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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07.25.07
Posted in Knitterly Fraternization, Yarn and Tools at 2:43 pm by Rachel
I don’t usually travel hundreds of miles to visit friends I’ve never met.
But as I was already going to be visiting a friend in San Antonio, and Laura lives just 200 short miles away, we both knew it had to happen. Laura and I are cosmic twins (rather, that’s what I call us because it seems nicer than saying she’s “some girl who copies everything I do”), and chances to meet your cosmic twin don’t come along every day. So we agreed I’d just pop over to Houston for 24 hours before flying home — what could be more normal?
As Melissa, my (real-life) friend in San Antonio, was driving me to the bus station so I could make the four-hour trip to Houston, she asked me the question I’d been hoping all weekend she wouldn’t get around to: “Who is this person you’re visiting again?”
I admit that if I could have thought up a workable lie quickly, I probably would have lied. But Melissa knows me well, and I probably couldn’t have gotten away with it indefinitely. So I told her the truth. It sounded more or less like this:
“Okay, to be honest, I’ve never actually met her before. I know her from the internet. She, umm, has a knitting blog, and I actually do too, and we look at each other’s blogs and sometimes we Google chat? And we really have a lot in common? She’s a Williams grad. Um. I’ve known her for like two years — well, ‘known’ except that we’ve never spoken in person before. Look, if it was really a creepy stalker dude, he would have had to do a LOT of knitting over the past two years and get some random girl to model everything for him.”
There was a pause; then Melissa asked, “How do you know that isn’t the last girl he lured into his trap?”
I didn’t have a good answer for that. But as you can see from the photos, Laura turned out to be exactly as advertised on her blog — right down to her awesome cats — and not some sicko’s previous victim. We had a great time together. I got a full tour of her stash (she even sent me home with a tiny bit of it) and her FOs (it was like walking down Nimrodel70 Memory Lane!). I got to meet Peter (loved him almost as much as the cats). We knit, of course (Laura taught me the tubular cast on, which itself was worth the price of my bus ticket). I ate enough queso to fill a bathtub.
Although getting to meet Laura would have been reason enough to come to Houston, I also got to meet some other pretty cool people. On Monday after I arrived, we headed out to Yarntopia, a yarn store opened a year or so ago by Amy and Sheryl. I had never met Sheryl before, but Amy was the first person on whose blog I ever commented, and she was the first person who ever commented on mine. In fact, she organized the Honeymoon Cami knitalong that was my introduction to the cyberknitting world. I had followed Amy’s blog from before Yarntopia was a glint in her eye, through its conception, creation, opening, and success! It was pretty cool to meet her (she is exactly as I imagined she’d be), and her store is beautiful and inviting. My only regret is that I failed to bring my camera with me. Yep, I lugged the thing from Rhode Island to Austin to San Antonio to Houston just so I could take one damn picture of myself in Yarntopia, and I left it in Laura’s guest room. I have been forced to resort to shoddy Photoshoppery instead. (Note that Laura and I are modeling Laura’s versions of the projects we have knit in common.)
On Tuesday morning I went with Laura to her “Slacker Stitch and Bitch,” which is composed of a handful of people with flexible enough work schedules that they can meet mid-morning during the week. They gather for the 99 cent breakfast at Ikea — pretty clever, if you ask me. I had the pleasure of meeting Staci of Very Pink and Drew (a.k.a. the Crochet Dude); Sheryl from Yarntopia also joined us. The company and conversation were as good as the food was cheap.
Before I knew it, our time was up and it was off to the airport. Now it’s back to taunting and mocking each other over the vast chasm of cyberspace. I didn’t have to go home empty handed, though! Souvenirs from my trip include some lovely chocolate Koigu (actually from Hill Country Weavers in Austin), two gorgeous hanks of Claudia’s Handpainted sock yarn, four balls of Louisa Harding Kashmir DK, three skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (those items from Yarntopia), a hank of beautiful slate purple Texas mohair that Laura gifted to me, and a whole bunch of unflattering photographs and great memories. Thank you for your wonderful hospitality, Laura!
What do you think, fair readers: will I continue to do things I generally don’t do? Or will I revert to my normal activities — generating words without content and wondering when the heck someone’s going to recognize my unique and subtle genius and offer me a book deal?
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07.10.07
Posted in Yarn and Tools at 3:11 pm by Rachel
I have often stated here that I have no interest in taking up spinning, crocheting, dyeing, sewing, tatting, or any other hobby that would cut into my already scant knitting time. (I may not actually have ever mentioned tatting explicitly, but I’m sure you could have inferred my stance toward it.) I don’t doubt that all these things are absolutely wonderful pastimes, but there are so many things I want to knit in my finite lifetime that I have always carefully avoided the temptation of trying out other crafting hobbies, for fear I might like them.
Recently, however, the fates put me in an awkward position. Some friends of ours had a party at which the predominant activity was to be tie-dyeing. We were all instructed to bring items to dye. Now, my wardrobe does not incorporate a tremendous number of tie-dyed garments, and I didn’t have any strong inclination to change that. However, I also didn’t want to be left out of the party fun (although it turned out there was an opportunity to play Zelda on the Nintendo Wii, which might have been the best option, but I couldn’t have known that in advance), so when my brain idly set upon the idea of bringing some yarn to dye…well, I must admit it seemed the perfect solution.
I had two balls of pure white, 100 percent cotton Classic Elite Spotlight with which I’d made Cozy a couple years ago. Attempting to recall helpful hints from the numerous blog posts I’ve skimmed about yarn dyeing, I un-balled one of them and wound it into a long skein around the coffee table. Willow was none too sure about the wisdom of my plans. (But what does she know? She’s a cat.)
We arrived at the party just as the tie-dyeing was about to get underway. People were evoking lessons from long-ago YMCA summer camp to instruct each other on the best way to wrap up their t-shirts. It was kind of fun. (I offer this party idea up to all of you with my full endorsement.) I didn’t have any big plans, so I just kind of separated my yarn into three sections and started dunking.
I will admit that there was something really satisfying about dunking that pure white yarn into that scarlet dye. I will also admit that other partygoers were not entirely sure what to make of my particular choice of tie-dye canvas, but as I’d already started thinking about the brilliantly colored, original…something that I would surely be creating out of my spectacularly dyed yarn, I didn’t really devote the energy that would have been necessary to deweirdify myself in their eyes. Oh well, no matter.
Anyway, it’s true — my worst fears confirmed. Dyeing my yarn was fun. I began to wish I’d brought the other ball of the Spotlight left in my stash. I started having color combination inspirations — vivid blue meets cheerful orange! Chocolate brown meets smoky lavender! I began to allow myself to believe that I was creating something truly sophisticated and spectacular. I started brainstorming names for my Etsy shop and calculating how many weeks of notice it would be appropriate to give at my job before leaving to make money solely through the sale of my exquisitely hand-dyed yarn.
There was only one problem: my yarn was hideous.
First of all, it might have been useful for me to recall that I have never, ever liked the way red and purple look together. But even that aside, this yarn falls seriously flat. I tried to tell myself that if I just called it “Mixed Berries” (other options:”Antioxidant Delight” or “I Drank Too Much Grape Juice and Then Threw Up”) and put a snazzily designed tag on it, it would still sell like crazy from my Etsy shop. Then I managed to tell myself that the yarn would look much better knit up into…something. Something that could be made out of 92 yards of cotton. I thought it might get cutely stripey or something.
Yeah, so, that didn’t fix things. Out of my hideous yarn, I made a truly appalling wine cozy (not only unattractive, but useless, too!). No, please, save your comments telling me that it’s not so bad — it is dreadful. There’s no way around it: my first time dyeing yarn yielded entirely amateur results.
That’s okay, though! I mean, after all, I am an amateur. And from beginning to end, this adventure only took up a couple hours of my life, so it’s not that big a loss. The bigger question, however, is whether or not I’ll be able to resist the temptation of doing it again. I’m already picturing myself frolicking in the backyard with my skillfully mixed dyes, a long skein of pristine yarn, and a paintbrush that I am wielding with astonishing artistry. (I quickly distract myself when my brain accidentally follows through to the logical conclusion of giving my whole family hideous wine cozies for Christmas.)
So, who knows — maybe I’ll do it again, or maybe my infatuation will dye (hee hee!) away in short order. In the meantime — wine, anyone?
Coming soon: More things I generally don’t do!
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03.17.07
Posted in Knitterly Fraternization, Yarn and Tools at 8:03 pm by Rachel
Two weeks ago I was idly exchanging blog comments and emails with Ashley. She said something about coming east but not all the way to Rhode Island. I said something about wait, what, where in the “east” are you coming, and she offhandedly said, oh, Philadelphia, and I was like, dude, when? And she said, next week, and I was like, DUDE, I AM GOING TO BE IN PHILADELPHIA FOR WORK NEXT WEEK. And then she was like OMG!!!!!11!! And three days later:
Yes, readers, you are seeing correctly. That’s not clever Photoshop. That’s me sitting next to Ashley of Dogged Knits. She’s wearing her awesome chevron scarf. I’m wearing my not-at-all-itchy-no-siree alpaca scarf. She’s holding her Jaywalker-in-progress. I also had a sock in hand, but it turns out I am not able to hold a camera at arm’s length, smile woodenly, AND hold an object aloft at the same time. It’s just too much.
My work schedule and her family outing schedule gave us only two hours together, but we got lucky and got two cushy chairs at Starbucks in which to pass our time together (after Ashley stood in the long annoying line to get our beverages — how many of you can say that Ashley has stood in line for your chai tea, hmmmm?). We then took a picture of our feet (my Hederas and her Jaywalkers) and settled in for some furious sock knitting and gabbing for the duration of our too-short time together.
Ashley is just exactly like I imagined she would be except taller and more curly-haired. She also exceeded my high expectations for dry humor and good company. And her airport limousine service was worth every penny I paid for it. The only downside of our meetup was predictable: now I’m even sorrier that our paths are unlikely to cross with any regularity. Is it better to have met a favorite knitblogger and lost than never to have met a favorite knitblogger at all?
My get-together with Ashley was not my only knitting-related activity in Philadelphia. I had expected to have various work appointments during the daytime before my work conference began, but they didn’t materialize and I had an entire day in the city to kill. This, combined with a birthday gift certificate to Loop from my sister (who lives within 4 blocks of both Loop and Rosie’s Yarn Cellar, the lucky duck), combined with my newfound resolve to keep all LYSs in business, combined with my weakened will power in the face of sock yarn thanks to Erika, resulted in these lovely purchases. The colors aren’t terribly accurate in this photo, but I love them all: Koigu PPPM in neutral colors with just a tiny hint of purple (it is actually less purple than it looks here — more taupe); Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Gold Hill; and Claudia’s Handpainted Yarn in “Oops” (a name that reflects the fact that I intended to buy yarn for only one pair of socks at Loop).
See how nicely they’re all wound? This (in the photo) is how I did it. I’d heard about this tip (to unscrew the thingy at the top of a lamp so that the lampshade spins freely) long ago on the Knittyboard but had been skeptical; however, after spending a full 35 minutes at my ball winder fighting with the last 30 yards of a recent ball of sock yarn, I was ready to try anything (and I’m glad this worked, because the only other remaining option was to drop $65 on a swift). It not only worked, it worked flawlessly. Now if only I could sell tickets to my captive audience, I could fund future sock yarn purchases.
Okay, thank you all for sitting so nicely through my sock-yarn discussion when I know you’re really here to see who won yarn in my blogiversary contest. The answers, quickly, are as follows: 1) Oklahoma! 2) Once on This Island 3) Peter Pan 4) Carousel 5) Into the Woods 6) Phantom (not the Andrew Lloyd Webber version, the better version) 7) Sweeney Todd 8) The King and I 9) The Secret Garden 10) Cinderella (Rogers and Hammerstein).
As for the bonus, two people guessed that all the shows are based on previous material (a play, novel, or fairy tale). While this is not what I had in mind, I am forced to admit it is true (though I will grudgingly point out that it is far more difficult to find a musical not based on previous material than one that is). My (self-involved) answer? I was in all of these musicals as a teenager. Anyway, I’ve decided to award credit to either answer.
Seventeen brave readers submitted guesses (including Shelley, who hilariously guessed “Oklahoma” for every lyric and suggested that the bonus trivia was that they were all from “Oklahoma”), and four people got maximum points. Of these four, a random number generator has selected SarahJanet as the winner! Congratulations, Sarah! Email me with your choice of the two colors.
As for the comment-based contest, the person who will receive Sarah’s rejected yarn is HPNY Knits! Email me with mailing address info and I’ll send the prizes along to you both.
Thank you all for playing along and confessing your theater geekiness, your lack thereof, or your willingness to fake it for a prize.
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03.11.07
Posted in Knitterly Fraternization, Yarn and Tools at 7:32 pm by Rachel
After the brash celebration of my own generosity and the gloriously good nature of my own heart in my last post, it seems only right to give other gift-givers their due (there! more evidence of my kind and munificent nature!), as I am lucky enough to have been on the receiving end of such generosity recently.
Sock Yarn
I was pleased and surprised when Erika of Sloth Knits (and my bus knitting friend) came to my informal birthday party last month. I kicked it up a notch to thrilled and floored when she presented me with a gift certificate to the local yarn store! You see, Erika has taken it upon herself to exacerbate my recent sock yarn weakness. She gave it to me with the intention of tempting me with the store’s new stock of Colinette Jitterbug. She didn’t realize that this minorly devious gesture would open the sock yarn flood gates for me, but for now let’s leave that as foreshadowing of my next post.
Last weekend Erika and I met up at Starbucks for a little knitting in public (she on Eunny’s Bayerische Socks, I on a lame little soap holder for Ashley, but that’s more foreshadowing for my next post), and then we headed over to the LYS so I could spend my birthday present. I will say that the Jitterbug colorways were very nice. However, has it ever happened to you where you go into a store and you look at a wall of sock yarn and you just immediately fixate on one of the colorways — it just locks in perfectly with your current mood or your personal rods and cones or your horoscope — and you can’t seriously consider any other options? That’s what happened to me. I saw this blue and silvery gray yarn and it made me think of frozen streams slowly starting to thaw, and I don’t know, maybe it was the unseasonably warm March day, or maybe it was the fact that it suddenly triggered a thematically related Broadway musical song on my jingle channel (”I said be gone, ye howling gales/Be off, ye frosty morns/All ye solid streams begin to thaw” — anyone want to name it?), but all I wanted was that melty stream yarn and even though it was Artyarns Ultramerino, Erika didn’t mind that I got it instead of the Jitterbug. I have a pair of socks in Artyarns Ultramerino already and they have held up incredibly well and are the softest of all my handknit socks. I’ve already started knitting my new yarn. Thank you, Erika!
New Knitting Bag
One of my first projects when I returned to knitting two years ago was a felted knitting bag. It didn’t come out terribly well — I attached the handles incorrectly and didn’t exactly pick the awesomest colors or design — but it served me well. However, when I started wandering around Etsy waiting for Ashley to post more of her cool bedwarmers, my attention was captivated by some of the beautiful bags being produced by independent crafters. I mentioned this to my mom, and she and my stepfather agreed that they would get me the handmade bag of my choice for my birthday. After frittering away approximately 200 hours agonizing over the choice, I contacted a seller whose bags I liked (mintworkshop) and asked her if she would be willing to do a custom order.
She was, and this is the result. I adore it. It is beautifully made and meets my every specification (clicking this photo will take you to Flickr, where you can get an in-depth tour of the interior). It is very roomy but not so big that it’s not easy to grab and take with me anyplace knitting might be required or permitted. It stands at attention at the side of the couch, making it easy to access its contents. It is conservative yet attractive. It is one of a kind. I also like that I was able to support another passionate crafter. Etsy is way cool. Thank you, Mom and Mark!
When I moved all my stuff from my old knitting bag into my new knitting bag, I felt a little sad for the old one. I wasn’t quite sure what future use I’d ever find for a dingy, misshapen bag, but I really didn’t want to just throw it away. Fortunately someone else in the household found a new use for it, and neither of us could be happier about it.
Balls!
Lastly, I have been remiss about thanking my good friends Andrew and Leigh for this abundant woolly goodness. Andrew and Leigh went on a six month jaunt through South America, and somewhere along the way (the island of Chiloe, to be precise) they picked up these two giant skeins of yarn, essentially straight off the sheep. Apparently Leigh sat down in the street and wound them into balls immediately, and then the two of them lugged them along on the entire rest of their journey (and this was a backpacking and camping kind of trip, not a luxury transport and Four Seasons hotels kind of trip, so I do not underestimate the commitment it took to haul these babies around).
When Andrew and Leigh came by our house for the first time after returning, they walked in carrying these and the very first thing they said to us — after six long months away — was “BALLS!” (Apparently they had been making this joke to each other regularly for several weeks, often accompanied by juvenile yet hilarious behavior.) I haven’t yet decided what these balls will become — probably something felted (something about the context here makes me want that to sound dirty, but I don’t think it actually works as innuendo, sadly). Thanks, Andrew and Leigh!
And just so you don’t think I’ve become all get and no give, I sent off these squares for the Blanket of Hope that Rebekah at Knit Knack is putting together for Sonya at Cottage 46 Knitter, whose husband has been struggling with some cancer-related health issues. I think it’s incredibly kind that she organized this effort, and the outpouring of support has been so great that she actually has all the squares she needs now. I can’t wait to see the finished blanket. May all our knitted hope translate into a very hopeful prognosis for your husband, Sonya, for years and years to come.
Later this week: Ashley! And sock yarn! And Minty’s arch nemesis! And my blogiversary!
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02.04.07
Posted in Yarn and Tools at 6:46 pm by Rachel
First of all, my apologies to everyone who hated me in my last post. I would have hated me too. I was totally a jerk to rub it in that I was in the balmy tropics and the rest of y’all, quite frankly, weren’t. But maybe it will lessen your hatred to know that a) that was my first trip of that type ever, and will be my only for quite some time, I would imagine, and b) the week at the hotel was an engagement present given to Matt and me by his father. Matt and I were engaged in the late summer of 2002. It took us 4.5 years to use the gift. So by the time we finally made it to the Caribbean, we had accumulated nearly a half-decade of anticipation, and we wanted to shout our excitement from the rooftops. In modern terms, that means posting a large, boastful photo to one’s blog.
We had a fantastic time, and if you wanted to see some snapshots, you could see them here, though I am not entirely sure why you would. I did not get a huge amount of knitting done, unsurprisingly, but I did knit about one-third of Green Gable and approximately one sock on the plane rides and layovers.
It’s back to regular life, though, and to look on the bright side, that means I’m no longer nearly so constrained in what I can knit. (No, I’m not even convincing myself that that’s adequate consolation for having left the 82-degree sunshine, but I’m trying.) No, really, knitting flexibility is a good thing, because the last couple weeks have brought a shockingly large stash expansion to my home. This weekend was the excellent Superbowl Sale up at Ewe’ll Love It in Nashua, New Hampshire, my all-time favorite LYS. It had been my intention to show admirable restraint at the sale, limiting myself to enough yarn for one adult sweater. However, my mom and I learned while we were there that the shop is really struggling to stay afloat, and the owner (a wonderful woman who has created a beautiful yarn store that deserves to succeed) is terribly sad about it. Well, all of a sudden buying lots of yarn seemed positively altruistic, and you can bet I rose to the occasion and did my good deed with a happy heart. (I will be mentioning this in my interview at the Pearly Gates.) I mean, I didn’t go crazy, but I definitely loosened the purse strings a bit. (And if any of you ever find yourselves within spitting distance of Nashua, I urge you to do the same.)
Those of you who hang on my every word (admit it!) will recall that this year I have resolved to knit primarily sweaters. It’s time to start carrying out this plan, because I now have five sweaters’ worth of yarn in my stash, by far an all-time high for me:
From left to right, that’s 11 balls of Rowan Wool Cotton, 6 skeins of Cascade 220, 12 balls of Rowan Silk Wool (which I’ve been coveting ever since I read Laura’s review of it), 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (previously acquired for the Gatsby Girl Pullover, just barely begun), and 10 balls of DiVe Cotone Egitta (a previously acquired mercerized cotton I got at the WEBS tent sale last year). Think I can knit my way through all that yarn this year? I’m eager to try.
Those of you who hang on my every word will also recall that part of my knitting resolution was that stash could only be acquired for sweaters, and that any non-sweater items had to be knit from my existing stash. I did well at the sale by not giving into the temptation to buy single beautiful skeins for mittens and hats and such. Unfortunately, there is one category of non-sweater yarn for which, a mere one month into my year-long resolution, I have not done quite so well.
Not one month ago I was declaring on this blog that I was sick of knitting socks. I was readying my application for readmission to the Apathetic Sock Knitters Club. I thought nothing of resolving not to buy any non-sweater yarn this year, including sock yarn. Well, I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was the realization that no other project works as well on the bus. Maybe it was the realization that my feet were damn cold. Maybe it was the continuing effectiveness of Theresa’s and Carry’s longstanding subliminal campaign to break my anti-sock spirit. Whatever it was, not only have I returned to sock knitting with gusto, but I’ve branched out into non-stockinette socks. Laura, I give up. I’ll never again try to convince you that I’m still an apathetic sock knitter. You’ll have to soldier on without me. I’m sorry.
The sock yarn pictured is Regia Silk, Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (the wound ball), Mountain Colors Bearfoot (the skein lying in front), and Trekking XXL, a birthday gift from my mom along with the new Interweave Press book of some of their magazine’s most popular sock patterns from over the years.
My betrayal of Laura is even less forgivable because it coincided with her sending me a lovely package of yarn after I won her blogiversary contest. I particularly appreciate these stash additions because my hands are tied by my resolution (which, with a new sock yarn exemption, I’m going to attempt to keep) when it comes to buying small quantities of yarn. I will turn to these babies this year when I need a quick fix of a hat or similar. I’d thank her profusely, but I’m sure she stopped reading in disgust after the previous paragraph and went to take me off her Bloglines.
I’d better wrap this up and go start knitting off my newly expanded stash. Sorry this was so long and not even particularly interesting. I’ll make up for it with my next post, which will be a riveting epic about how I sort of conquered my white whale at last. A hint: you can see my white whale somewhere in this photo, which shows Matt’s band, Ten Years Too Late, displaying my sock yarn during a rehearsal (they’re good sports and they follow instructions surprisingly unquestioningly).
By the way, thank you all so much for your good wishes for Annie! She seems to be doing as well as can possibly be expected. From a recent email: “I have already accumulated ELEVEN colorful wigs, a pair of purple sparkle sunglasses with velvet polkadots, and a rubber headpiece with green snakes like Medusa! For my headshaving party/ceremony, I got a bottle of champagne and wore my new (fake) snakeskin pants.” I’m not giving us all any real credit for her good spirits, but I know that the good vibes from the blogosphere couldn’t have hurt.
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09.25.06
Posted in Yarn and Tools at 10:20 pm by Rachel
What do you know? Amylovie has sent me a scarf! She had a little knitiversary contest that required entrants to demonstrate their skill at being selected by a random number generator. (If you skim through this post you’ll see that I actually seem to be quite talented in that way.) Anyway, my name came up, and Amylovie sent me my prize: a Waterfall Scarf by Pick Up Sticks. How does it look?
No, it didn’t look quite right to me, either. I dug through her package further and it turns out (you always have to read the fine print) that there’s some assembly required. (Matt attempted to capture my “realizing” this, but in each and every photo the expression I achieved was not that of someone figuring out the obvious (”Ohhhh”), but rather that of a member of the choir whose enthusiasm is not dampened by the fact that she is the only one who showed up to rehearsal (”Laaaaa!”). Frankly, it just didn’t look right, and even I have limits as to how contrived I’ll make my blog posts. (Shut up! I do too!))
Anyway, as I was saying, it seems that there is some assembly required — namely some knitting. Fortunately, I know how to knit! I even have all my own tools. Could Amylovie ever have guessed what a perfect gift this would turn out to be for me?
The yarn is Lamb’s Pride Worsted in gray and pink, and the pattern is this one. Nice, huh? I’m very grateful to Amylovie, whose generosity came at just the right moment: At the time my name was drawn I had only just finished mailing off all the Amazing Lace prizes to the deserving recipients, and quite frankly I had grown attached to them and was sorry to see them go. Apparently it earned me a small supply of knitting karma, though, which the universe (always seeking equilibrium) cashed in for me over at Amylovie’s contest. Hooray!
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08.17.06
Posted in Knitterly Fraternization, Yarn and Tools at 11:01 pm by Rachel
Not to be confused with the male fairies, who have not, as a group, expressed an opinion about me to date.
This week has brought a bountiful array of mail-borne goodies to my front stoop. Most of them, unfortuantely, are simply on a layover on their way to their (as yet undetermined) final destination, because they are the prizes for several lucky Amazing Lace participants! Last week I wrote to four online yarn stores and asked them, out of the blue, whether they would contribute a prize for the knitalong. To my surprise and delight, three of them (Kaleidoscope Yarns, Jimmy Beans Wool, and Knitpicks) said yes! I think it’s pretty cool that they were so willing to make contributions out of their own inventory to enrich the activities of the very “grassroots” side of the cyberknitting world, and I will definitely be giving them more business in the future in appreciation for their understanding of the whole knitalong phenomenon. For now, though, take a look at this box that arrived from Jill, the owner of Kaleidoscope Yarns. It is bursting with literally hundreds of dollars’ worth of knitting goodies. Koigu, Cherry Tree Hill suri alpaca, thousands of yards of laceweight merino…people, do you have any idea how hard it is going to be to part with this stuff? (Also note the evil ghost cat lurking in the doorway.)
The one thing that kept me from yielding to the powerful temptation to plunder the prizes for my own personal use (which I suppose could be construed by some as unethical) was the arrival of one saving-grace package out of which poured yarn for ME ME ME! It seems that the lovely and talented and classy and generous and humble Laura got mighty tired of listening to my maudlin ramblings about how lucky she is that people send her yarn all the time and no one sends me yarn all the time and never mind that I never send anyone any yarn but it sure is unfair that I always read your blog and you’re always getting yarn and I bet it would be cool to get yarn from people and do you think anyone will ever send me any yarn and sure maybe I should send yarn if I want to get yarn but boy would it be great to just get some yarn…and eventually Laura figured that maybe if she just sent me some yarn I’d shut the hell up. Don’t ever let it be said that whining and complaining won’t get you everywhere.
Laura’s package contained two balls of Rowan handknit cotton, a skein of Knitpicks Shadow, a tweedy ball of Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran, and some Reynolds Swizzle sock yarn, which is a surprise given that for some time Laura’s and my friendship was based on not knitting socks.
I know that some of these yarns must be left over from projects that Laura has made for herself. Very interesting considering that if you possess a ball of of yarn from a person’s hand-knit garment, you possess a bit of that person’s soul. It’s true. Look it up. Don’t be worried, Laura, I won’t use my control over your soul for nefarious purposes. Not after you were so nice as to send me yarn and all.
Let’s see, a few other odds and ends. I have been gratified, over the past year or so, to watch my Bloglines subscribers number tick up slowly. Since my last post, however, the number has dropped by a handful of people, which has never happened before. The only thing I can think of* is that I offended some of my religious readers by implying that I am — well, let’s not mince words — the messiah. Please allow me to reassure you that I do not, in fact, have any real evidence that I am the messiah. Should any come to light, I expect I will blog about it between healing miracles, but in the meantime, rest assured that I remain solidly non-divine. (Can I ask, though, how many more of you it would offend if, inspired by Rebekkah’s comment, I made myself a wristlet or felted bag with “WWJK” in intarsia?)
Next, my word verification for comments. I know it’s annoying and non-ideal, but a few months ago I started receiving an avalanche of comment spam. Like, 100s of spam comments an hour. While I appreciated the efforts of the very helpful entrepreneurs doing their best to educate me about my options for online gambling, it was taking a lot of time just to sort them out from the other comments, so I was forced to take drastic measures. If it really bothers you, I can offer one alternative: you can register with the blog and never have to see the word verification again. Just go over to the bottom of the sidebar and, under “meta,” click the “register” link. This won’t do anything except allow you to bypass the word verification in the future; it won’t put you on some annoying Lickety Knit email list or anything.
Okay, I don’t like this high a text-to-picture ratio, so I’m going to wrap this up. Merry Thursday to all, and to all a good night!
*Well, I suppose I could also think of the possibility that these people found me annoying/insufferable/pompous/poorly dressed, but I’d rather NOT think of that.
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03.19.06
Posted in Finished Objects, Yarn and Tools at 9:41 am by Rachel
Thank you all for your wonderfully flattering comments about the Reversible Rib Shawl and your generously supportive comments reassuring me that I am not an egomaniac for modeling it. Both types really meant a lot to me. However, after last week’s post about my modeling neuroses, I was somewhat relieved that this garment couldn’t really be modeled (at least not by anyone in my household) and that I would have to photograph it on the floor like normal people, thus proving that I am not always about snotty “photo shoots” with my FOs. In fact, I considered not photographing this for the blog at all, since I finished the identical sweater in the same size and yarn a few months ago.
But when this stuffed penguin presented himself wearing my recently finished Child’s Placket Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and demanding that we go outside for some photos, he was too cute to resist.
While he gets all artsy and dramatic here with his posing, I’ll tell you that this sweater has become my default baby sweater; in fact, I already have another one planned. In the newborn size it takes under two balls of Knitpicks Crayon, which is the perfect soft yarn for a baby’s skin (and machine wash and dryable!), thereby costing all of $4 to make (plus the cost of buttons). It knits up very quickly and requires minimal finishing. It’s not the most impressive baby sweater you could ever make, but it’s perfect for a coworker for whose baby you feel somewhat obligated to produce a handknit sweater. (Warning to baby-knitting enthusiasts: before you start promising knitted baby clothes to a coworker as an outlet for your baby-knitting cravings (starkly different from baby cravings themselves), remember that you will be creating expectations amongst your other coworkers that you might not later feel like living up to. Do not fall into the same trap I did.)
Oh, excuse me, the penguin is ready for his close-up now.
The only concrete tip I have for other knitters of this sweater is, if you’re going to knit the sleeves on DPNs (as opposed to magic loop), don’t even bother with aluminum needles. Doing small-diameter circular seed stitch on aluminum DPNs is an exercise in frustration. That’s how I did the first sleeve, and I refused to start the second until I had obtained wooden ones. It made a world of difference. It amazes me that so many people, myself included, who learn to knit on aluminum needles (because they’re cheap and readily available at craft stores) ever stick with it. I can barely handle them now, so I have no idea how I did it then. New knitters: If you actually want to enjoy your new hobby, save up a few more dollars and buy wooden.
After we finished the “shoot,” the penguin looked at me expectantly, as though somehow believing that I would hand over a fee for his services. When I laughed and indicated that as a stuffed animal he was obliged to do whatever I wanted at any time — and do it graciously, because I could give him away to a toothy, drooly two-year-old — he looked affronted and stalked off. Geesh, the egos in the modeling industry are something to behold.
You can rest easy that I’m not going to write a post tomorrow fretting about people thinking that I started this blog as an excuse to post photos of my stuffed penguin on the internet. However, if the following photo causes people to suspect me of using my blog as a vehicle to post pictures of my kitties, I offer no comment.
Willow could not be persuaded not to be in this picture — my house is just full of prima donnas! — so there she is with the 11 skeins of Sierra that arrived yesterday and are destined to become Starsky. I know it is incredibly boring that I am using not only the exact yarn but also the exact color called for in the pattern, but after some consideration I realized that the natural color is the one I’d get the most use out of. (Sorry — out of which I will get the most use. My professional copy editor parents read this blog.) Anyway, you know what a pile of unwound skeins means, don’t you? Ball winder time!
The yarn is pretty soft for a bulky wool — the 30 percent alpaca helps with that. The bad thing is that every single ball had one or two knots in it. I’m not sure whether to complain — that many knots seems pretty excessive to me, but it is an inexpensive yarn. We’ll see how high my frustation level gets while knitting.
On a final note, yesterday was my first blogiversary. I actually spent the past month idly thinking about what kind of contest or celebration I should have in honor of the occasion, but I couldn’t come up with anything I liked enough. So I adhered to my cardinal rule of blogging (which I just made up yesterday): if you don’t have anything interesting to blog, don’t blog anything at all.
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02.05.06
Posted in Yarn and Tools at 2:24 pm by Rachel
Is it possible to be addicted to one’s ball winder? Because if it is, I think I’m a good candidate for a 12-step program.
But let’s back up. Yesterday’s trip to the LYS was quite successful. (The only snag was our failure to realize that the percent off to which we were entitled was determined by the time we arrived, not by the time we paid. It’s a policy that makes sense, but if we’d known about it earlier we might not have both fought off dizziness brought on by undernourishment in our attempt to make it to the hour in which the sale switched from 30 to 35 percent off.) That aside, we both did well. My mom got enough Manos to make a large afghan — you can see the gorgeous colors she picked off to the right. She also got enough white cashmere silk to make herself an elegant, luxurious wrap (and yes Mom, you are worth it!), plus she bought yarn for four gift scarves (the woman knits scarves like nobody’s business). Once we’d settled on our loot we had a great time just wandering around stroking the few things we weren’t buying and looking through the store’s vast collection of pattern books. My mom bought me Wrap Style for my upcoming birthday since we both liked so many of the patterns in it. Thanks, Mom!
And what about me? My success was not as broad but was highly improbable. My greatest hope had been to find yarn with which to knit Tubey, but I was not at all confident that, under the pressure of the sale, I’d be able to find yarn in the right gauge, in a fiber that can be worn right next to the skin, and, most importantly, in the right colors. Well, I walked in, looked around for under 10 minutes, and found the exact colors I wanted in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino — the exact yarn called for in the pattern. Apparently the fun fur I burned in homage to the Yarn Goddess before leaving yesterday had the desired effect, because I never expected to have such luck. I bought 13 balls that, with the discount, came to the precise amount of the gift certificate I had received for Christmas. I think I’ve used up all my luck for the month. This may be a bad thing for reasons I will explain later in the post.
You may recall that I had was hoping to make Tubey in the color scheme featured on the cover of the most recent Restoration Hardware catalogue (hey, inspiration is inspiration; it doesn’t matter where you find it). Let’s see how I did, shall we?
Not half bad, eh? I was pretty surprised and pleased.
So I bet you’re wondering what this is about a ball winder addiction. (Or maybe you’re a kindred spirit and don’t need any explanation whatsoever.) Well, unsurprisingly, some of the balls of Cashmerino were a bit disheveled, what with the urgent pawing and rooting associated with the sale. Maybe a third of my balls looked something like this. I decided it would make sense to go ahead and re-wind the messy balls so that they wouldn’t get tangled. Once I’d done those, though, I honestly could not stop. I couldn’t bear to have some of the yarn for the project wound into mini yarn cakes (yarn cupcakes, if you will) while the rest just slouched around in loose ball form. So like a fiend I just kept winding and winding and winding. Feast your eyes on this:
Stunning, isn’t it? It makes me think of chocolate cupcakes and pastel frosting. In fact, I’m kicking myself for not arranging them into a cupcake shape for the photo.
Anyway, this post is long enough, so you’ll have to wait for the next post to find out why it’s a bad thing that I may have used up my monthly ration of luck.
Oh, by the way, I’m a bit of a fool. Here I was thinking it was a huge amazing deal! that my mom’s local yarn store was having such a significant sale this weekend. Well, I stopped in my own LYS this afternoon to get the needles I need for Tubey only to discover the place mobbed: all the yarn was 40 percent off and all the books were 30 percent off. (The needles, naturally, were full price.) I inquired at the register (after a 40-minute wait in line) and apparently most yarn stores have big sales Superbowl Weekend. Live and learn, I guess (and what a great thing to learn!).
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