I always forget about this place. It's hard enough keeping up a regular blog, let alone a specialty one. I guess because it's hard to separate knitting from the rest of my life, since knitting is such a big part of my life (weird as that may sound). But I want to make more of an effort at least to record things here, projects I've made and such, just to have it.
Right now I'm working on: a scarf, two blankets, and a cardigan. Blankets are for some of the MANY people I know who've gotten married this year. There are a lot of them, and I've been trying to knit blankets for all of them. I could do something easier and quicker, like placemats or towels, but I really love knitting blankets. I love having blankets, too, so I sort of just assume everyone does. Even if it gets stuck in a closet somewhere and never sees the light of day, it'll be there for that day when they need an extra bit of warmth. I still treasure the first package I ever got in college - an afghan my grandmother made for me. I actually don't know if it was knit or crocheted - I think she crocheted a lot more than she knit, but it sort of looks like knit stitches. It's hard to tell though. In any case, I love it. I really wish I had been more into knitting while she was alive. I didn't start until my sophomore year in college, I think, and even then it wasn't nearly to the degree I knit now. She died when I was a senior, and I probably only saw her a couple of times in person in the interim, so I never really got a chance to bond with her over that. But that's the way life goes, I guess. At least I can keep it going, though I can't glean pearls of crafting wisdom from her.
Well that went off on an unexpected tangent. But that's ok. You know, I'm just so very very thankful that I have knitting. Throughout my life there have been lots of things that I pick up, enjoy for a little while, and then let go of for no good reason. (Violining comes to mind. I really regret not keeping up with that.) But knitting has weaved itself around my heart (ha, get it?), and I don't think it's ever leaving. And thank God for that. It's funny - I don't really appreciate how good at it I am (please understand I'm saying this in a modest way, because I know there's still so much about knitting I don't know) until I get around other people who knit occasionally. For me, I just taught myself to knit and I was off and running, and I've never really struggled with it or had many mishaps or difficulties. So I can make some really pretty things. I mean, I still don't know how to do much with multiple colors, and I certainly have not yet gotten up the courage - or desire, really - to start designing my own patterns, but I have yet to meet a pattern that I can't pretty easily figure out. It just really works for me. It works well with the way my mind thinks. I take it for granted sometimes, and expect that everyone should be able to pick it up that easily, so it's no big deal what I can do. (Really, it's all just a matter of following the instructions.) But then I get together with other people who knit as a hobby, and they're often surprised by what I can do.
Ok, that probably all just sounded incredibly prideful and braggy. It's not how I mean it. Anyone who knows me knows how much I dislike admitting that I'm good at anything. It's not about me, though, it's all God. He really gave me this gift of being able to create beautiful things with my hands. Practical things. Warm, cozy things. Oh, how excited I am for fall, winter, colder weather! Snuggling in around bunches of blankets, wrapping myself in mounds of scarves, throwing a deliciously warm hat over my head. Knitters love winter weather. I am no exception. I may have been known to knit blankets during a ridiculously hot DC summer, but knitting in winter is just so perfect. And it may seem silly to associate God with knitting, but I know that I couldn't do it without him having given me the skills to do it, the mind to easily adapt to knitting lingo and patterns and symbols, the heart to embrace it more and more every day - and to want to spread that love to everyone else!
Boy oh boy, am I ever and always thankful for this craft.
Showing posts with label The Joy of Knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Joy of Knitting. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Poor, neglected blog
I haven't written in this thing in almost a year. A YEAR! Just what do I think I was doing? (Oh, maybe studying for comps, then taking comps, then finishing up my master's degree, then moving home...after that, no excuses, buddy.) One thing's for sure - I was doing a lot of knitting. In that time, I finally acquired myself a set of nice interchangeable needles, and lo, it was love. I've knit several blankets. Some shawls. Hats. Mittens. Scarves. Etc. My yarn stash has reached epic proportions (especially with a recently-acquired box or two of enough yarn to make several blankets I have planned) (one of which I've already possibly scrapped, but am using the yarn for a different blanket, with some sadness, though, because it was originally going to be a pattern I've been really wanting to do for over a year now). I have a yarn swift and a real nostepinne, both of which are vast improvements over my previous method of "loop the yarn around my knees and use part of an old wrapping paper cardboard tube". Though I'd be lying if I said I immediately, or even as yet, got rid of that old wrapping paper card board tube. It was quite good to me there for awhile. And that tube itself was an improvement over my previous method of wrapping the yarn around three or four of my bigger-sized double pointed needles (which was, in its own time, an improvement over using several pens held together).
Ah, growth.
So here I am, wanting to write about knitting, because it's one of the greatest things in my life (well, to an extent, and with some caveats). But I do love it, and I have a greater appreciation for it with each new stitch I learn, each new project I start - and hopefully finish.
Right now, I'm working on that previously-mentioned unplanned blanket. Here's the story: I was knitting a blanket for a friend of mine who got married last year. What can I say, I really am thankful there's a year-long rule for getting people wedding presents. I started it in November, but that was around the time I was also working on a present that was going to be a definite Christmas present (I had the idea of giving this wedding present by Christmas, but it's hard to knit two blankets simultaneously for one event when you can't knit multiple hours a day and still be a functioning human). Thus, the definite Christmas present took priority, and thus here we are, almost in February, and the other blanket isn't yet finished. Last weekend I was looking to be done with it. I felt it was pretty well long enough, and so all I had to do was finish the rows of pattern repeat, and then to the bind-off - which is a different method than I've ever done, since this whole blanket has an i-cord edging around it as you go. But all of a sudden, I couldn't stand how narrow it was. It's fine for, say, a twin bed, and I personally am in love with it, but if I'm going to make it that long, shouldn't I make it wide enough for a bigger bed? These are the thoughts that began to plague me. Of course, it'd be fine for a couch afghan, which is really what I typically intend these things to be. (It takes a lot of yarn to make a blanket wide enough and long enough for a non-twin bed.) But it just didn't feel good enough to me. I am my own harshest critic, always, but I want these things to be loved.
So, despite the fact that I had purchased this yarn earlier in the year with the express purpose of being for this particular friend, I started wavering. And then I dug into the stash of yarn I just bought for other blankets for other friends, and started up a new blanket. And now here I am, a week later, ten inches done on the new one, and the other one still waiting to be finished. I had a brilliant idea of another friend who I think would enjoy and appreciate the not-wide-enough blanket, and I'm loving the new mostly-simple pattern I've got going on this blanket, but now I'll have to figure out something else for the friend who was intended to get the yarn I'm now using...we shall see...
But the new pattern! So, the pattern I was going to use with this yarn was a complicated one, with lots of cables and different stitches going on. I anticipated it taking awhile. And I do still want to do it one of these days. On my desk at work sometime the second week of January, a book showed up (with a card). 400 Knitting Stitches. It's one of the best things I've gotten, partially because it was so utterly unexpected. (Apparently receiving gifts is one of my love languages.) Immediately I began looking through it, and wanted to try All The Patterns. And I still do. But I found a fairly simple one, that's easy to turn into an afghan, and I adapted it slightly, added an edging around it, and here I am, still enjoying it. But it was an interesting start - I had the basic of the pattern repeat, but I had to make it work for the 256 stitches I cast on. Not that it's hard to do, since you just take the number of stitches they tell you to use per repeat, and multiply so it's wide enough for what you want. And then add stitches for the edging. I actually did a swatch this time! I never do that, but I wanted to make sure there weren't any kinks in the pattern before I knit 64 inches and several rows of it only to discover some problem. (The worst part about afghans, for me, is casting on all those stitches. I only want to have to do it once, so no room for miscounting or error!)
Well, as luck would have it, I didn't adapt quite correctly. On the very first row. (Which, after having done the bottom edge, meant I had already knit eight rows.) I am a perfectionist. I don't let myself make mistakes. If I notice a mistake in my knitting, I do what I can to take it out, much to my own detriment sometimes. Occasionally I'll let it slide if it's not too egregious, but usually, I can't stand it. So when I realized I hadn't done the first row right (which I didn't notice until I started the third), I had a few options: take out two rows of knitting (meaning over 500 stitches), which is never an appealing thing to do; let it slide and accept that it would just look wonky at the bottom of the blanket - also not too thrilled by that one; or continue with the third row, dropping the offensive stitches when I got to those ones so I could fix them as I went. I chose option three. It meant it took me a long time to get that third row done, but I managed to fix it so it looked fairly normal. I'm still pretty new at this "dropping stitches when you get to them" business rather than just ripping back and re-doing them, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Of course, I then noticed several rows later that there was one I had missed, but by that point it would have been just too much work to drop down that many rows and manage to stay within the pattern. So, this blanket has an imperfection. An obvious one, if you're looking for it.
That's the good thing about knitting for non-knitters, though - usually they're not looking for it.
Anyway. That was a really long post with lots of writing and utterly lacking in pictures. Terrible re-start to my knitting blog. I'll try to do better next time (which hopefully will be sometime sooner than a year away...)
Ah, growth.
So here I am, wanting to write about knitting, because it's one of the greatest things in my life (well, to an extent, and with some caveats). But I do love it, and I have a greater appreciation for it with each new stitch I learn, each new project I start - and hopefully finish.
Right now, I'm working on that previously-mentioned unplanned blanket. Here's the story: I was knitting a blanket for a friend of mine who got married last year. What can I say, I really am thankful there's a year-long rule for getting people wedding presents. I started it in November, but that was around the time I was also working on a present that was going to be a definite Christmas present (I had the idea of giving this wedding present by Christmas, but it's hard to knit two blankets simultaneously for one event when you can't knit multiple hours a day and still be a functioning human). Thus, the definite Christmas present took priority, and thus here we are, almost in February, and the other blanket isn't yet finished. Last weekend I was looking to be done with it. I felt it was pretty well long enough, and so all I had to do was finish the rows of pattern repeat, and then to the bind-off - which is a different method than I've ever done, since this whole blanket has an i-cord edging around it as you go. But all of a sudden, I couldn't stand how narrow it was. It's fine for, say, a twin bed, and I personally am in love with it, but if I'm going to make it that long, shouldn't I make it wide enough for a bigger bed? These are the thoughts that began to plague me. Of course, it'd be fine for a couch afghan, which is really what I typically intend these things to be. (It takes a lot of yarn to make a blanket wide enough and long enough for a non-twin bed.) But it just didn't feel good enough to me. I am my own harshest critic, always, but I want these things to be loved.
So, despite the fact that I had purchased this yarn earlier in the year with the express purpose of being for this particular friend, I started wavering. And then I dug into the stash of yarn I just bought for other blankets for other friends, and started up a new blanket. And now here I am, a week later, ten inches done on the new one, and the other one still waiting to be finished. I had a brilliant idea of another friend who I think would enjoy and appreciate the not-wide-enough blanket, and I'm loving the new mostly-simple pattern I've got going on this blanket, but now I'll have to figure out something else for the friend who was intended to get the yarn I'm now using...we shall see...
But the new pattern! So, the pattern I was going to use with this yarn was a complicated one, with lots of cables and different stitches going on. I anticipated it taking awhile. And I do still want to do it one of these days. On my desk at work sometime the second week of January, a book showed up (with a card). 400 Knitting Stitches. It's one of the best things I've gotten, partially because it was so utterly unexpected. (Apparently receiving gifts is one of my love languages.) Immediately I began looking through it, and wanted to try All The Patterns. And I still do. But I found a fairly simple one, that's easy to turn into an afghan, and I adapted it slightly, added an edging around it, and here I am, still enjoying it. But it was an interesting start - I had the basic of the pattern repeat, but I had to make it work for the 256 stitches I cast on. Not that it's hard to do, since you just take the number of stitches they tell you to use per repeat, and multiply so it's wide enough for what you want. And then add stitches for the edging. I actually did a swatch this time! I never do that, but I wanted to make sure there weren't any kinks in the pattern before I knit 64 inches and several rows of it only to discover some problem. (The worst part about afghans, for me, is casting on all those stitches. I only want to have to do it once, so no room for miscounting or error!)
Well, as luck would have it, I didn't adapt quite correctly. On the very first row. (Which, after having done the bottom edge, meant I had already knit eight rows.) I am a perfectionist. I don't let myself make mistakes. If I notice a mistake in my knitting, I do what I can to take it out, much to my own detriment sometimes. Occasionally I'll let it slide if it's not too egregious, but usually, I can't stand it. So when I realized I hadn't done the first row right (which I didn't notice until I started the third), I had a few options: take out two rows of knitting (meaning over 500 stitches), which is never an appealing thing to do; let it slide and accept that it would just look wonky at the bottom of the blanket - also not too thrilled by that one; or continue with the third row, dropping the offensive stitches when I got to those ones so I could fix them as I went. I chose option three. It meant it took me a long time to get that third row done, but I managed to fix it so it looked fairly normal. I'm still pretty new at this "dropping stitches when you get to them" business rather than just ripping back and re-doing them, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Of course, I then noticed several rows later that there was one I had missed, but by that point it would have been just too much work to drop down that many rows and manage to stay within the pattern. So, this blanket has an imperfection. An obvious one, if you're looking for it.
That's the good thing about knitting for non-knitters, though - usually they're not looking for it.
Anyway. That was a really long post with lots of writing and utterly lacking in pictures. Terrible re-start to my knitting blog. I'll try to do better next time (which hopefully will be sometime sooner than a year away...)
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Lackadaisical
My knitting + blogging has been a pretty failed endeavor thus far. Oh well.
Knitting goals for this year (and maybe next year, depending on how things go). Learn entrelac. Learn fair isle. Learn intarsia and other kinds of colorwork. Learn brioche. Of course, by "this year" I really mean "starting in May" because I just can't commit myself (or give myself the temptation) to learn something new like that. Unless the opportunity presents itself.
For example, tonight I was looking over notes from one of my classes from spring semester last year. I have been much better about this in my second year, but often in my first year I would write random notes to myself interspersed with class notes when I was getting particularly bored or just had to write something down so it'd get out of my brain and I could go back to concentrating. Anyway, at one point (from a class in February, I believe), I saw a note that said something about how excited I was that I had just tried cabling for the first time, and had finally learned how to knit in the round and how to knit on double pointed needles. And it's hard to believe, but yes, I've only had those skills for less than a year now. I believe it was the week off during Snowpocalypse that encouraged this. I also believe that the first hat I ever knit, a couple of baby hats aside, was during Snowpocalypse. Plus, there's only so many blankets a girl can knit before she wants to try her hand at other things. But the point is, for the first 4-5 years of my knitting life, all I made were blankets and scarves. And until 2009, it was two baby blankets, just a few scarves, and two and a half ish regular blankets. I mean, really, I don't know what I did with myself knitting-wise for so long! But then, I guess I didn't have a lot of what I do now. I knew basically no one who knit (aside from the influence of two of my college friends who were the impetus for me teaching myself in the first place), and didn't know the vast knitting resources that were online. 2009 really started it, and I got that afghan-making book and some large needles to go along with it, and thus started my obsession with afghans, and I did some baby booties and a hat...hm...how did I make a baby hat before learning how to knit in the round? Must have seamed it up the side, I guess...hm. Or I learned knitting in the round earlier than I thought. Except I know I didn't have double pointed needles when I made those baby hats...well, in any case, I avoid seaming now whenever possible.
Point is, I've knit more things in the last two years than I did the four-ish years I could before. And it's been so fantastic. Knitting has been one of my saving graces these last two years. Graduate school has been good for something! Haha. And it's fun because there are awesome knitting sites to go to, and I now notice knitting in movies and things (30 Rock mentioned knitting in one of its episodes in the fall, which was really funny, and tonight on the Office there was a woman knitting! Very briefly, but it was there. And another show I watch has had a character knit a couple of times), and I get distracted by pretty knit things in movies and in real life (at the March for Life on Monday, there were lots of hats I wanted to knit. I just kept seeing cute hat after cute hat. Not really the point of the day, but fun nonetheless).
I just love knitting. The more I do it, the more I want to do it, and be good at it. I've had a number of things in my life that I did for a little while, but wasn't disciplined enough to get really good at. Violin comes to mind (which is still a regret I harbor). Being a good graduate student is another...haha. But knitting? Oh, I just want to keep learning, and keep getting better, and ensconce myself in this world of yarn and needles and lovely gifts and projects. I want to work at this. I want to understand it better. I want it not to be just some thing I do once in awhile, half-assedly. I want to be good at it. I don't want to make disappointing projects. I have, many times, but I would like that to decrease exponentially. I want to be happy with what I make, and I want the people I make things for to be happy, too. And not just "Oh, I like it because you made it." Genuinely happy, and appreciative. That's what I want. I hope I can make that happen. I'm encouraged by the progress I've made in the last year. I want to keep going, though. When I'm settled somewhere, I want to start getting involved with a knitting group, somewhere I can go and learn from other people for once. There's only so much a person can do alone (although, I've managed to teach myself quite a bit thanks to the wonder of youtube and awesome people who want to help others get better at this lovely craft). It'd be nice to have a group, though. Much as I am an introvert.
Anyway. Rambling. I could talk about knitting all day. It's kind of pathetic, probably, but whatever. It makes me so happy. Almost as happy as pictures of Nutmeg. :-)
Knitting. The love of my life. Hahahahaha.
Knitting goals for this year (and maybe next year, depending on how things go). Learn entrelac. Learn fair isle. Learn intarsia and other kinds of colorwork. Learn brioche. Of course, by "this year" I really mean "starting in May" because I just can't commit myself (or give myself the temptation) to learn something new like that. Unless the opportunity presents itself.
For example, tonight I was looking over notes from one of my classes from spring semester last year. I have been much better about this in my second year, but often in my first year I would write random notes to myself interspersed with class notes when I was getting particularly bored or just had to write something down so it'd get out of my brain and I could go back to concentrating. Anyway, at one point (from a class in February, I believe), I saw a note that said something about how excited I was that I had just tried cabling for the first time, and had finally learned how to knit in the round and how to knit on double pointed needles. And it's hard to believe, but yes, I've only had those skills for less than a year now. I believe it was the week off during Snowpocalypse that encouraged this. I also believe that the first hat I ever knit, a couple of baby hats aside, was during Snowpocalypse. Plus, there's only so many blankets a girl can knit before she wants to try her hand at other things. But the point is, for the first 4-5 years of my knitting life, all I made were blankets and scarves. And until 2009, it was two baby blankets, just a few scarves, and two and a half ish regular blankets. I mean, really, I don't know what I did with myself knitting-wise for so long! But then, I guess I didn't have a lot of what I do now. I knew basically no one who knit (aside from the influence of two of my college friends who were the impetus for me teaching myself in the first place), and didn't know the vast knitting resources that were online. 2009 really started it, and I got that afghan-making book and some large needles to go along with it, and thus started my obsession with afghans, and I did some baby booties and a hat...hm...how did I make a baby hat before learning how to knit in the round? Must have seamed it up the side, I guess...hm. Or I learned knitting in the round earlier than I thought. Except I know I didn't have double pointed needles when I made those baby hats...well, in any case, I avoid seaming now whenever possible.
Point is, I've knit more things in the last two years than I did the four-ish years I could before. And it's been so fantastic. Knitting has been one of my saving graces these last two years. Graduate school has been good for something! Haha. And it's fun because there are awesome knitting sites to go to, and I now notice knitting in movies and things (30 Rock mentioned knitting in one of its episodes in the fall, which was really funny, and tonight on the Office there was a woman knitting! Very briefly, but it was there. And another show I watch has had a character knit a couple of times), and I get distracted by pretty knit things in movies and in real life (at the March for Life on Monday, there were lots of hats I wanted to knit. I just kept seeing cute hat after cute hat. Not really the point of the day, but fun nonetheless).
I just love knitting. The more I do it, the more I want to do it, and be good at it. I've had a number of things in my life that I did for a little while, but wasn't disciplined enough to get really good at. Violin comes to mind (which is still a regret I harbor). Being a good graduate student is another...haha. But knitting? Oh, I just want to keep learning, and keep getting better, and ensconce myself in this world of yarn and needles and lovely gifts and projects. I want to work at this. I want to understand it better. I want it not to be just some thing I do once in awhile, half-assedly. I want to be good at it. I don't want to make disappointing projects. I have, many times, but I would like that to decrease exponentially. I want to be happy with what I make, and I want the people I make things for to be happy, too. And not just "Oh, I like it because you made it." Genuinely happy, and appreciative. That's what I want. I hope I can make that happen. I'm encouraged by the progress I've made in the last year. I want to keep going, though. When I'm settled somewhere, I want to start getting involved with a knitting group, somewhere I can go and learn from other people for once. There's only so much a person can do alone (although, I've managed to teach myself quite a bit thanks to the wonder of youtube and awesome people who want to help others get better at this lovely craft). It'd be nice to have a group, though. Much as I am an introvert.
Anyway. Rambling. I could talk about knitting all day. It's kind of pathetic, probably, but whatever. It makes me so happy. Almost as happy as pictures of Nutmeg. :-)
Knitting. The love of my life. Hahahahaha.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Ravelerrific
It's safe to say that my knitting has reached a much higher level than it was pre-grad school. In college I knit a handful of things - blankets for both my nephews (which, if I looked at them now, I'm pretty sure I'd probably shake my head in shame), a pair of mittens, some scarves, a couple head things. And then after graduation I started in on big blankets. Just a couple that first year, and like 18 since then. (Slight exaggeration. But I think at least 7 or 8 since I started graduate school. Two more on needles as we speak.) Not to mention many more hats, scarves, now some fingerless mittens, some headbands, etc. I guess I haven't really expanded that much, but I'm a lot more into it now. More knowledgeable (although, still very much not knowledgeable). Exploring new territory of better needles and yarn beyond my go-to acrylic Caron Simply Soft. Exciting stuff.
Helping me along in all this is my extremely invaluable resource, Ravelry.com. I love that place. Not only do they have patterns galore (free and non-free), each pattern has a section for comments, places it was mentioned in discussions on the discussion board, yarn suggestions (shows you what yarns people have used to do each particular pattern), people's finished projects, etc. It's awesome. And they have a section for yarn, where you can look up various yarns and get details about it, as well as people's comments, and projects that people have used to make with each yarn. And their discussion boards are great, and it's just all-around fabulous. Of course, sometimes it makes it hard because there's just SO MANY PATTERNS and there are SO MANY COMMENTS and everyone has their own opinion about things (particularly when it comes to things like yarn - I've been using that more lately, since I know next to nothing about any real yarns, so I want to see what's soft, what's not, etc, but then with a lot of yarns you get half the people saying they thought it was soft, half saying it wasn't, some saying they had this or that problem with it, others saying they had no problems with it). But in general, it's very helpful.
And tonight? Oh, tonight. It's so wonderful. See, knitters are weird, and when we see knitted things in movies we watch, we think "Hey, I wonder if I could make that!" And often, someone can, and makes a pattern for it. Like, there are lots of threads about all the knitted stuff in the new Harry Potter movie, and people have either found similar patterns or tried to figure it out themselves. So, tonight I was watching Elf. Near the end, when Jovie shows up near Central Park and starts to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (which, man, I wish they had sung more than one song over and over. I understand the choice of that song at that point, but I'm not a huge fan to begin with, and it's minutes upon minutes of it. Oh well). She's got this super cute hat on, which I've never really noticed before, but man I sort of want it. (I tried to find a picture on Google to put here, with no luck.) So I hopped onto Ravelry, did a search in the discussion boards to see if anyone's talked about it before, and lo and behold, I found a few threads from last year - and two patterns people had created to make a hat similar to hers! So, I'm pretty super stocked about that. Of course, I have no idea how it'd look on me...but I think I'll try it anyway. Well, maybe after Christmas. I HAVE SO MUCH TO KNIT FOR CHRISTMAS. I'm never going to get it all done. But that's ok. Some things might be late. Oh well.
The important thing to remember here is...yay knitting!
Helping me along in all this is my extremely invaluable resource, Ravelry.com. I love that place. Not only do they have patterns galore (free and non-free), each pattern has a section for comments, places it was mentioned in discussions on the discussion board, yarn suggestions (shows you what yarns people have used to do each particular pattern), people's finished projects, etc. It's awesome. And they have a section for yarn, where you can look up various yarns and get details about it, as well as people's comments, and projects that people have used to make with each yarn. And their discussion boards are great, and it's just all-around fabulous. Of course, sometimes it makes it hard because there's just SO MANY PATTERNS and there are SO MANY COMMENTS and everyone has their own opinion about things (particularly when it comes to things like yarn - I've been using that more lately, since I know next to nothing about any real yarns, so I want to see what's soft, what's not, etc, but then with a lot of yarns you get half the people saying they thought it was soft, half saying it wasn't, some saying they had this or that problem with it, others saying they had no problems with it). But in general, it's very helpful.
And tonight? Oh, tonight. It's so wonderful. See, knitters are weird, and when we see knitted things in movies we watch, we think "Hey, I wonder if I could make that!" And often, someone can, and makes a pattern for it. Like, there are lots of threads about all the knitted stuff in the new Harry Potter movie, and people have either found similar patterns or tried to figure it out themselves. So, tonight I was watching Elf. Near the end, when Jovie shows up near Central Park and starts to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (which, man, I wish they had sung more than one song over and over. I understand the choice of that song at that point, but I'm not a huge fan to begin with, and it's minutes upon minutes of it. Oh well). She's got this super cute hat on, which I've never really noticed before, but man I sort of want it. (I tried to find a picture on Google to put here, with no luck.) So I hopped onto Ravelry, did a search in the discussion boards to see if anyone's talked about it before, and lo and behold, I found a few threads from last year - and two patterns people had created to make a hat similar to hers! So, I'm pretty super stocked about that. Of course, I have no idea how it'd look on me...but I think I'll try it anyway. Well, maybe after Christmas. I HAVE SO MUCH TO KNIT FOR CHRISTMAS. I'm never going to get it all done. But that's ok. Some things might be late. Oh well.
The important thing to remember here is...yay knitting!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Can't I keep it?
You might have guessed that I'm knitting an afghan. One of the, oh, four projects I currently have going.
I'm actually almost done this afghan, which is good, because it needs to be done. I've worked on it so much, as fast as I can. It's great, because the pattern is super easy - knit 8, purl 8, knit 8, etc, across the row, then purl 8, knit 8, purl 8 across the next. Every ten rows, switch it around. Lovely. It's wonderful and mindless and thus I can do it while sitting in a lecture (only once, and only when I had first started it - it's much too big to cart around now!), or while watching a movie, or, my favorite, while reading - as long as I have a good setup for whatever I'm reading so I don't have to hold it open. Knitting still takes two hands. Haven't yet figured out a way around that...
Point is, though, this thing is large. And after only a few weeks. I'll finish it tonight.
In the meantime, I'm sitting in my windowseat, with my window slightly open despite the fact that it's only mid-50s. Delicious, but a little chilly too. (I could just close the window, but fresh air is so nice. And I like the reminder that it's finally fall.) And therein lies the beauty of knitting...I get to use the afghan while I work on it! And man. This is one super awesome afghan. I want to keep it. I hope the recipient likes it (hopefully he/she will, since he/she did request it at one point, but I'm not entirely sure that the request is still valid...), but if not, I'll gladly take it back for myself! Mmm. It's so lovely.
I'll stop tooting my own horn now. (Not that there's much I can take credit for, really. I'm just following a pattern. An easy pattern at that. But still. It's awesome.)
I'm actually almost done this afghan, which is good, because it needs to be done. I've worked on it so much, as fast as I can. It's great, because the pattern is super easy - knit 8, purl 8, knit 8, etc, across the row, then purl 8, knit 8, purl 8 across the next. Every ten rows, switch it around. Lovely. It's wonderful and mindless and thus I can do it while sitting in a lecture (only once, and only when I had first started it - it's much too big to cart around now!), or while watching a movie, or, my favorite, while reading - as long as I have a good setup for whatever I'm reading so I don't have to hold it open. Knitting still takes two hands. Haven't yet figured out a way around that...
Point is, though, this thing is large. And after only a few weeks. I'll finish it tonight.
In the meantime, I'm sitting in my windowseat, with my window slightly open despite the fact that it's only mid-50s. Delicious, but a little chilly too. (I could just close the window, but fresh air is so nice. And I like the reminder that it's finally fall.) And therein lies the beauty of knitting...I get to use the afghan while I work on it! And man. This is one super awesome afghan. I want to keep it. I hope the recipient likes it (hopefully he/she will, since he/she did request it at one point, but I'm not entirely sure that the request is still valid...), but if not, I'll gladly take it back for myself! Mmm. It's so lovely.
I'll stop tooting my own horn now. (Not that there's much I can take credit for, really. I'm just following a pattern. An easy pattern at that. But still. It's awesome.)
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