"properly practiced, knitting soothes
the
troubled spirit...
and it doesn't
hurt the untroubled spirit either."
~elizabeth zimmerman
Monday, November 01, 2004
Knitting Weekend
I did a lot of knitting-related activities this weekend and yet, remarkably, got very little actual knitting done. Hmph. Friday I worked on the Koigu spiral hat. I got about 9 pattern repeats (18 rows) + the 6 row hatband base done. That was, until my sister called and I dropped some stitches. Stitches that I tried to rescue, and started reknitting, only to find that my spirals were mysteriously spiralling the wrong direction. Here's your one way ticket to Frogville, baby! Saturday I did a couple of rows on the hat, part deux. I also gave The Boy's sister a hat I made for her little boy. The Boy and his sister are both USC grads, so it was imperative that the kid's hat be crimson and gold. I did a cute little toddler-sized hat in crimson and gold stripes with a great big crimson & gold pom-pom on top. So cute. It was 19" around. Turns out the kid has a head like Sputnik. He'll probably get only a couple of months of use out of it before he and his gargantuan head are in adult sizes! At least The Boy and his sister were thrilled with it. I also went to a yarn store in Pasadena (Skein) to try to find Mission Falls Cotton or something similar. I am making my sister the Official Kittyville Hat from Stitch 'n Bitch, but she can't wear wool. And I don't want to use my usual cotton selection of King Tut because I want something with a little more heft. They didn't have MF cotton, but they did have Rowan All Season's Cotton. I selected #211 Blackcurrant. Yummy! Are you familiar with this stuff? Exact same gauge as the pattern called for, but so soft. I may have a little bit of a crush on the Rowan. Mmmmm. I also picked up a cable needle so that I can foray into cabling. Did'ya see the new knitalong button on the right there? --------> Yep, I'm going to take a stab at the Irish Hiking Scarf for my stepdad. I'm really excited. I'm going to use the Peruvian Tweed Alpaca that I got at the TKGA festival last week (on this page, it is Color 109 at the far right). I did a couple of rows (once I wound that skein into two BIG yarnballs), just so that I could feel what it would be like to knit with 100% alpaca. OMG. I loved it. {Incidentally, the guy at the yarn shop kept showing me circular needles when I asked for a cable needle. It took me a minute to sort out what was going on: circular needles have a cable that connects the needles, so he assumed that they were cable needles. I had to show him what a cable needle looked like (they only had a couple).} The highlight of my Skein adventure, though, was that I got to pet Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk. !!!! There's no way on God's green earth that I can afford to make an article of clothing out of the stuff, but I'm making something for me out of it. After Christmas. (see my self control?) It is the first yarn that ever brought to mind the word 'divine'. Heavenly soft and silky. I just want to buy a bunch of skeins and roll around in them naked (sorry for any visual that may conjure). I may only get to make another scarf (as if I really need another scarf), but I'm going to have something made out of that. DB Alpaca Silk and I were meant to be together. Sunday The Boy was going to be studying, so I finagled an invitation to my knitting friend Denell's house to help her wind her 1300 yds of acrylic chenille that she got from Newton's Knits' booth at TKGA. We watched Edward Scissorhands and picked apart knots and the thing looks like angel hair pasta (it's even the right color). Then we watched Sleepy Hollow and continued to wind. (All Johnny Depp, all the time. YAY!!) Finally we took a break from that and went on to our Koigu spiral hats. Yay! I've gotten through 11 pattern repeats plus the hatband. The trick is paying attention. The pattern's not complicated, it's just something that you have to pay attention to while working on it. Or, at least, I do. I'm not lucky enough to be able to look away from my knitting for more than a stitch or two without dropping a lot of stitches. Quite a satisfying knit weekend, all in all. I think I've also decided to do ponchos for each of my little sisters for Christmas. I've been struggling with what to make them, and I don't really want a big chunky poncho for myself (I don't need help in the big chunky arena), but this will satisfy any repressed urge to knit something trendy. And I'm going to use the pattern from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch, so it'll be with big yarn and needles. I hope it's as easy as it looks! |
            Former -Alongs      
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1 Comments:
How did you get that arrow to line up so nicely with that button?! I am impressed, you HTML goddess, you!
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Jenny, at 10:06 PM
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