Pottstown Knit Out--Not

I didn't go. I paid my money and I didn't go. I have no excuse. I just didn't go. There will be no pictures of the alpaca for my blog this year. For flavor, check my blog archive for last year's festivities, January 20, 2007. Oh well, maybe next year.

However, the good news is I have been given special dispensation by the guru of the Rule of Three to expand to a Rule of Four and start the Rose Hearts Shawl. Now if only I could settle on a yarn.

You saw the dark red. I started the KAL yesterday (on time) with the dark red. Let me tell you right here and now that the provisional cast on is not my friend! I had to do one once before for double knitting--disaster! This pattern calls for a crochet cast on with waste yarn and knitting into the back of two out of four chains. I did it, but it was not my friend. Undaunted I completed the first 10 rows and decided I'm not too happy with the yarn. Even though I'm using the rather pointy KnitPicks needles, I'm getting split stitches if I'm not really careful.

Wonder of wonders another Knit Picks order arrived in the afternoon and it contained some lace weight yarn (I'm working with sport weight.) in PURPLE. Hmmmm, . . . maybe I'll go down a needle size and start over. Okay, you know it. I've already frogged the 10 rows I did and am winding purple yarn cakes.

Bona Fide Knitter

Fish or Cut Bait

I am floundering. Which goes well with the title of this post. I got a KnitPick order the other day and can't for the life of me remember what the dark red yarn was for.

I took the picture on the floor in a little ray of sunshine hoping it would light a bulb in my head. The yarn is Andean Treasure, 100% Baby Alpaca. The color is Embers. I vaguely remember wondering would four balls be enough for the pattern. It's sport weight and four balls give me 440 yards. Could it be for the Rose Hearts Shawl KAL? But I already bought yarn for that in lace weight. But I was considering doing it first in DK weight knowing my penchant for a short attention span when it comes to pattern knitting. Talking this out here on my blog I have come up with the answer to the dark red yarn question I'm afraid. Afraid because why in the world did I want this color for the shawl?!!!

And how much more red am I going to buy? I have two huge cones--one for socks and one for a lace top--and a bag of 10 worsted weight wool bought from Webs at Stitches East 2006 for goodness sake! They are various shades of red, but red nonetheless. Am I channeling my guru the Scalett Knitter? If so I wish I could channel her productivity. I really need to fish. I've already cut too much bait.

I've taken the white lace socks off my project list in Ravelry. I just do not enjoy doing those socks. Is it the yarn? Wildfoote splits like crazy using 000 needles. That must be it because the pattern was not giving me any trouble. I moved on to the Blueberry Waffle socks which are coming along, but require more concentration on my part than they should. Ach du liber himmel! What is wrong with me? I am floundering.

On Saturday I am signed up to attend the Pottstown Knit Out. I am hoping for the shot in the arm I need. I'm not where I had planned to be in my projects. The Flirty Skirt was supposed to be finished by now so that after my class in shadow knitting in Pottstown I could comfortably start the Vivian Hoxbro jacket.

It is not to be. Vivian Hoxbro will have to wait. I will stick to my modified Rule of Threes. Uh-oh! The Rose Hearts Shawl KAL starts January 18. What to do? What to do?

Answer: Fish and stop floundering!

Observation: My bait (stash) runneth over!

Bona Fide Knitter

Houses

I am thinking houses. Yesterday I sold the family home, the house purchased, according to the deed, by "a widow and a singlewoman" who were my grandmother and my aunt. My grandmother, my mother and lastly my aunt (who later married and was widowed) are all gone now and yesterday I sold the house I grew up in. It's been a traumatic four months and my knitting has both saved me and suffered. Now I'm thinking of knitting houses.

Not to worry. I haven't forgotten The Rule of Threes. I am still working my Blueberry Waffles (socks), the flirty lace skirt is at my feet. I have not felt settled enough to pick it up again yet. The third project, Lesson One of Basics, Basics, Basics is at my elbow and I've purchased the office supplies necessary to label and tag and bag each swatch. Presentation might count. But my mind has turned to houses. I want to knit houses. Not yet. I have to finish the skirt or Lesson One first. But a girl can dream, can't she?

So I'm researching house knitting patterns. I woke up with Kaffe Fassett's house pattern in my mind's eye. In his Knits Again there are a shoulder bag and a vest using his house patterns.

There are many other house patterns for knitting and another that comes to mind is . . . actually my mind just went blank. I realized what I was thinking of are all the house quilting patterns I have. That's a hobby for another day. I Googled and I checked Ravelry and found some wild and crazy things, but nothing to further stir my creative juices. Do you know of any house patterns? No knitted houses, tea cozy cottages or gingerbreads, please.

Bona Fide Knitter

Happy Knit Year

and Happy New Year as well.

I've come to grips with my UFOs. I think some are destined to remain unfinished and I've decided to move on. I am back to an adaptation of my knitting guru's Rule of Threes. It works so well for her, but she is very prolific and can finish items lickety split before her fingers itch to start something else as mine often do. Also I am not a fast knitter.

I used to be a slow knitter. Now I am not. I guess I'm sort of medium, whatever that means. Anyway, at my speed, knitting daily, I get a lot done in what seems like not a whole lot of time. My problem of late has been being able to knit daily. Right this minute I have not knit by hand in over a week. The last few rounds knit were on the Blueberry Waffle sock. And then I had to unknit them. My brain was absent and I could not keep even that simple pattern straight in my head. Did I just knit 2 or were they purls? Should they have been knits? Am I on a knit 2, purl 2 round or an all knit round? Even the 2x2 ribbing suffered due to my absent brain syndrome. Normally a perfectionist, I left the blips in the ribbing to remind me of how out of sync I was in December 2007. No one will be able to see them. (If you have pulled up my pants leg and are that close to my lower calf, you need to back . . . . . . . up!) But I'll know they're there. I'm hoping the second sock will be perfect from beginning to end as life gets smoother in 2008.

Okay, I have Blueberry Waffles on the sock needles, the "flirty skirt" is ripped back and ready to go forward once again as my current project, and today I start TKGA's Basics, Basics, Basics. Those are my three current projects, no UFOs to muddy the waters. With Essential yarn in solid colors from KnitPicks coned and ready to knit on the Circular Sock Machine (CSM), I shall begin 2008 in knit harmony--Rule of Threes in place for hand knitting and a sock machine set up for diversion. I can do this!

Bona Fide Knitter

Agility of the Brain

Can I keep this brain agile or is it too late? One of my knitting gurus (You know who you are.)referenced an interesting article in the NY Times earlier this week. It had to do with keeping your brain agile as you advance into your septua- and octogenarian years. The idea is you need brain stimulation: work, travel, play cards and board games, work with computers, write books, do puzzles, knit . . . Whoa! Was that "knit" I saw as I skimmed the list? I'm there!

I cast on the lacy socks that were not comforting to knit and decided to switch to some mind-numbing, plain stockinette socks. Then I read the complete article. It seems for the stimulation to be beneficial it was found that novelty was crucial for the aging brain. Doing the same thing over and over again, without introducing new mental challenges doesn't cut it. So the article warns me if I knit, I must challenge myself with more than simply stitched socks. I should try a complicated pattern or garment. I'm almost tempted to start Koigu's Charlotte's Web Shawl. I said "almost." I'm ready for more stimulation, not a nervous breakdown.

I shopped my stash and found the navy Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock purchased four or five years ago when I first became addicted to knitting socks and collected patterns by the binder and box full.






I'm going to cast on the Blueberry Waffle Socks (fingering weight). In my current level of life's stresses the lacy skirt is challenge enough and I need some comfort knitting. I will make the Blueberry Waffles--simple yet stimulating--at least more stimulating than knit every row and less hair pulling than lacy socks knit with splitting Wildfoote.

My guru puts me on the right path yet again.

Bona Fide Knitter

In Search Of: Comfort and Joy

I am having a heck of a time. 'Tis the season to be jolly. Oh great ti-i-dings of co-om-fort and joy, comfort and joy. I'm looking for some comfort and joy. I'm in search of it here, there and everywhere. Even in my knitting.

The lacy flirty skirt, as I call it, has been ripped back to the lifeline and the lace begun again. I worked on it last night while watching Wynton Marsalis' Red Hot Holiday Stomp live from the Lincoln Center on PBS. I'm not very much of a jazz fan, but that show brought me much comfort and joy with arrangements of Christmas classics (Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer never sounded so good [cool, hip] before!), other songs and a Maya Angelou poem set to Wynton's music and danced by Jared Grimes. Check your PBS listings and catch the next showing.

The 2007 Beach Socks are finally finished. Fraternal not identical and they're not freaking me out.



Wait'll next year. I fully intend to actually knit the 2008 Beach Socks ON THE BEACH!

I put some new socks on the needles, a pair of nemisis socks that I started once before, before I was a "bona fide knitter." They were too advanced for me. I gave up on them that time. They are lace, knitted on 000 Addi Turbos, a Nancy Bush pattern from Folks Socks. They are no longer too advanced for me and now I have figured out the problem with them. They are not fun to knit! The yarn, Brown Sheep's Wildfoote, splits like crazy when using those 000 needles, especially during SSK and K2tog and there are a lot of those in the pattern. Urrrrgh!

I have so much else going on giving me agita and angst I do not need that from my knitting, especially my zen inducing sock knitting. When I have a few minutes later today, I will cast on another pair of socks, solid color, Lorna's Laces, no pattern more involved than 2" of 1x1 ribbing and some good ole stockinette, knitting every round on a long circular. Just writing it soothes me.

Bona Fide Knitter

HELP! Throw Me a Lifeline!

The linen skirt is back on the front burner. The beach socks ( which were not made on the beach) are just one waiting room visit from completion. Winter has come with snow and icy rain. All is right with the world.



I put a lifeline in the linen skirt and will rip it back to the vicinity of the increase row for the lace to begin. I have a new take on the YOs thanks to my first lesson in Basics Basics Basics. Who said I didn't need to take that course?!!! I think I was doing YOs right, but the first round of YOs might have had a boo-boo or two. The YOs occur on purl rounds. After the pattern is set up in rounds 1 through 6, they go like this:

Rnd 7: *P12, YO, K3, YO: repeat from * to end of round.

All even rows are "knit the knits and purl the purls."

Rnd 9: *P12, YO, K2tog, K1, SSK, YO; repeat from * to end of round.

Rounds 7 and 9 are repeated alternately until ending with row 57. There is a note after the list of rounds to be worked as Rnd 7, "NOTE: your knit sts will increase by 2 with every rnd worked." After the list of rounds to be worked as Rnd 9 there is a note that "your sts between your K2tog and SSKs will have increased by 2 with every round worked."

And finally this little bit of information, 12 purls + 25 knits = 37 sts in each repeat.

From the pattern directions to my needles is all I can say!

I plan to use stitch markers, do what I think I should, be consistent and go for it! But first I think I'll check with the Ravelry members who have made this skirt. Du-uh! Why didn't I think of that three weeks ago?!!! Heck, I might even make a graph as well.

Anyway, that is my December challenge and now it's time to go crank out some socks on my new sock machine, right after a quick look in Ravelry. Is there such a thing as a "quick" look in Ravelry?

Bona Fide Knitter