorite Socks in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, colorway Serengeti); plain stockinette socks in Trekking XXL, color 109; Go with the Flow socks from Favorite Socks in an unknown color of Artyarns Ultramerino 8, one of the unsung heroes of the sock yarn world. All knit on the same set of 5-inch Clover bamboo 2.25 mm needles.
Okay, so I admit that that actually doesn’t look like a bad amount of knitting. But given that it’s three months’ worth, and that this was supposed to be the Year of Sweaters, it’s not exactly a great accomplishment. I had such high hopes. Last year, when I cast on for the Gatsby Girl Pullover in a petal-pink yarn, I had the idea that I would finish the sweater in time to model it in front of the spectacular weeping cherry tree in our yard that blooms this time of year. Well. Um.
I have great hopes that this summer will bring much more knitting, because otherwise I’ll have to leave the knitblog world and join the boringprattleblog world (comments about my current dual citizenship should be kept to yourselves).
Oh, here’s a non-sequitor: a number of you asked me a couple posts ago why I was trying to give up Knit Picks. The reason is local yarn stores. One of my favorite LYSs (Ewe’ll Love It in Nashua, New Hampshire) has been really struggling to stay afloat, and a new knitting store just opened within walking distance of my house. I really want these shops — and most LYSs, frankly — to survive, and I realized that buying too much of my yarn from Knit Picks does nothing to further that possibility. So, while I have nothing at all against Knit Picks (and haven’t really even sworn them off completely), I’m going to try to make sure my knitting dollars go to LYSs as often as possible, even if it means buying less yarn overall for budget reasons. This is just my personal decision; I’m not embarking on a campaign to turn everyone away from Knit Picks, because the fact is they offer great products for amazing prices. I just think we’d all be sad of LYSs disappeared, so I think it’s important to balance rather than always going for the least expensive option, if your circumstances allow it.
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