Knitting Page Archives, April 2002

April 28, 2002. Finished the hood on the baby sweater (new picture).

April 24, 2002. I took my knitting to my mom's, but didn't get any done. I tried to, but Mom's cat, Fellini, caught on immediately to the fun cat game I was playing solely for his benefit, and started attacking the sweater even before I pulled it out of the bag. It made my glad that my cats just sit and stare when I'm knitting, only occassionally reaching out to bat at the needle end or paw the point protector.

Started the hood on the hooded baby sweater (and posted a picture).

I've also come to the conclusion that I'm a "product" knitter. I guess there are "process" knitters and "product" knitters. Process knitters are happy to just be knitting, and it's not as important to them what they're making. While I don't really mind knitting, I can't imagine knitting for the sake of knitting. I wish I felt more like this, because sometimes, when I'm deep in a project and can't see the end, I get very frustrated. I do like the whole concept of knitting, how you take this piece of string and make it fabric. But what I like most about knitting is seeing the fabric transform itself into something that actually looks like whatever it is you're making. With the hooded baby sweater, when I was doing the big straight bottom part, it was starting to get a little tedious. But now that I've done both fronts, and I can see how it's going to work, I'm much more motivated to continue. I loved doing the rolled-brim hat for my mom, because it looked like some kind of headwear from the get-go. I have a feeling that, as I get better at knitting, I'll come to enjoy the process more. Right now I'm just much more excited at the thought of finishing things.

April 18, 2002. Thanks to Ivete for explaining why my knitting looks so weird. I'm twisting my stitches. Jeannine, if you're reading this, sorry that I had to figure this out on the sweater for your baby! It's good to know though. It will take some getting used to when I actually start knitting the right way. My Knitblogger pals also tell me I'm not the only one, and gave me some wonderful excuses for why my knitting looks the way it does. For instance, it could be the yarn. Sometimes the yarn makes your knitting look funny. Or (and this is my favorite) it's a design element. That's right, sometimes people twist their stitches on purpose to make a neat design! Jeannine, disregard what I said above. You are getting a very fancy sweater that has many high-brow design elements. Your baby will be proud to wear this piece of avant-garde art (can a hoodie be avant-garde? never mind).

I've just added my site to the Knitting Bloggers Webring (see icon at left), but I may not be added yet, so I'm not sure if that little icon will take you anywhere just yet. I took a while to join because I wasn't sure I'd actually update this on a regular basis, but it looks like I am, so there you go. Go visit the other sites and see what amazing things people are knitting!

April 17, 2002. I've signed up for a sampler sock workshop during the Maine Fabric and Fiber Festival. Does this make me a complete knitting geek? Actually, no, it probably has more to do with my love of socks. I think it would be really cool to be able to knit striped socks in fun colors, but I have no idea how sock shaping even happens. I'm fairly intimidated by that ultra-thin yarn and tiny needles that are used to make socks, so I'm thinking having someone actually show me what to do will help immensely.

Check out my updates on the hooded baby sweater WIP. See if you can tell me why my stitches are all wicky-wacky.

April 14, 2002. So I'm pretty convinced that I shouldn't use the suggested Snowflake Chunky yarn when I make the star sweater. Just look at it! I'm sure I shouldn't use anything so eyelashy for my first big sweater. A few people on the knitblog list have used it, and didn't recommend it. I'm either going to use something like this (would it be unbelievably hot?) or this (also, too hot?). Also considering one of those thick-and-thin yarns, like this, or maybe just this Lamb's Pride Bulky that everyone seems to knit with? Thoughts, anyone?

April 10, 2002. Today on the knitblog list, there were a few interesting methods for figuring out how much yarn you need when casting on, specifically for long tail casting on. This is the method I use to cast on, and I always have to cast on once, run out of yarn, rip it out, allow myself way too much yarn for the second try, and thereby end up wasting a bunch of yarn. Ivete measures the total proposed cast on length in inches, and then multiplies that by three to get the right measurement for the yarn. So, if you're casting on enough stitches to make 20 inches, you should use 60 inches of yarn in casting on. Kate wraps the yarn around her needle 10 times, and then multiplies that length by how many stitches she needs. If she needs, for example, 50 stitches, she wraps the yarn around her needle 10 times, and then measures out five times that length to get the amount of yarn needed for casting on. This could completely fix my yarn-wasting habit! Thanks Ivete and Kate! Too bad I broke our calculator doing our taxes, so I'll have to do these measurements in my head.

Today I got this pattern I ordered from Halcyon Yarn:

So adorable! I'm really excited to make it. It will definitely be a challenge for me; reading through the pattern, I could already identify several spots that were bound to make me break out in hives. Maybe I'll magically acquire the knowledge and skill while I'm doing it. I'm not even going to think about it though, until I finish the hooded baby sweater. I think I might do this star sweater in the dark blue/light blue colors they show. I usually go for browns for sweaters for me, but the idea of a brown star sweater seems sort of sad and vaguely militaristic. I am also considering a black sweater with a grey star, but since all my non-brown clothes are black or grey, maybe it's time I branched out into the crazy world of blue.

The yarn they suggest is "Snowflake Chunky" which I've never heard of. I'm going to see if my local yarn shop has it. If not, I might consider ordering it from somewhere, if I can find it online. But I usually like to actually feel the yarn first. If anyone out there has any experience with Snowflake Chunky, email me and let me know what you think. Thanks!

April 5, 2002. I got the coolest knitting bag at Old Navy the other day. It's a huge square tote with leather handles, in the same print as this dress:

I was going to get an L.L.Bean tote bag, but this Old Navy bag was cheaper ($16.50), cuter, and more structured, so it stands on its own quite nicely. It fits all my yarn, needles upright, and has a little inner zippered pocket for stitch holders and row counters and the like. It's so much better than the various grocery store bags and the falling-apart paper shopping bag I was using before. I'll take a picture of the new bag when I can.