01.22.07
Temporarily Unavailable
If I have not been commenting on your blog or have not been responding to your very nice comments on my earlier posts, there’s a very good reason.
I hope you are all as happy wherever you are!
01.17.07
Finished Object: Offensive Hat
BAD WORD WARNING: This post contains one of the baddest of bad words. It is a word that, for various reasons, I rarely, rarely use. First, I think ultra-foul language is, well, foul, and if given a choice, I’d rather not hear it or use it excessively. But even more than that, I think we can all agree that swear words, when used incessantly, lose their potency. If you only hear them occasionally, they pack a much bigger punch. And there are times when you really need a strong, offensive word that makes people sit up and take notice. This is one of those times.
I’ll post this innocuous photo first, to give you all a chance to click away without seeing the bad word. Behold: a hat! The yarn is Lamb’s Pride worsted, and it’s actually the yarn I won from Amylovie’s knitiversary contest this fall. (Amylovie, I hope once you read this whole post you’ll agree that this was a worthy alternative use of the yarn.) For some reason I had a heckuva time knitting this hat, even though I followed all the basic rules of hat-making. It was too big (swatches lie) and just plain strangely shaped. I persevered, though (the theme of my knitting this week is “Salvaging Your Works in Progress” — more on this in a moment), and ultimately found success by gently felting the hat down to size. The result is a neat, snug, and extraordinarily warm hat.
A feature of this hat of which I am particularly proud is the bright pink lining knit in Knitpicks Crayon, a supersoft cotton yarn. (I got the contrasting color idea from a recent post by Grumperina). Isn’t it cute and fun, just peeking out from under the brim? I needed the lining because I wanted to be sure that the hat would not be scratchy if a person were to wear it without having the benefit of his or her own hair to serve as a buffer between wool and skin. You see, this hat is for my friend Annie, a smart, funny, talented, incredibly high-energy college friend of mine. Last week I learned that Annie had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was beginning a four-month course of chemotherapy. Annie is 28, people. (Not that cancer is not tragic at any age, but somehow this seems especially unfair.)
When I heard this awful news and began floundering about helplessly, trying to think of something — anything — I could do, I recalled a hat I had once seen posted on the Knittyboard, under the heading “An Offensive Hat for an Offensive Disease.” Because I think all the world’s ills can be cured by knitting, I cast on immediately. I won’t pretend that overstitching the F-word onto a hand-knit hat is quite as cathartic as emphatically bellowing it, but it’s close, and the end result is pleasingly direct. I hope Annie gets some use out of it as she kicks cancer’s ass.
It just occurred to me that if I were a cleverer writer, I would have constructed this post to set you up to think I was saying the F-word was the bad word but then turn things around and reveal that I was actually talking about “cancer” as the worse of the two words. Too late now.
It is simply appalling for me to transition from talking about Annie’s real catastrophe into my utterly insignificant knitting disaster, but I’m about to do it anyway. No, actually, I won’t. At least, I’m not going to go into any detail here aside from showing this photo and telling you that last night, for the first time in several years, my knitting caused me to shed genuine and robust tears for a prolonged period. I will say nothing more except to offer this public service announcement:
CUTTING THE HEM OFF A GARMENT AND KNITTING IN THE OTHER DIRECTION ONLY WORKS WITH ALL-STOCKINETTE STITCH. God, I am such an idiot.
There are very rare occasions when I’d like to wear a hand-knit hat that has nothing but the F-word on it.
01.13.07
Finished Object: Kai Cable Sweater
Pattern: The Kai Cable Sweater from Louisa Harding’s Natural Knits for Babies and Moms (one of the better baby knits books I’ve seen in a long time).
Yarn: Rowan All-Seasons Cotton, color 729
Needles: My new Knitpicks Options, sizes 8 and 9.
Notes: Say hello to my first finished object of 2007! Actually, I finished the whole thing in 2006 except the last bit of seaming, which I finished on New Year’s Day, but I’m going to go ahead and credit it to 2007 anyway.
This is practically my ideal baby sweater pattern. Not fussy and overly precious (I love baby clothes that look like mini versions of grown-up clothes), all one color (multi-colored knitting generally makes me not like knitting), and simple but not boring. In fact, I was so pleased with how this came out that I briefly considered keeping it for my non-offsprung self rather than sending it to my dear friend who is actually having a baby. In the end I managed to make myself part with it, but you can bet I’ll be making this pattern again. I already have yarn to make one for a co-worker(’s baby), and I’m sure I’ll have the same separation trauma from that one.
This is my new favorite color for baby clothes when you don’t know whether the baby is a boy or a girl. I try to avoid greens and yellows because I know that “not finding out” parents get an awful lot of things in those colors, but most people seem to feel that most other colors are gender assigned. This red brick color seems totally gender-neutral to me, though, without being green, yellow, or bland.
All-Seasons Cotton is a very nice yarn (and it machine washed and dried beautifully in spite of the high-maintenance instructions on the label), and I enjoyed working with it aside from the standard problem I always get with cotton yarn, which is that the finished fabric looks as though I knit each individual stitch with a different size needle. The unevenness doesn’t bother me so much in baby clothes, though — it just adds to the whimsy. (Please don’t disagree with me on this point in the comments; my self-deception is a fragile house of cards.)
The pattern was fairly well written except for the collar. Even now I have no idea how Ms. Harding really wanted me to knit it. It seemed as though she wanted an opening on the side in addition to the opening in the front where the cables split, maybe? I didn’t care for that, though, so I made the opening in the back and attached a little button and loop (not very well) as an afterthought. Also, she declined to indicate on what specific row of the cable pattern the knitter should divide for the neck, but then the instructions for the collar (and the continuation of the cable) were specific as to what row should be the cable row without regard for when the knitter might have cabled last. I’m probably not explaining this very well, but while it’s an easy thing for a moderately experienced knitter to recognize and work around, it’s a shortcoming of the pattern that could definitely trip up a newer knitter.
One thing I did like about the pattern, which I will probably do for all baby sweaters from now on, is a sort of simple hybrid between cap sleeves and drop-shoulder sleeves, which is created by binding off a few stitches at the beginning of the armholes and then sewing the sleeves into that (photo here). I have no interest in creating a fitted sleeve cap for a baby, but this little tweak does allow for a slightly better fit with minimum effort.
The only other thing that detracted at all from a very enjoyable knit was the fact that I could tell early on that I would be cutting it very close with the yarn. The photo above shows the sum total of the yarn remaining when I was finished. Yecatsml describes that situation as “racing your yarn to the finish,” which is exactly what it feels like. Fortunately I won this race, but by only by about a foot and a half.
I have one other FO, but it’s small enough that it doesn’t merit its own blog post. This little newborn hat is made out of some leftover Knitpicks Shine Sport (I always worry about unexpected wool allergies). It is being modeled by an absolutely hideous lawn statuette that was given to a friend of ours for Christmas from his parents, which he promptly and unabashedly and evilly regifted to us. (You can see it in all its unfortunate glory here. Thanks, Ed!) We’re trying to figure out what the heck we’re going to do with it (a sledgehammer to his treacly little form seems just a tiny bit too vicious), but in the meantime I was pleased to discover that it does a nice job of modeling baby hats.
Thanks for all the advice about my Grand Cayman knitting! I was beginning to come to terms with the idea that my only option was to knit socks when a number of people recommended making a short-sleeved sweater in a cotton yarn. Perfect! I have acquired both yarn and pattern for Green Gable, and I can’t wait to get started! Thank you for always coming through for me, Internets!
Only 5 days until I’m knitting right here:
01.07.07
A Fragmented Holiday Wrap-Up
Happy New Year, everyone! (As promised, you are receiving my New Year’s tidings a tad on the late side, but they are no less sincere for it.) Thank you for all your great comments on my recent posts — of which, you will note, there have been four in the last two weeks (counting this one). You might think this is some kind of New Year’s resolution on my part, mightn’t you? To post with greater regularity? Sadly, you would be wrong (how embarrassing for you). I just happened to have some extra time and some extra content recently; expect me to revert to one post per week forthwith.
First, however, I do have a few odds and ends to cram disjointedly into one more semi-holiday-ish post. The particularly disjointed bit is that most of my photos have nothing to do with what I have to say, so I’m just going to insert the photos into the text intermittently and you shouldn’t spend too much time trying to puzzle out what they have to do with each other.
My mom wore her Reversible Rib Shawl all day Christmas Day — it was great to see it in action! The thing about giving knitted gifts is that they just keep giving back to you, the knitter (assuming other knitters take as much pleasure as I do in seeing their knitting being used).
Since I’ve already told you what my (knitting) New Year’s resolution is not, I’ll now tell you what it is. I was quite undecided for some time, trying to choose between two possibilities. Option A: Some sort of commitment to stash knitting along the lines of this one. Option B: A commitment to knitting sweaters almost exclusively this year. I was planning to solicit some blog-reader input to help me decide, but then I’d have felt obliged to do what you all said and frankly, y’all aren’t the boss of me. (Resolution #2: Less petulance on the blog.) Also I took stock of the stash and while it’s not tiny, it’s not huge and it’s made up primarily of odds and ends that would quickly leave me dissatisfied with my knitting options. Therefore, I created a hybrid resolution: I will knit only sweaters (adult or child) this year, and I am free to buy the yarn I need to make them. I may make as many exceptions to the sweaters-only rule as I like, but all those exceptions must come out of my stash. Now I just have to remember to check back here in January 2008 to see how I did.
One of the best gifts I got this year (from my very thoughtful husband) was a nifty tangerine leather Filofax (named Filo, natch). Filo will help me execute my resolution of being more organized and productive (original, no?). I always get stressed when I try to keep lengthy lists of to-dos in my head; now Filo will hold them all for me. I already have ample knitting plans and blog ideas jotted down. Also we received that stool as a gift from a friend; Matt and I have both resolved to perch on it in a jaunty manner as often as possible. Stool-sitting is surprisingly satisfying.
Speaking of looking back at a year gone by (which I was, before the randomness immediately above), my curiosity about my own FOs was piqued by other bloggers’ rundowns of their knitting accomplishments in 2006. I did a quick accounting of mine (one afghan, one Christmas stocking, one iPod cozy, one pair of god-awful legwarmers, one soap-holder, two scarves, two adult sweaters, three adult hats, three shawls/wraps, four baby sweaters, eight pairs of adult socks (plus one pair of baby socks and one sock keychain), and twelve preemie hats for charity) and was stunned and delighted by how much I had accomplished! I mean, it’s not nearly as much as others produced, but given that I felt I was in a rut for about two-thirds of the year, I was pleasantly surprised by my knitting yield.
This is the scarf my mom made for my stepfather for Christmas using the Yarn Harlot’s one-row handspun scarf pattern, which I like a lot — manly but not too too boring. (The yarn is not handspun; in fact I don’t remember what it is but it’s super nice.) And that’s their cat, Zeke.
So now that I’ve shunned everyone’s help in terms of choosing my knitting resolution, I shall sheepishly ask for your help in another matter. Poor poor me: I am going to Grand Cayman late this month and don’t know what knitting to bring! I need enough to last a long, restful week; I can’t bring anything too bulky; I don’t want anything to complex and fiddly; I can’t bring anything too heavy and warm (wool scarves on a beach? Not fun); and I can’t find it in myself to knit a major lace project. I know this may mean that there is no good solution, but if there is one, I know I can count on the cyberknitters to think of it. Go, cyberknitters, go!
For my final non-sequitur, I will quickly show you my knitting-related Christmukkah loot: the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary, Volume One (I can finally have confidence in the respectability of my knitting library), One Skein Wonders (which should be very helpful for the stash-knitting portion of my resolution), Knitting Rules! by the Yarn Harlot (I read it all the way through already — definitely my favorite of hers by a long shot), Inspired Cable Knits by Fiona Ellis (”Evolving Traditions” is the cable knit by which I am initially the most inspired), and a full set of Knitpicks Options needles!
This last item does not need a thorough review because it has already received such a thing on 35 bazillion other blogs, but I will tell you my quick pros and cons. Pros: They seem great to knit with; I have already cranked out one FO and enjoyed using them quite a bit. Given this, there isn’t much significance to the few Cons: First, why no 16-inch cables? Second, the case doesn’t have a logical place for the needles themselves to go. There are decent zippered pouches that I assume could be used for this purpose, but I like my needles held snuggly in a compartment designed for them, not jangling around all willy-nilly. I will likely just keep them on the flimsy cardboard-and-elastic thing they came with. Finally, I can’t think of why on earth Knitpicks didn’t stamp the size of the needles on the needles themselves. For a product as generally well designed as these needles are, that baffles me.
And here endeth, officially, the holiday season. Go forth and contemplate Valentine’s Day, my friends.
01.02.07
My Dad Owns You, Homeslice
There is no one outside of my immediate family who will “get” the title of this post, since it’s the name of a song written by my brother’s band when he was a freshman in high school. I’m not sure even he knew what it was supposed to mean. However, it has lived on in my family as a recurring joke and an excellent charades clue, and it seemed like a fitting title here for reasons that may or may not become apparent.
I know that this would be the appropriate time to post my 2006 wrap-up and 2007 knitting resolutions and all that, but I have one more Christmas gift FO post to do. I can’t decide whether it’s worse to be organizationally illogical or chronologically illogical, so I’m just picking one and going with it. Here’s the last of the Christmas knitting; you’ll get my Happy New Year post probably this weekend. Won’t it be nice to be receiving new year’s tidings well into January?
After my disgraced exit from the Apathetic Sock Knitters Club last year, I figured I might as well embrace my outcast status and crank out a few pairs of socks. (And I really do mean “a few” based on normal standards, not based on insane “what should I knit for my 100th pair of socks?” standards.) I had always liked the look of the Trekking XXL sock yarn that I’d seen on other blogs (muted colors, no pooling), so I ordered three balls (from Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions in the Netherlands – turned out to be cheaper than ordering domestically, even taking into account the international shipping) and knit a pair of socks for each parental unit not already slated to receive a knitted gift.
As you can see, I almost made it. I finished sock number five on Christmas morning and wrapped it up with the promise of sock number six in the very near future.
All the socks were made toe up, with short-row toes and heels. Just like every other pair of socks I’ve made. They are all 72 stitches in circumference, though on a couple pairs I did a few increases near the top to accommodate calves that I thought might be particularly shapely. I knit them all on size 1 bamboo needles. The foot length varies somewhat, based on little more than “this looks like about the right length,” but by the grace of the True Christmas Miracle, all the socks seem to fit their respective recipients. These are my mom’s socks; they are Trekking XXL color 66 — blues and purples, mostly.
My stepfather, Mark, was a very good sport about receiving only one sock, and he enthusiastically wore it the entire day. I was touched by this gesture, though I did spend most of the Christmas celebration thinking about the fact that I was going to need to take the sock home with me on Christmas night (so as to match the measurements of the second sock to it). Hand-knit or not, there’s nothing fun about taking possession of someone else’s dirty sock. (It wound up going into a zip-top bag for the ride home.)
Mark’s socks are Trekking XXL color 90. It is a very unusual combination of colors. Lots of green, yellow, orange, and black. I had my doubts – serious doubts – while knitting it. I was thinking that a good name for this colorway might be “Moldy Squash,” or perhaps “Rotting Squash,” or, for maximum descriptiveness, “Moldy and Rotting Squash.” Matt looked at it and put forth a very appropriate and more succinct candidate: “Compost.” Against all odds, however, the overall finished impression is actually quite nice, in my opinion, though I never would have believed it possible.
I have always been lucky to have fairly enthusiastic models for my knitting blog. Examples of this can be seen in my recent posts. Never has this been more the case, however, than with my dear, adorable father, who has probably not received the attention he deserves on this blog. (Though in my defense, he was the recipient of my first-ever knitted gift back in 1999, as well as the first family member to be pictured on my brand new blog with said knitted gift in 2004.)
However, I could not have anticipated his eagerness to appear on the blog, an eagerness that became apparent to me when I told him I’d like to take a few pictures of him wearing his socks on Christmas Day. He went upstairs promptly and came down wearing not only the socks, but also a pair of powder-blue shorts (chosen, I assume, because they would create an unobstructed view of the socks, though I suppose that doesn’t explain the color). Note also the Grinch t-shirt that my sister and I bought for him from one of those spray-paint “art” kiosks in the mall 20 years ago when we really were too young and stupid to have been entrusted to select appropriate gifts (it has his name on it, and he wears it every year without fail — yet one more reason to love my adorable father).
Anyway, my dad eagerly assumed a variety of poses with his socks, which are Trekking XXL color 69 (my favorite colorway of all three pairs, I think — mostly browns but with lots and lots of other subtle colors mixed in). It was quite gratifying when he opened the gift: in a way that is very characteristic of him, he took them out of the tissue paper, turned them around silently for a moment or two, and then said simply, “I think these are my new favorite socks.” A comment like that makes each one of the 30,000 stitches in that pair of socks completely worth it.
I had been meaning to do a Dad-centric post for a while, since each of my other parental units has received some special attention on the blog over the past year (here, here, and here, though admittedly the subject of that last one could do with something a little spiffier). I had it in the back of my mind that I would post a tribute to my dad on April 24, which is the date upon which I will become and then exceed one-half of my father’s age (that is to say, on that date I will be exactly the age he was on the day I was born). Arbitrary but fun, I thought. However, I realized that I could not withhold from the internets any longer the magnificence that is my father. Also he posted a heartbreaking comment to my last post saying that he had been anxiously awaiting his appearance on the blog and was saddened to see that all the other family gifts got posted before his. Ack!
So let me take this opportunity to observe for the cyberspace record that almost 29 years ago I drew the winning ticket in the dad lottery. I couldn’t possibly attempt to sum up my dad in a paragraph here, because it would just be a long list of flattering adjectives — an accurate but not terribly interesting protrayal. I will say that although my dad can sometimes present a rather serious, even intimidating, exterior (Matt likes to recount how within minutes of meeting him years ago, my dad strode across the room and mocked throttling him for some now-forgotten offense), it can’t really conceal his incredibly kind heart and his wonderfully dry sense of humor. I hope you’ll simply be able to read between the lines of the things I’ve described (his wearing the awful t-shirt my sister and I gave him; his willingness to wear shorts in December just to show off his new socks (he maintained that outfit for the entire rest of the day); the fact that he has never since attempted to strangle my husband) and get a sense of what a wonderful person he is. Also he has very good grammar. And he can quote extensively from a wide range of movies and TV shows, from cinema classics like “Auntie Mame” to “Donna Martin graduates!” And he was the one who gave me the penguin.
And so I leave you with this festive seasonal photo of my darling father in all his be-socked glory. For the record, that puts my total pairs of socks knit at eight. A perfectly respectable number. I think it’s going to stay there for a while, though, because I am pretty sick of socks. I would be very happy to HAVE more handknit socks, but I’m not at all up for knitting them right now. Too bad one can’t sign up for, say, a three-month membership to the ASKC, but the board of directors is inflexible and coldhearted.
Anyway, I am ready to turn my knitting attention to other types of projects. What types of projects those will be remains to be seen, and will be addressed by my knitting resolutions, which are still being ironed out and whose selection may require some audience participation.
Until next time….
