Knitting Page Archives: October 2002

October 30, 2002. Excellent mail day! I came home to a package from Carolyn containing these lovely handspun yarns:

and this lovely roving:

I'm so excited! I am going to make a hat for myself with the yarn, in the order they're shown in the picture, with the dark green as the edge, and working up through the other colors. Carolyn, I think that green is my absolute favorite color, but that green and the bright pink together are one of my favorite color combinations. And Carolyn tells me I can knit the roving, which is soft like buttah, I tell ya, so I can't wait to see what that becomes.

The yarn is just so fun to look at. It's so darn shiny. And that light-pink-and-green combo yarn is totally mesmerizing. And of course they're all just supremely soft. Thank you, Carolyn!

Today on the bus ride home there was a woman knitting a mint green mitten, so I pulled out my sock and we talked knitting. She said her sister showed her how to do socks once, but she didn't "keep up with it" so she can't do it now. I never really thought about sock knitting as being something you'd have to keep up with (she was doing the mittens flat). It was fun to see another bus knitter!

October 27, 2002. You want to see my loom, don't you? Go check it out on the home page.

October 23, 2002. I updated the picture (finally!) on Rowan Jack.

So yesterday morning I was on the bus knitting my Porthole sock, and somehow I realized that I had mysteriously increased. So I had about three more stitches than I should have. Then I realized that I never actually did all the gusset decreases I was supposed to, so the sock was too big anyway. I had already noticed some holes where two of the needles joined, so, with all of those things combined, I ripped back about two inches. I figure it would be pretty bad on a sock, since one sock would obviously be much baggier on your foot than the other. I ripped back to the gusset decreases and started again. I feel much better about it now.

October 22, 2002. Thanks to my new digital camera, I was able to snap an updated picture of the Mexiko socks. For some reason the computer and the camera aren't on speaking terms anymore, but I'll try to do more updates when they're talking again.

October 17, 2002. Thank you to all the people on the Knitblog list who have been helping me come up with knit Christmas gift ideas! You've all been a terrific help. I went to the yarn store today and got most everything I need.

While I was at the yarn store, the yarn store owner guy (yes, guy) said that this has been the busiest year they've had in 54 years, and it's all because of knitters under 35. Yay, us!

October 14, 2002. The Official Start of Knitted Holiday Gifts has arrived, which may mean fewer WIP updates here. But you can look forward to a flurry of updates after Christmas. I'll still work away on poor Rowan Jack, which is growing even more slowly now that I've started on holiday presents. And I really want it so I can wear it! I also really want the two sweaters I have lined up for after Rowan Jack, so maybe I'll just have to do what I can to work on it between now and Christmas.

My mom is giving us a digital camera! So that definitely bodes well for much more frequent updates.

Oh, word on the street is that the text and stuff on the left are overlapping. Are they still? It looks totally fine to me, and I haven't changed a thing, format-wise, so I'm stumped. I decided maybe the Rupert pictures were throwing it off, so I lined those up differently. I hope that fixed it.

October 10, 2002. I really have to figure out what's going on with our scanner, so I can scan in some WIPs and show you pictures. I know how boring it is without pictures. I'm getting close to the end of the back on Rowan Jack (yes, this is taking me forever), and I'm still waiting for a replacement needle from Brittany so I can continue on my Mexiko socks. You'll be happy to hear that I seem to have gotten over feeling ill while knitting and riding the bus at the same time. So on the bus, I've been working on the Porthole socks. They're coming along nicely; I'm 10 rows from the heel flap. I have decided that I'm not going to continue the pattern on the foot, because it's way too much of a pain. It looks really nice, but it's a lot to keep track of. I'm looking forward to turning the heel and then being able to just knit. I'm thinking that, if you never saw the picture with the pattern continuing down the foot, it wouldn't occur to you that it should. I think, in fact, that it will be more comfortable a sock without the patterning on the foot. So there.

I now pass one of my local yarn shops every day, on the way from the gym to work. It's a good thing it doesn't open at 8:00. Still, it's really fun to walk by and see what they've got displayed in the window.

I am up to page 66 of the October issue of Self, and already they have mentioned knitting twice. Once in the table of contents ("knitting pretty" for a spread on sweaters) and once in the calendar ("October 30: Learn to knit a pair of warm mittens"). We're so trendy!

October 3, 2002. I finally got around to sending Rupert his knitted (and felted) cat toy. As you can see, he approves. I had no idea how well it was going to match his coloring! For those of you interested in making your own cat toy, just knit a wool tube, felt it, stuff it with catnip, and blanket stitch on some fringe to close the ends. Feline bliss!

October 2, 2002. I keep forgetting to thank Larry and Jo-Ann from Australia (no website) for emailing me with advice on how to turn skeins of yarn into balls of yarn. Thanks, Larry and Jo-Ann! My two mistakes were taking the ties off immediately, and laying the skein on the table instead of putting it over the back of a chair.

I've been trying to knit on the bus on the way to work, but it kind of makes me feel ill. I'm going to keep trying and hope it's something I overcome, since it's such a great time to knit.