Back to life, back to reality

Winter break is drawing to a close, and I am thrilled. Don't get me wrong, I love to slough off as much as the next person, but enough is enough. Back to work, people!

Perhaps one of the reasons that I'm not too upset about returning to work is that I feel that I have gotten in a sufficient amount of knitting. I was able to finish irritating wips, do some yarn store browsing (and purcha$ing) , learn new techniques and begin new projects. I did it all, and now I'm ready for a break from my break!


One project I was able to begin was the very challenging, white knuckle knitting experience that is known as the Endpaper Mitts. Eunny Jang is an expert knitter, and her pattern shows it! I was fine until the 'increase in pattern' part sent me into major meltdown mode and straight to my LYS.

Luckily someone was there who has a lot of expertise in this area, and she was a huge help. I finished the first one earlier today and am getting ready to cast on for the second one. I did mine out of Wool in the Woods 'Cherub' (More than Mint and Red Red Wine) from my stash. One thing that greatly facilitated this project was the purchase of the Knit picks Chart Keeper, a magnetic chart holder that allows you to focus on one row at a time. Think of it as Ritalin in office supply form--just there to keep you focused and on task. It arrived while I was in the midst of the project and things sped up significantly when I began using it. For less than $10, this was totally worth it.

Pesky wip department: The little baby hat you see was originally meant to be a Swedish folk mitten....yeah, then I got real and decided that it would make a lovely baby doll hat! I mean, I'd like to think of myself as the type of person that has the patience to knit a Swedish folk mitten, but I'm just not there yet. This was one of my first small scale stranding projects, and you can see that the tension is a little wonky.




I managed to finish a hat for the elder kiddie winkie. I did this out of some Dale of Norway Falk Neon--love the insane saturated brilliance of the yarn in this line. No, your monitor is not playing tricks on you, that's the actual color of the yarn. This was a fun hat to make, but again, you see that the tension is still an issue...



I also finished the sweater for the youngest one. You might recall that she had requested a blue sweater with white snow flakes--well, here it is. I made it out of Kraemer Summit Hill, a perfectly versatile super wash wool that is economical, but, well, boring. There's nothing wring with this yarn, it's just, well, totally average. Give me the thrilling softness of Lorna's Laces any day over this humdrum stuff. But she loves her sweater, so I am happy. The body was a cinch to complete, but the sleeves, that's another story. I've decided that sleeves are the second sock of the sweater knitting world. They inspire dread and take f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

The decks are now sufficiently cleared for my next insane undertaking. Some of you guessed it...it's the Knit Picks Palette Fair Isle Cardigan. Yes, apparently I am crazy, but I just can't resist giving this enticing project a whirl. I already know that I must be nuts because my first task is to cast on over 280 stitches of black yarn on size 2 needles. Yikes. Here's hoping that I have the stamina to finish this before Easter!

Project Destashification

Being an academic means that I am forever on a student's timetable. This has pluses and minuses. A minus: the average age of the person that I see most often is about 20, yet I keep getting older, meaning that I remain a permanent adolescent as I enter middle age. A plus: Winter Break. I have been using this time in my customary way--knitting, traveling, reading back issues of the New Yorker, the Nation and Allure, staying up late and drinking, knitting, and thinking about knitting. All of this free time has permitted me to confront the grim realities of my stash. In two words: it's hideous. It has grown to gargantuan proportions and is making me feel mentally ill. If anyone had this much, say, vodka in their house, they'd be the object of an AA intervention right quick. Most people in my life don't know about the stash. To my kids it's just my yarn, and they think nothing of it. The Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon has commented on it, although not as much as I would have expected given that it embodies so many things that he despises (gluttony, greed, excess, expenditure of ca$h money). But because it's up on the third floor of our house, no one ever really sees it, so I can go on pretending that I'm actually a normal person. I can hold my head up high during the day...yet like Arthur Dimsdale in the Scarlet Letter, at night I lock myself in a closet and whip myself (ok, not really, but you get the whole self-flagellation image) for being such an evil, evil knitter. It's so much yarn, and it feels so wrong!
So I have decided to join the ranks of the Lone Knitter ( and her chastening yarn diet), Très Chic Véronique, and Wendy and knit only from my stash in 2007. Believe me, this will not be even slightly difficult! If you click here you can read about the project. I am making several modifications, however. Wendy and co. are allowing themselves to buy sock yarn. I def. will not be doing this, as sock yarn is one of my biggest problems. Buying sock yarn for me is like eating one of those fun size Snickers bars. It's so small you tell yourself that it doesn't really count, and then you wind up eating about 8 more. (Did I mention that I'm also doing Weight Watchers right now?) To illustrate how much a little can add up to a lot, I have included pictures or only my sock yarn stash. Believe me, I'm not proud of this (see below).




So, you won't catch me buying any yarn in 2007...although technically I already broke this as several days ago I ordered a gigantic project from Knitpicks that should keep me occupied for months--knowing that I now love fair isle knitting, can you guess which one it is? I'll post more info when the dust settles...

Plus ça change...

Yes, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Last night, we had a special dinner straight from the pages of Barefoot in Paris. Somewhere during the Endive, Pear and Roquefort salad, the Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon declared that he was "my slave for life". And this even before the dessert, a sinful chocolate cake with a chocolate-orange ganache! After our meal sans enfants (thank you Lord for slumber parties!), we settled down in front of the fire to a lovely bottle of Bordeaux, watched the second halves of several movies that we hadn't been able to finish during the past year and I happily knitted. Sheer delight, esp. since I now have my very own slave for life à la the Brady Bunch!

I finished a sock I started in NJ and must quickly cast on for #2. I used the Filatura di Crosa Zara which is fast becoming my new best friend. I did this sock of #4 dpns and am very happy with it. The #4s certainly made the job go quickly, yet the socks don't seem as bulky as the ones that I have done on #5s and #6s.
As I did the heel and the toe in a contrasting color, I made a little snafu and had a line of the green going across the top of the foot. This gave me the perfect opportunity to break out a book I've been wanting to use ever since I got my grubby little hands on it. I learned how to do duplicate stitching and completely fixed my own problem. Imagine that! Anything that prevents me from going to my LYS and spending tons of ca$h (see below) is a good thing. Knit Fix is totally worth the $$ if you've been thinking about getting it!

Hole in the head department: Today my LYS had their annual New Year's Day sale. Now, why on earth did I go to this?!! Such is the life of an addict. I am so annoyed with myself, not only did I purchase some yarn (see Lorna's Laces, Trekking and Lang JaWoll, totally not needed and pictured below),

but I somehow managed to LOSE an entire bag of patterns and Norwegian Knitting magazines that I purchased. When I went to the car to bring it in, of course I waited for the cover of night, if you know what I mean...to my horror I discovered that it's nowhere to be seen. I am praying that I mistakenly left it at the register. Argh! Hoping that my trusted LYS owner (who is much more together than me) will have it in the safety of her store. This is actually kind of funny, since every time I go there I always leave the pattern that I'm working on behind, so how fitting that I should leave a whole year's worth there on New Year's Day!


In other news:




Our church knitting group is shipping our Caps to the Capital off tomorrow. We made 50! I was very pleased and am glad that our group is now going strong. We have a fantastic mixture of new and experienced knitters and are looking for our next service project.

New Jersey knitting idyll

We've spent the past several days far away from the the grim realities of Nascar, PA. at my in laws in Bergen County, NJ.

Things I love about this:

-going into the city on Christmas Eve, unfettered by the normal congestion, getting a parking space and visiting with family in the most possibly relaxed way

-having coffee and klatsching (her expression) with my MIL

-being in a close proximity to a Whole Foods Market where I can get my favorite hippy yogurt

-having guilt-free hours and hours to knit to my heart's content

-visiting a new yarn shop!



To wit: Yesterday I went to Teaneck and checked out a fantastic yarn store, The Skein Attraction. The shop is right downtown, is very accessible and owned by Julie Friedman and her two lovely, helpful daughters, Shaina and Adina (see pic below). They have an excellent selection of yarn, patterns and needles.

The thing that most impressed me was the kind, careful help that Shaina and Adina gave their customers. There must have been at least 10 knitters all clamoring for help on a variety of projects, and they were incredibly patient with everyone. I bought a yarn I'd been dying to try--Filatura di Crosa Zara--and made another Center Square Hat. Yes, I am a creature of habit. When I find something I like, I stick with it, as evidenced by my strong attachment to this pattern, Summer Knitty's Fetching, and Triscuits. I am happy with how this yarn worked with the pattern and am not ruling out doing several more. LOVE this store, if you're in the area, check it out...



Things I didn't love:

Inexplicably, my customary yarn stop, Majestic Yarns, in Ridgewood, had the following highly distressing sign posted on their door:
Now, I realize that occasionally things happen...but come on people! I braved major traffic and aggressive drivers to make my way over there. Closing early? WTF?!! Sorry, I don't care if you are a major Karabella crack den, I'll be spending my ca$h at other yarn joints from now on!

Making Christmas knitting my b*tch!

Yes, a vulgar title for this post, but I feel like a dominatrix (or shall I say domiknitrix?) today as I have officially vanquished all those Christmas w.i.p.s, whipped them into shape and knitted them into submission. They are all done. So it's back to my regularly scheduled self-indulgent stitching, people!

Above you see the Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon's Koigu socks. I hope he enjoys them. Christmas and the requisite profligate spending and general gift mania tend to engender a lot of analysis and hang wringing on his part and generally take him to the dark place. Hopefully these will coax him off the ledge... They were done on the recommended 3 dpns, but turned out slightly too slouchy. Next time--and there will be a next time as I have a lot of Koigu in my stash--I'll do some ribbing and try them out on 2s. As I've been trying to get away with doing socks out of non-sock yarn on big needles, this will be a rude awakening, no doubt.



I made what I hope will be my last pair of Fetching for awhile. I am just tired of this pattern (5 pairs in 2 months, yeah, it's getting old), but pleased nonetheless with this particular pair. They are for the above mentioned grouch's mom--I love her to death--and I know she'll get a lot of wear out of them. I cast them on yesterday morning and finished them today before lunch time. I made them out of a yarn I'd never tried before: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Cashmere in the color 'petrol'. It is luxurious but costs a pretty penny, so I doubt that I'll ever use it again for anything larger than a hat, but it was a treat to work with.

I hope you all out there are set to enjoy the holidays in whatever way you see fit. Our gang is going to NJ/NYC tomorrow, just in time for Christmas traffic jams in the Lincoln tunnel and last minute hemmoraging of ca$h in Manhattan...peace to all!

Now that's more like it!

I am exceedingly happy with my second attempt at the Center Square Hat as the soon-to-be discontinued Maratona (sob,sob) shows off the pattern much better than that stodgy ol' tweedy Rowan. What was I thinking? Please. People, this is a seriously fast knit. If any of you are flipping your Holiday knitting wig right now I highly recommend this pattern. Use any dk or worsted and hold two stands together using an 11 and you'll be done, as they say in Georgia, in a New York minute. This particular model is going to my best friend from high school who is always thoughtfully sending me and the tiddly winks presents that arrive in time and demonstrate a lot of thought on her part. So I'm hoping that the "joy of a hand knit gift" (yes, it's a treacly sentiment) will be all hers when she opens the box.




Yesterday our church knitting group met again and worked on the Caps for the Capital project. So far we've done about 25 hats. It's been a lot of fun seeing the different hats that people are coming up with, from complicated fair isle numbers to very basic garter stitch affairs. One pleasing aspect to the project has been that knitters of any ability and level can participate. We'll send them out next week and hope to boost the total number of hats from Pennsylvania on the Save the Children interactive map.



Since I am on a bit of a roll with the whole Maratona hat thing, I decided to quickly knit up a hat for my father in law. I cast it on last night and finished it today while my class was taking their final exam. It occurred to my how unfair it was that while they were racking their brains trying to write cogent essays about the French New Wave, I was blithely stitching away on knitting autopilot. Then I remembered that I would be the one reading those essays later that day...and night...and the following day and night...and suddenly I didn't feel quite so bad!

Fair Isle mania...

Indeed everywhere you turn these days, there seems to be a huge buzz about Fair Isle Knitting. The most recent Vogue Stitchionary is all about knitting with color, Interweave Knits has been featuring many intriguing Fair Isle patterns in every recent issue to date, and the newest issue of Knitty is laden with color patterns a-plenty. Never one to shy away from a trend (yes, I was rocking stirrup pants and asymmetrical hairdos with the best of them in the late 80s), I am fully absorbed in the mania. Just call me the perfect lemming/target consumer! Sadly Fair Isle can't be churned out at the rapid rate that other objects can as they do require attention, counting and a general level of concentration that say, socks on size 5 dns do not. However, I am enjoying myself immensely...the biggest challenge so far has been keeping the tension even so as to avoid the puckered look. The recent issue of Knitty has a good little article about that that I found to be helpful.



For those of you looking for a quick Fair Isle knit and a killer stashbuster project, might I suggest the Center Square hat featured on the splash page of said knitting publication? I cast it on last night at 9 and finished it several moments ago. I am not entirely convinced that I love the decreases at the top, but the pattern is very easy and seems uniquely modern. Unfortunately the Rowan Harris DK that I used from my stash doesn't show the contrast as well as I would have liked, but I'm hoping my next one will show the pattern off more. Yes, I have found my perfect Christmas gift--move over, Fetching, there's a new quick knit gift in town!


The Children's neck down pullover from Knitting Pure and Simple is almost done. All that remains are the sleeves. I am realizing that sleeves are the second sock of the sweater world--so very tedious.But I am trying my best to get them done asap because Mademoiselle has spoken loud and clear: she wants that sweater immediately!






I have also been working on two other projects. One is a random free-form hat that ie allowing me to use a bunch of Dale of Norway Neon Falk from my stash. As you can see, that is one loud yarn, but I love it as I still worship at the altar of all things Scandinavian. In the same vein, I am also slowly working on a pair of Gotland Island mittens from the Folk Mittens book. This is definitely not knitting to be undertaken while trying to do anything else, this is sitting at your kitchen table with the chart knitting. But I am enjoying it as it's allowing me to channel my innner Swede!

Bipolar Knitting Frenzy and a weekend of firsts...

Gee, with this type of rapid production of finished objects, you'd think that I have no life and that I spend all my precious free time whiling away the hours in front of the fire, knitting away. Errr...umm--euh, right! Moving on...

The scarf you see the Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon sporting here represents a series of firsts. It's the first time I have put fringe on anything--I'm not normally a fringe type of person (if that type of person does indeed exist), but this yarn is so odd, somehow it seemed appropriate. It's also the first time I have ever done anything is garter stitch only. Strange but true! I am an avowed stockinette hag, and don't normally like the garter stitch look, but again, there it seems fitting. This scarf is also the first time I have made a scarf for the above-mentioned individual. "Oh wow, I love it. Is it for me? Thanks I'll wear it all the time, I really like it so much. Thanks Bunny!" (Yes, we have cutie pie nicknames, don't people like us make you ill?). After the outpouring of heartfelt gratitude, I didn't have it in me to disabuse him of the notion that I had actually made it for someone else, so it'll have to be another pair of Fetchings for the originally intended recipient! The scarf was made out of Zitron Turmalin that I picked up here. I knocked it off in a few hours and am pleased with how it turned out.




This weekend I was also able to complete the Lite-Lopi scarf from Weekend Knitting. I started it back in March and then, as per the dictates and demands of my usual attention span that is similar to that of a gnat, I put it down sometime later that month. I love this pattern so much, as you can easily memorize the pattern and be off and running. I thought it would be a good idea to make a matching hat, which is also pictured here. I was told by someone to cast on 90 sts for the hat. Which I stupidly did. I worked all Friday evening on it, and guess what? It came out frightfully too big. Now, along with Conan O'Brien, I myself am sporting a gigantic Irish head, but this hat was way, way beyond any head size I've ever seen. I was annoyed, but take the blame. So I decided to felt it, another first for me. I just threw it into the washing machine and let 'er rip. What you see pictured below is the result. I am thinking of making a series of them and calling them 'placemats' and giving them to someone for Christmas. I know, a shitty gift, but I'm desperate over here!!




At the yarn store on Sat., the tiniest kiddie winkie asked me if I'd make her a blue sweater with white snowflakes. Given that I am a terribly selfish knitter who has basically only ever made socks and mittens for her family, I felt that it was time to shed my self-oriented knitting ways and 'give over' as my Lancashire relatives would say. So I bought some Kraemer Summit Hill (love this stuff btw) and rocked hard on it all day yesterday. As you can see, I am far enough along to have finished one set of the fair isle snowflakes, which is exciting.



I'm going to enjoy this spurt of bipolar knitting production while it lasts, because let's face it, I can't keep this up forever. My house is filthy, the laundry is piling up, my cooking has taken a turn for the worse, and the student term papers are staring to trickle in...but for the time being, I am a maniacal knitting fiend.

Post-Thanksgiving this'n that...

Thanksgiving afforded much time for lollygagging around and klatsching (as my much adored MIL loves to say, she's from Joisey, after all). The highlight was seeing family from far away and of course, having lots o' knitting time. I finished my Big Print socks, and due to my father's freakishly thin ankles, I ended up giving them to my FIL, who was, "touched beyond words. Speachless." It's certainly nice to give a FO to someone who lavishes you with praise, that's for sure. Luckily I have a lot of Big Print, so yesterday I casted on another pair for my dad. Only 40 stitches! My parents brought with them another FO of sorts for me to feature on my blog.
Last Christmas I made my dad a Rowan vest that was, many might recall, Fred Flintstonesque in its' shaping. I include a before and after picture, just for laughs. Luckily in Minnesota there's an expert knitter around every corner, so my mom had her Scandihoovian friend Jean from The Yarnery in Saint Paul work her magic on it, and voilà, suddenly I appear competent and crafty! Speaking of crafty, have you seen the new magazine Craft, yet? It's put out by the same people who do Make, which is also a alt-DIY publication . I subscribed as I am a major lemming, and the first issue arrived, replete with projects like knitted robots and LED powered garments. I tried to explain to my très L.A. brother Bruce and his living doll boyfriend Jon that it's part of the whole indie crafster scene, but they were laughing too hard at my description of what it means to be a riot grrl knitter to really get it. In any case, check it out because it's super cool!

Land Speed Record!

Everywhere I go in the land of Knitting blogs that I peep in on, knitters are all hepped up about holiday knitting. This knitter is no different. The full-on family onslaught of both sides of the family begins tomorrow, and I hope to have the other sock in this pair for my dear old Dad finished shortly thereafter. I have completed a land speed record, as I cast that sucka on at 7 p.m. Saturday, and after a leisurely day of Sunday knitting, which included a three hour period of church knitting when I was working on the baby caps and helping others (it was a lot of fun but semi-exhausting), and minimal knitting this evening, it's finished. I used the same ol' sock pattern I always use (at this point, why even buy any more sock related books? I always seem to default to the tried-and-true memorized pattern anyway), but this time with a twist. I've discovered the key to speedy sock completion is to not use sock yarn! This was done out of Big Print on--get ready--size 5s! Socks on biggish needles, a minor revelation. Now don't get me wrong, I am still a major floozy for your Opals, your Koigus and your Trekkings, but it's just a nice feeling to finish a sock in a 36 hour period once in a while...speaking of Trekking, our little pal the Lone Knitter has a fabulous tale of lust to tell on her blog regarding #126 and the inexorable attraction normally sane knitters feel for it. I can relate to her mania, as I am frequently in the grips of a similar obsession. I satisfied my own little Trekking fancy by picking up this skein earlier today at my LYS. It's #181, a color that just popped and begged to be taken home. It was still in the UPS box when the owner showed it to me, I felt like those kids in Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang when the childcatcher is luring them out of their hiding place with the lolly pops and sweets. I don't mean to suggest that my LYS owner is as dastardly as that nasty fellow, she's more of a playground pusher type. Ha!

In any case, I hope to be done with sock numéro deux sometime Weds. afternoon, just in time to start panicking about cooking the T-giving meal, and then shortly thereafter, beginning drinking...

Caps to the Capital

We are starting a knitting group at our church, and like any good knitting group, we needed a service project. So, after trolling around the web (my speciality), I suggested the Caps to the Capital project. And since I'm the person organizing the group, hey, it's my decision! You see it modelled here on my daughter's newly rediscovered American Girl Baby (she's been playing with it recently in an attempt to prove that she's still interested, so will I please-buy-her-another-one-for-Christmas?). The Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon would insert a commentary here about how it is indeed this type of excess that has utterly contributed to the misery of many in the developing world, but we'll leave that to your imagination.

Next Sunday afternoon we'll have our first meeting and hopefully teach some newbies to knit and make some caps. Today during the announcements our priest turned to me and asked me to say a few words about "...my new knitting ministry". I almost died (laughing? of shock? embarrassment?) at these words, but I did my best to hold it together and not totally humiliate myself as I tried to sound coherent and not like a weird person that you wouldn't want to spend time learning to knit from.

If you're not familiar with the initiative, the charity is organized by Save the Children and is an attempt to collect as many knitted and crocheted caps by January 2nd as possible. These will be distributed to newborns in underdeveloped nations where sometimes just the warmth of a hat will make a big difference. Click here to download the info kit.

I made my hat out of Ornaghi Filati Biberon on size 6 dpns, it took about 2 hours from start to finish. This wool is a merino, not unlike Polo, but without the microfiber. It's Italian (with a cute WWF pandaesque logo), I'd never seen it before, and got it at my LYS-home away from home, Stitch your Art Out, near State College, conveniently located on my commute. This hat will be a prototype to bring to the group, hopefully they'll be inspired to make a few as well. This project has the potential to be a major stash buster, so I'm looking forward to making as many as possible when I'm in between projects.

Yowza!

Sometimes I just love my little knitblogging pals.Marnie from Gingersnaps and I are constantly on the same wavelength regarding projects we're jonesing to begin...The Lone Knitter posted a pic of her finished Silk Garden Beanie and suggested it as a way of using an extra skein of Silk Garden. Well of course I am a copy cat extraordinaire and had to give it a whirl. I love this little beanie and sported it with pride to work today. Of course I made sure not to wear the Klaralund at the same time, because matching is, well, totally dorky. I have my tough chick reputation to uphold... The above pic is the beanie on top of our last pumpkin that isn't a festering mess, because that would be, well, totally gross. Below you see it pictured from above.



I also found out last week that I won a drawing over at Karen's Musings blog, so anyday now I will be receiving two handspun skeins in the mail. I LOVE getting parcels in the mail, just love it. And not because I have some pathetic thing for the UPS/Fedex/Letter Carrier. I just love the thrill of getting something in the mail that isn't a bill or a scary letter from the borough telling you that you are behind on your taxes (it's a Pennsylvania thing--the tyranny of the borough).

Here you see my most recent package. I ordered this on Friday and it came today, how's that for speed? I saw this yarn over on Samantha's Aquaknits blog and had to obtain asap...her brand is sKNITches and I love, love, LOVE it. One skein is a walloping 440 yards, that's a lot o' stichin' that's going to be going on. The colourway on the left is 'carousel' and it's a self-striping affair, whereas the variegated on the right has the enticing name of 'brown sugar'. I'm frantically trying to finish a Koigu sock from August so I can get this yarn on the needles.

Yarn Karma

No sooner had I written the phrase complaining about "patterns and the extra yarn left over" than I hit a road block with my most recent pair of Fetching(s). The pattern calls for one ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, and comes with the caveat that you will use the entire ball and have only a yard or two of the yarn left over, so you better unroll your gauge swatch (not a problem, didn't do one!;) in order to make it. Now, I like to live dangerously. I'm living a charmed life in many regards, but apparently my yarn karma is not so hot, because somewhere during the picot bind-off, I ran aground and had no yarn left with which to complete said bind-off. So, why don't you just go buy another ball? Umm, yeah, because I got the yarn in Pittsburgh and it was in the 35% off bin because there was only one ball left in the entire store. And when I bought I thought I was so lucky and vaguely had the feeling of getting away with something. Ha! The joke's on me! Well, luckily my stash contains a horn of plenty where yarn is concerned, so finding another worsted in a squint-and-the-color-looks-the-same kind of way wasn't a problem, thereby counteracting the bad yarn karma. Which means that maybe my yarn karma isn't that bad after all. So tell me, this incident has me wondering: what is your yarn karma like?