Meditative Knitting

I have been knitting up a storm during the past few weeks. It’s been a good way to burn up all the nervous energy I have as a result of the prednisone (which I’m almost finished with, thank the baby jeebus), and it keeps me from pacing the floor or fidgeting.

During my first counseling appointment last week, my therapist asked if I meditated, and I laughed out loud. Even when I’m not whacked out on steroids, I’m pretty tightly wound, and my mind whirrs constantly. My efforts at meditation have been absolute failures. She did point out that knitting might be my form of meditation, and I think there’s something to that. When I sit and knit, I can focus on the yarn and the click of the needles and rhythm of my fingers moving. Knitting also forces me to sit still for longer than I would otherwise, because I can’t hop up to do whatever pops into my head without potentially losing stitches or messing up a pattern. Instead, I’ll tell myself that I’ll get up and do whatever when I finish that row or pattern repeat. The next thing I know, it’s been ten minutes and I’m still sitting down.

I haven’t been knitting anything very complicated lately – just hats, scarves and shawls. I’d love to work on socks, but my hands shake too badly to work with tiny needles and thin yarn. I’m running out of friends and neighbors to pawn them off on when I finish. I’m pretty sure that the next time one of them sees me coming up the walk with a pile of something fluffy, they are going to lock the door and pull the curtains.

This is what I have finished in the past eight days.

Ella and I stopped in at Yarnorama in Paige, TX, which is a tiny town between here and Houston on our way to her competition last weekend.  I bought some gorgeous Noro yarn called Kogarashi that was just divine to work with.  I managed to finish a whole shawl while at the comp, but when I got home, I decided I didn’t like how it looked. So I ripped the whole thing back and started from scratch.

I like the yarn as a scarf much, much better. This was the first time I’ve knit on the diagonal, and I like the way it worked with the striping and colors.

Next up, I knit a shawl – the same pattern as I did with the Noro yarn – out of some Ironstone Felicia. This yarn works better as a shawl. It’s hard to see in the picture, but it’s almost lacey. It’s not as big as I would like, but it’s still a pretty little wrap. I do need to block it, though.

Elizabeth approves of the shawl. She pronounced it “toot.” I had to take it away from her before she coated it in slime.

After the shawl, I knit another diagonal scarf out of a skein and a half of Noro Kureyon that I had in my stash box. One of the skeins had three knots in it, which is a common complain about Noro, so the color changes rather abruptly in a few places.

I stopped at a local yarn store on Saturday and bought some Noro Furisode and have already cast on another scarf.

At least all I’m channeling my fidgety-ness into something productive and sitting still at the same time. Maybe I’ll even manage to get all of my knitting for next Christmas done by March.

Knitting up a storm

I’d been in kind of a knitting funk during the past few months. I just couldn’t find any joy in knitting. And since it’s supposed to be a fun hobby, not a chore, my projects had been languishing. I had given up all thoughts of knitting Christmas gifts for anyone.

But then I decided to knit a cowl for Aunt A as a thank you gift. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of the cowl, but it was out of this gorgeous handspun that I received as a gift a few years ago. It was just so lovely to work with, and the cowl turned out beautifully.

And that was enough to end my knitting funk. As I’ve finished projects, I’ve been piling them up on a desk in my room.

It’s such a satisfying pile. It includes . . .

A bulky button hat in super chunky alpaca

Mis-matched socks for Ella that are too small (I’m convinced her feet grew as I was knitting)

A hat in Jarrod Flood’s Turn a Square pattern, yarn is Andy’s Merino, Colorway Mardi Gras

Another Turn a Square hat in Cascade 220 and Noro Cash Garden

Yet another Turn a Square hat in Cascade 220 and Noro Silk Garden

A cowl in Malabrigo Rasta, colorway Zarzamor (the picture doesn’t do the colors justice)

Another cowl, this one with a twist, in Malabrigo Rasta, colorway idon’tremember

Another cowl in Cascade Baby Alpaca, which made me itch and sneeze

And, finally, socks that I started in August. Yarn is Shi Bui. I used two skeins, which apparently were dyed just a tad differently, because the striping patterns don’t match.

I’m waiting on a delivery of more Malabrigo Rasta from a store in Atlanta. All the yarn shops here ran out and couldn’t get any more in stock. The store in Atlanta isn’t even sure they’ll be able to get me any. I hope so. It’s lovely stuff to work from .

And, yes, I have recipients in mind for all of these items.

Starting to panic

So I may have mentioned a few (or 20 or 30) times that I’m running the ING New York City Marathon this Sunday. In a mere 48 hours, I’ll be on my way to the airport, and yesterday I began to freak the frack out. Not because of the race – I’ve done the work for that; all I need to do now is show up at the starting line – but because of what I need to do at home before I leave. I’ve begun making lists and checking items off.

Here’s just part of my list:

1. Buy Cliff Shots and Cliff bars for race day – check
2. Buy inexpensive sweats to wear to the start and discard as I run – check
3. Pick out and wash race-day clothes – check
4. Pick playlists for the race and sync my iPod shuffle – check
5. Select knitting projects for the trip - nope
6. Buy a few new tops to wear on the trip - nope
7. Leave detailed instructions of what needs to happen each day for B – nope
8. Leave signed waiver and birthday present for Lily to take to a birthday party – nope
9. Buy groceries for while I’m gone – nope
10. Set out Lily’s ballet clothes so she and B can find them Saturday morning - nope
11. Wash, fold and put away laundry so the family won’t go naked while I’m gone – nope
12. Clean the house so it’s not extra disgusting when I get home – nope

Just looking at this list and the undone items makes my stomach hurt. B keeps reassuring me that he does in fact know where the grocery store and washing machine are, but I feel this ridiculous sense of obligation to make sure everything is as taken care of as possible before I leave.

For the next two days, I’ll be frantically cleaning, folding and shopping. Or I might just become so paralyzed by it all that I do nothing but sit on the sofa and stare into space. It could go either way.

Second Sock Syndrome

I have a dreadful case of Second Sock Syndrome. For you non-knitters, SSS occurs when you finish one sock but just can't bring yourself to knit the second.

I cast on this pair of socks back in May. The socks are supposed to be a birthday present for a friend whose birthday was back in February. The wool is nice to work with, and it's fun to watch the color pattern reveal itself, yet I just can't bring myself to knit the socks. I've been knitting lots of other things - like these baby socks.

I finally finished the first sock last week, and I immediately cast on the second sock, hoping to be inspired.

No such luck.

Instead I started working on a baby hat from Spud & Chloe out of left over wool from the baby socks I've been knitting.
And in the ultimate act of SSS desperation, I cast on my first-ever sweater. It's a top-down, raglan sleeve wrap sweater that the Yarn Harlot raved about. I've had the pattern and the wool sitting on my desk for months, and I started it this weekend.

I even tried to force myself to knit the second sock by showing the first sock to my friend this weekend. Now that she knows about the socks, I feel a little more pressure to get the second finished already.

I know that if I would just force myself to work on the sock, I'd have it done in no time. If I had just worked on it instead of my other two projects, it would already be done. But knitting is supposed to be fun, not a chore. I don't want to force myself to knit.

But I do need to get this sock finished already.

Baby Socks

These are my new favorite baby gift. The pattern is based on the Jelly Bean socks from Spud & Chloe, and they are dead easy to knit. I can usually knock out one sock in about two hours, if I could ever manage to sit and knit for two hours straight, that is.

I've knit a total of seven pairs, and these two are my favorites. I had fun playing with the different colors and making them not quite match. These will be shipped off this week to a blog-world friend who just had twins. (And who is too busy to read this blog and have the surprise ruined, I hope.)

Now I have to finish up some other projects I have on the needle, including some yoga socks and some cool patterned socks. Then I might even get brave and cast on a sweater for myself. I have the yarn, pattern and needles waiting for me.

Just what the doctor ordered

It's not an exaggeration to say that the past few weeks around here have been particularly rough. And after weeks of illness, injury and multiple ER trips, I was about at the end of my rope. I had stopped eating, which is what I do when I'm stressed. I was worn out emotionally, mentally and physically. I spent most of last week counting down the days until Ella and I left for Colorado, trying not to worry about leaving the little three with B, who is still on crutches AND buried in work.

The trip was just what I needed to pull myself back together. Traveling with Ella was a breeze. She carried her own backpack at the airport and kept herself entertained on the plane, allowing me to read and knit. Once we were in Colorado, she was laid back and easy going and didn't complain or misbehave. At the comp, she was off doing her own thing with her coach, so I had lots of time to knit and hang out with the other parents.

I ate well the whole time, probably a little too well, and slept like a rock each night. Even though the weather was cool and rainy, it was a treat for me. Given that we are heading into the miserable summer heat and humidity that wears me out, spending four days bundled into jeans and sweatshirts was wonderful. Even running in the cold and rain felt good. It's going to be months before I can do that again.

I came home to a mountain of laundry, sticky floors, and a ton of work, but it all feels manageable. The four days of rest and the change of scenery, not to mention the break from tantrums, squabbles and dirty diapers, did me a world of good.

My new distraction

I've been distracted from my current sock project (the socks that don't want to be knit), by the "Turn a Square" hat designed by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed fame. This is absolutely a fabulous pattern. I used one skein of Cascade 220 and one skein of Noro Silk Garden and knit two hats in one week - one for a friend going through chemo and one for my husband. It's the first time I've knit with Silk Garden, and I'm in love with the stuff.

For the first hat I did the 3/2 striping the pattern called for, switching to just Silk Garden for the last little bit of decrease on the crown of the hat.

Notice that the circles turn to squares on the top of the hat.

I love the subtle changes in color with the Silk Garden. And Lily's sweet face. I think she was meant to model.

For this hat, I used a Fibonacci-ish sequence of stripes like others on Ravelry did. But I couldn't get Ella to take a non-goofy picture of the front of the hat.

I've run out of Silk Garden, so it's back to knitting the socks that won't end until I can make another trip to the yarn store. Or until I throw the socks that won't end aside and pull out of the four skeins of yarn I acquired last week under my mom's influence.

The pattern revealed

Honest to dog, these socks are going to be the death of me.

I'm working on another pair from the Knitpicks kit that I've already had so much trouble with. This time, the pattern calls for reading a chart. This is the first time I've knit from such a complicated one, and it's tough going.

My first attempt did not go well. You can't really tell from the picture, but my sock doesn't have any discernible pattern to it at all. I came out with a different number of stitches each time I knit the rows with yarn overs and k2togs.

Row 2 (click to embiggen) is the one that gave me fits. I knit it four times and got a different number of stitches every time. So I e-mailed Knitpicks to see if there was an error in the pattern. A very nice person e-mailed me back and gave me row 2 written out to see if it worked. It didn't. The way I knit it, I needed 40 stitches, not 30. So I sent the written out row to my mother, who was at knit knight, and asked her and the other members of her coven to take a look.

Turns out I was doing it wrong. When the pattern called for two yarn overs in a row (the open circles on the chart), I was doing a yarn over, knitting a stitch, doing a yarn over, knitting a stitch. I didn't know that doing two yarn overs was as simple as just wrapping the yarn around the needle twice. D'oh.

My great idea was to rip the sock back to end of the toe section and pick up 60 very teeny stitches. I ended up having to rip back almost to the beginning before I could get the correct number back on the needle. Sonofabitch.

But I'm glad I started over. Now that I'm doing the yarn overs correctly, I can see the pattern. And even better - I can read my knitting as I go so that I don't have to study the chart every other stitch to make sure I'm on track.

Of course, it couldn't be completely smooth sailing. I came around the corner and found Elizabeth holding two of the needles in her hand, about to pull out the third. I'm ashamed to admit that I let out a very undignified shriek before snatching everything away from her. I managed to pick up the 30 stitches, but now I'm a stitch short on the patterned needle.

This sock just doesn't want to be knitted.

Socks - Big, Little and Too Small

As a result of all my Christmas knitting, I'd been a bit burned out. I'd had a pair of socks on the needle for months that just sat in my knitting bag, languishing. I knew I needed to get them finished soon, because they were for a friend, and she knew I was knitting them for her - she'd bought the wool for them, after all.

But instead of working on my friend's socks, I cast on a pair for my Olympic Knitting challenge. Turns out, that was exactly what I needed to do. Working on those socks got me my knitting mojo back, and I've been burning up the needles ever since.

I finished my friend's socks, and they turned out wonderfully. I refer to them as the "Harmony Wood" socks because the colors in the wool match the colors in my Harmony wood needles almost exactly. The wool is Merisock Handpainted from Punta Yarns of Uruguay. It was a little tough to work with at times. It tended to get all twisty and splitty, but the end results were worth it. Plus, one skein is 463, which is enough to knit one pair of adult socks and a pair of child socks. Not that I'm volunteering to knit another pair out of it right now.

These are my new favorite baby socks. The pattern is a free one from Spud & Chloe, except I'm not using Spud & Chloe yarn, which is lovely but outrageously expensive. Instead I'm using Cascade Superwash in worsted weight. Each little sock takes about two hours. I'm on my third pair and have the pattern down cold now. You'll notice that the blue socks are slightly different than the pink. I experimented with not doing the 2x2 ribbing on the top of the foot. It's easier to knit without the ribbing, but the socks are a little lumpier. I think from now on I'll keep the ribbing.

And now for the too-small socks. I ordered a kit from KnitPicks that came with patterns and yarn for seven pairs of ankle socks. I wanted something different and to practice knitting patterns from charts without committing to huge projects. However, from the kit's description, it wasn't clear, at least not to me, that all the socks are toe-up and two at a time on circular needles. I've never done toe-up let alone two at once on circs. After some trial and error and scribbling, I managed to convert the pattern to one sock at a time on DPNs, and I figured out how to cast on toe-up.

Unfortunately, despite checking my progress as I knit, I cannot get the sock on my foot. It's not because I bound off too tight, it's that the whole dang sock is too narrow. It's plenty long enough, but I can't get it over my heel. Obviously my gauge was off and the needles were too small. Le sigh.

Instead of making another too-small sock to match, I've decided to declare it a practice sock. My cast-on was wonky, and I know that there are some errors in the heel, which involved turn-and-wrap instead of short rows.

So I've cast on a new sock on larger needles, and so far things are going much better.

28 hours away

This afternoon, Ella and I are heading out for a road trip to Houston, where she has a climbing competition tomorrow. Usually B takes her to comps and leaves me at home with the littles, but this time, it's my turn. And I'm thrilled.

I desperately need some time away, and even though I'll have Ella with me, this counts as a break. We're spending the night at a good hotel, and we don't need to be at the gym until 11:30 in morning. That means I'll get to sleep until I wake up instead of being woken up at the crack of dawn by Elizabeth. And tonight I'll be able to lie in bed and watch TV without worrying about dishes or laundry or messes. It should be divine.

We've been having some pre-tween issues with Ella lately - she has mastered the art of rolling her eyes so hard that we can hear it - but she is so thrilled about this trip that I think she'll be on her best behavior. It will be some good bonding time. Lily is a bit jealous, but B has promised her a movie night where she gets to pick whatever movie she wants and eat popcorn until she is stuffed.

Someone asked whether B's mom would be helping him while I was gone, and I said that I had no idea. Not only do I not know what plans he's made, I don't want to know. Worrying about what's going on at home will only ruin the fun of being gone, so I've vowed not to do it at all.

So I'm packing my knitting and a book for the hours I'll spend at the climbing gym waiting for Ella to compete, and I'm packing Ella's flashy pants and lucky socks. As soon as she gets home from school, we're hitting the road!

Look out, Houston. Here we come.

Olympic Knitting Gold

Eighteen days ago, I signed on for the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics. The goal of the Knitting Olympics is to cast on a project during the Olympic opening ceremonies and then finish by the closing celebration.

I cast on a pair of socks out of Franklin's gorgeous Panopticon wool. As I knit, I noticed that the colors in the wool closely matched the greens and blues in all the Olympic signs and banners, which was really cool.

Now some knitting snobs purists might argue that working on a pair of socks for the Knitting Olympics isn't enough of a challenge, but I beg to differ. Given my time constraints, finishing a pair of socks in 17 days was going to require world record knitting speed from me. I once knit a pair in 14 days, but that was back when I only had three kids.

Et voila! Completed socks. I finished them up on Sunday and wore them to bring the US hockey team luck. Whoops. Maybe I shouldn't have worn them after all.

Then I wore them to watch the closing ceremonies, which was really one of the oddest things I've ever seen. We laughed hysterically during the entire last half hour, and I'm not sure that's what the organizers were going for. I mean really, giant inflated beavers and flying moose? A terrified kid dressed as a hockey puck? Shattner performing poetry? It was a spectacle, for sure.

I will miss the Olympics, though. I'm the biggest geek about watching them. I love watching young, earnest athletes putting it all on the line to fulfill life-long dreams. So few win medals, but for each and every person there, just participating in the Olympics is the culmination of a life spent training and sacrificing in the name of their sport. It's a beautiful thing to see.

It's chilly here today. So I think I'll wear my new socks in honor of the athletes who are now headed home.

Knitting update

I had set out a rather ambitious holiday knitting plan for myself, especially when you consider that I have four children, one of whom is a newborn, and I had taken on some freelance work. Needless to say, my plan didn't work.

First on the list was this scarf for Aunt A. I had intended to have it done by Thanksgiving as a thank you gift for hosting the meal. I ended up taking it with me to prove to her that I was actually knitting something for her. I finished it a week later. And my plan to knit scarves for lots of people went out the window.

Knitpicks Yarn of the Andes in Williamsburg. Cast on 40 stitches (if I did it again, I'd only cast on 30), knit seven rows, purl one. It's called a Puzzler's Scarf.

Then I planned to knit and felt lots of these little snowmen from the Knitpicks December catalog. One lumpy guy later, I realized there was no way I'd get 7 done for the neighbors. So now my kids fight over Lumpy.

These mittens are actually my success stories. I knit two pairs of them, but I only took a picture of one pair. They're a quick and easy knit. If I could knit for more than 15 minutes at a time, it would probably only take me a day per mitten. The pattern is from Ann Budd's basic knitting book. More Yarn of the Andes from Knitpicks.

My sister wrote a blog post a while back about how she thought people should wear special hats to sleep in - like sleeping caps. Ages ago, my neighbor gave me these cool knitting pattern books from the '50s, and one of the patterns was for a "Snug Cap." I thought it looked like the perfect sleeping cap for my sister. So I went to Joanne's Fabrics and bought the biggest, chunkiest acrylic yarn I could find, all the while wanting to tell people in the yarn aisle that I don't normally buy yarn by the pound.

One night before Christmas, my sister saw the knitting book and the picture of the cap and went to get her phone to take a picture of it. She said it was exactly what she wanted for a sleeping cap. So my "gag" gift turned into a real one. Except I didn't get it finished before she left, so now I'll be mailing it to her (I'll be shipping a box next week, Keeffer).

I have one Christmas project to finish, a hat for my sister-in-law. I'm almost done with it, and then I get to start on some other projects that don't have deadlines. A friend gave me a gift certificate to Hill Country Weavers as a baby present, and I used it to buy some yummy Arucania wool to make Teeny an Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. I had enough left over on the gc to buy some gorgeous sock yarn for me, too.

To think, I once figured I'd run out of things to knit. But here I am, planning three projects ahead.

Yarn Snob

It's official - I'm a yarn snob.

Thursday evening, after everyone had finished Thanksgiving dinner and we were all sitting around chatting and eating dessert, I pulled out the scarf I'm knitting for Aunt A as a thank you gift for hosting the meal. I've been knitting every chance I get on this thing, trying to get it finished before Thanksgiving, but I wasn't successful. I can't imagine why not.

Anyway, as I was knitting, one of the women at the table asked what kind of yarn I was using. I told her it was a brand called called "Wool of the Andes" from a place called KnitPicks, and it was Peruvian wool. Another woman asked, "Don't you just get your yarn from Hobby Lobby with a half-off coupon?"

I'm not proud of this, but I actually gasped and said, "Oh goodness, no."

Then I tried to recover and sound not quite so snobby, but everything I said just made it worse.

And while I'm talking about knitting - I was watching "Pushing Daisies" the other night and burst out laughing. One of the characters - Emmerson Cod - is a knitter, and he had an automatic swift and ball winder going in the corner. It was a nice little touch that only a knitter would understand. Someone on the show's staff is obviously a knitter.

Three on the needle

A year ago, when I knit my first sock, if you had told me that I'd reach a point where I'd have three projects on the needle, I'd have laughed at you. I wasn't sure I'd even knit another pair of socks, let alone anything else. Now I'm on my 9th pair, in addition to two other projects.

This is the sweater I started before Elizabeth was born. I think I might get it done before she's big enough to wear it. All I have to do is knit a few more inches on the bottom, add ribbing on the neck and seam up the sleeves.


This is my 9th pair of socks. They're out of Noro sock yarn that my mom gave me last year for Christmas. This is my third attempt at them. The first time I messed up on the math and cast on half the number of stitches I needed. The second time they turned out huge. I had to rip the sock out completely and start from scratch. This time my gauge is spot on, but the sock still looks elephantine.

And finally, I'm working on a hat. This is the first time I've ever tried cables, and I'm rather proud of how well I'm doing. The pattern is from KnitPicks. It will be a Christmas present for someone, provided I can get it finished in time. I need to do 21 inches of the cabling, and I'm only half way there.

I also have an order of yarn from KnitPicks due to arrive any day now for scarves and little felted snowmen. I'm just itching to get my hands on the new wool. I think I'm officially addicted. Unfortunately, I have a draft paper on genetics due on Friday for one of my clients. I'd much rather be knitting than researching and writing.

Lesson learned

Last Christmas my mother, also known as knittergran, gave me a lovely skein of Noro sock yarn, which I promptly lost. I ransacked the girls' room hoping it had been stashed in a craft bin or toy bin, but no luck. It's driven me nuts that the yarn had just vanished. But then last month, when B was cleaning out the closet to make room for Elizabeth's cradle, he found the yarn. It had gotten crammed in the closet somewhere.

Once I finished knitting a hat for Elizabeth to match her Elizabeth Zimmerman Surprise Jacket, I cast on a pair of socks with the Noro yarn. At first, the stuff drove me insane. I pulled from the center of the skein, and the yarn, which is single strand, tangled horribly. At one point, when I was trying to loosen a huge knot, the yarn broke. Grumble. I solved the problem by pulling out the ball winder and winding the skein into new balls. Now I love the yarn - the colors are lovely and there are no more knots.

However, I have learned an important lesson about gauge. The pattern I'm working with called for 76 stitches at 8 stitches an inch on size 3 needles. After knitting about five inches, I realized that something was horribly wrong - mainly that I'm knitting a sock that would fit an elephant. Here it is next to some other hand knit socks. The second sock on the left isn't the best example because I had just been wearing it, and it was a bit stretched out.

So I consulted with mom, who consulted with her knitting books, and we decided that I need to frog it all back and start from scratch with 72 stitches on the larger size 3 needles.

Sonofab*tch

The lesson I'm taking away from this isn't necessarily to knit swatches for gauge, but rather to check my gauge before I'm five inches into a sock.

Odds and ends

My mom, knittergran, knit this adorable jacket for Elizabeth. Check out her blog for more details on the knitting of it - it's called the Elizabeth Zimmerman Surprise Jacket, and the surprise is that it is knit in all one piece. I took a picture of it next to a book so you could get an idea of how small it is.
As small as the jacket is, it's still much bigger than Elizabeth. But at the rate she's eating, I'm sure she'll grow into it in no time. And after watching my mom knit the jacket, I'm tempted to make one, too.
The poor guys - they are so outnumbered. B knows he is; Campbell hasn't figured it out yet.
Ella's top three teeth have been loose for ages. The tooth to the left of her front teeth fell out last Sunday, and she looked really goofy. But it got worse last night when her right front tooth fell out while she was at a slumber party. One friend's father said it looked like Ella had been in a fight. Ella was mostly just excited that the Tooth Fairy found her at the slumber party and left her a dollar. I'm just happy that the party Tooth Fairy pays the same rate for teeth as the normal Tooth Fairy.

The old-fashioned way

I took Lily to her "ballelet" class yesterday, leaving Campbell and Ella at home with B. He took them on a bike ride up to the neighborhood store to buy provisions for dinner, which they greatly enjoyed.


Since I didn't have to chase after Campbell during Lily's class, I was able to sit in the parent waiting area and knit while chatting with my friend L, whose daughter is in Lily's class. There was a boy in the waiting area, who was maybe 8 or 9 years old, and he was fascinated by my knitting. He asked what I was doing, what it was called, and what I was making. I explained everything to him, showing how I'm knitting from the top down and how the sleeves are part of the whole thing.


Later, his mother came over and whispered to me that after I had finished my explanation, he had leaned over to her and said, "Mom, she's making a sweater the old-fashioned way!" I had to laugh, because he is exactly right. The basics of knitting haven't changed in centuries, and the pattern I'm making has probably been around for a long, long time.


I was hopeful that I'd converted a new knitter, but when his mom asked him if he wanted to learn, he said no. Ah well. I'll just have to keep working on the girls.

Trusting in the instructions

When I was in third grade, I was tested and identified as being "gifted." In fourth grade I started attending a special school specifically for gifted students. I felt like I had found my home - a geek among geeks. One trait that most gifted students - and adults - share is a refusal to read instructions. I don't know if it's because we like the challenge of figuring out how to to do things on our own or the ego of thinking we're smarter than the instructions. It could be a combination of both.



I've put together lots of kid toys, set up computers, formatted my iPod, and the like all without reading instructions manuals or looking at diagrams. Granted, these projects haven't always gone well or according to plan, and there has been much cursing and and yelling at times. Just because I don't like to read the instructions doesn't mean I know what I'm doing.



But knitting is teaching me that I have to follow the directions, step by step, one line at a time, or bad things happen. And I'm not sure I like it.



Right now I'm working on my first-ever sweater. It's a top-down pattern knit on circular needles. My mom insists that it is a good pattern for a first sweater. But I'm not so sure - the instructions make absolutely no sense to me at all. I keep re-reading them, hoping to figure out what is going on, but I'm still lost.



So I've decided to stop reading ahead and to just trust that instructions are correct and that if I follow them I'll end up with a sweater. So far, I just have a lot of knitting that doesn't look like much of anything.

I've already had to rip everything out and start over once. I'm far enough in now, that I really hope I don't have to do so again. That would be the end of the project.

And for the knitters who care about such things - the yarn is Cascade Quatro, colorway Jamaica. It's 100 % Peruvian wool.

The eighth pair

Yesterday afternoon I finished the socks that wouldn't end. I bought the wool in July when my mom was here, and I loved the colors on the skein.

I didn't, however, like how the socks striped up. The colors and stripes are a bit too busy for me. I had cast on with a ladder pattern, but once I got about two inches into the first sock I realized it was just too much with the stripes, the colors, and the ribbing pattern. So I ripped everything out and started over with just a plain pattern. The first sock knit quickly, mostly because we were at the beach and I was trapped in the house with Campbell. The second sock was a struggle to finish. I even took time away from knitting it to do some baby hats.


After I finished the socks, I counted up what I've knit in the past year - it's been almost exactly a year since my mom got me started on my first pair of socks. Here's my tally:

8 pairs of socks
6 pairs of baby booties
3 baby hats
1 grown-up hat
1 felted purse

That's not bad for a year of squeezing knitting in where I can.

I'm feeling burned out on socks for the moment, so I'm knitting some more baby hats out of a watch cap pattern that I'm making up as I go along. Next I might try a sweater. My mom sent me the pattern that she used to make this sweater for Campbell. It's knit on circular needles from the neck down and sounds like something I can handle. I'll visit the yarn store tomorrow night while I'm waiting for Ella to finish climbing practice.

Two hats in two days

When my mother was here in July, she brought me a skein of yarn from a South African company called Be Sweet. The wool was called Magic Ball and the colorway was "Nemo's World." The skein contains multiple kinds of wool all blended together and had enough wool to make two baby hats.

I've been working on a pair of socks that just won't end, so the other night I took a break and cast on the first of the baby hats, using a pattern from Be Sweet. Basically, I used size 9 dpns, cast on 54 stitches and knit for four inches. Then I ran a ribbon through the last row and cinched it tight. Et voila, a hat. I'm just worried that they are too little.

I used Lily's doll, Bitty Baby, as a model. This first hat is definitely a girl baby hat. The very top stripe has pink fluffy stuff in it.

This second hat could work for a boy baby. I could add a blue ribbon or some sort of trim to the top if I need to. There are bobbles of yarn on the top that were in the wool, and boy were they tough to knit around. I had to monkey around with the stitches to get the bobbles on the outside of the hat.
I may go to the yarn store and pick out more fluffy yarn to make more of these hats. I have a bunch of pregnant friends, and they'd make good gifts, especially since they are so fast and easy to knit.