Knitting Page Archives: September 2002

September 30, 2002. Yesterday Dave and I went to the Fryeburg Fair (more fair talk is on my home page), and they had a huge section of all the knitting that people had entered in the fair's contests. There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to who got first prize. There were some beautiful afghans that placed second to afghans that looked boring (or ugly) to me, and some very simple sweaters that beat out much more complicated items. I was surprised to see that someone had knit the exact same hooded baby sweater that I knit (though they did it in pink). They did a really nice job on it, but only got fourth place. Maybe self-designed sweaters got a better score?

September 28, 2002. Hurrah!

It's fabulous!

September 26, 2002. I have been adjusting patterns the last few days, which always makes me anxious. I feel like I'm still way too new at knitting to know enough to adjust patterns, but I know when something doesn't feel right. I'm going to make the Rowan Jack sweater shorter than the pattern says, because right now it looks like it's going to be way too long for my taste. I have to measure my favorite sweater and see how long it is before the armhole shaping, but it sure seems like the Rowan sweater is ready for armhole shaping now, even though the pattern says to go for another 4 inches.

I'm also trying to adjust the Porthole Sock pattern. I knit a few gauge swatches, and ended up using size 6 needles, which gave me a gauge of 5 sts/inch (the pattern gauge is 4.5 sts/inch). Now, maybe I've got it totally backwards, but doesn't that mean that my socks should turn out too small, technically? Because I've done about 3/4 inch of ribbing, and they're huge. It's clear they'd fall right down my ankles. I'm going to go down a needle size and see what happens.

September 23, 2002. I finally broke a Brittany sock needle. It was bound to happen at some point. Unfortunately, I also lost a needle, so I'm stalled on my sock until I can get around contacting Brittany about a replacement needle. I decided to start a new pair of socks in this porthole pattern, with some worsted sock yarn I got a few weeks ago (Accessories Unlimited Yarn for Sox in "Blue Jean"). This yarn is in skeins, or whatever it's called when the yarn isn't all happily in a ball so you can start knitting immediately. Is there some trick to turning it into a ball? I understand the mechanics, but the problem I had was in keeping the skein from tangling. I carefully laid the skein on the table, and I swear it jumped into a tangled pile right before my eyes. So I'm thinking it might take me as long to knit the socks as it takes me to make the ball of yarn.

September 18, 2002. First, go read Clara's sob story about her incomplete loom. Now, the exciting conclusion: I saved the day! (Sorry, Clara, but you knew I was going to take credit for being the hero on this one.) I was sure that I had seen the shafts for her loom when I had inspected it for her, so Clara called the Loom Owner, she took another look in the attic, and sure enough, there they were. So the lovely nice Loom Owner is actually dropping the shafts off with me on Friday, as she drives from Maine to Ohio. And then I will hold them ransom until...ahem! I mean, I will just hand them over to Clara next week. And then she can start weaving!

In other Clara-related news, I am now the proud owner of a Knitter's Review Tote Bag! I got the red one. Of course. I love red. The straps are the perfect length, the side pockets hold a water bottle (or two!), there's a separate zippered pocket inside for my knitting notions, and a strap with a clip to hold keys. The zipper on the zipper pocket is even special snag-proof plastic, so if you zip your WIP into it, it won't be too tragic. This makes me want to start working on a bulky wool sweater so I can have it fill up the whole bag. Though my Rowan Jack sweater, small as it still is, fits in there nicely with all of the yarn I'll eventually use to make the sweater. Hurrah! Everyone go buy one! Sturdy and stylish!

September 16, 2002. I finished the scarf for Dave's mom just in time. I had measured wrong last week; it was only 37 inches on September 10, not 47 inches. It ended up being 47 inches. I finished it about an hour before I gave it to her, and I had about two inches of yarn left. So it all worked out.

So now I'm working mainly on Rowan Jack, which is going slowly, but is very nice to knit. At this rate I won't be done with it for months, but that's ok, right?

September 10, 2002. Vintage Knits update: I'm still keeping it, but they have a major error in their fair isle charts. It's pretty disappointing. The charts are fine, actually, but the keys aren't filled in. So they have the key, and all the yarn colors listed, but the little boxes next to the yarn colors are all the same, and don't correspond to the chart. It's pretty easy to figure out what goes where from looking at the chart and the photo, but still, that's pretty bad. Who edits these things? Also, they don't give instructions for finishing the mittens, and, if I'm reading the pattern right, it looks like they're knit flat, so you'd have to sew them up somehow.

If things go the way Enabler Julie has planned, Clara is picking up her loom right now! I'm excited to have another person learning to weave at the same time I am. We keep joking about how it's like I'm working for some sort of Loom Rescue, trying to give sad unused looms new happy homes. Ok! I'm not saying anything more about this until it has been confirmed that Clara has a new loom.

Of course it's 95 degrees as I'm rushing to finish the mohair scarf for Dave's mom. Her birthday is Saturday, but she's in town now, so I'm trying to do what I can between now and Saturday. I'm just going to keep knitting until the yarn runs out or Saturday arrives, whichever comes first. Right now the scarf is 47 inches long, so at least it's long enough to be usable as a scarf, no matter when I stop.

September 4, 2002. I just got Vintage Knits in the mail. I was completely thinking I would return it, because I don't need another pattern book, blah blah blah, but I'm totally keeping it. I pretty much want to knit everything in it, except for this one sweater with a little bow at the neck. Though I'd probably consider making it without the bow. Oh, and I won't make the camisole on the cover, although it's really cute, because I sort of need to wear a bra all the time. I bought this book on the suggestion of my new enabler friend, Clara. Stop Clara, no more! See what I had to do? I had to go force you to buy a loom to make up for this one book you made me buy!

I'll be gone for a few days to go to a wedding on a farm, on a lake, in the mountains of Maine. I can't think of a better place for a wedding, frankly.

September 3, 2002. I just had super fun Show and Tell with Clara! I got to personally peruse most of the Knitter's Review Boutique items. Go buy them! I know they look good on the internet, but I'm here to tell you that they're even nicer looking in person. And this is an unpaid endorsement. I am especially drooling over the totebags now. Handy pockets! Water bottle pocket!

And I got to show off all my stuff to Clara. The cats have been very whiny since she left. They want to know what happened to the nice person who rubbed their bellies for a long, long time. Clara got to see the loom, and then I was evil and let her weave some, and now, as The Devil's Enabler, I am trying to get her to buy a loom. I can hook her up with one. I've got the connections.

And we otherwise just had a good fun time talking and petting cats and looking at boutique stuff and fondling yarn (must...buy....Rowan...Cork...) and talking about the many and varied virtues of Maine. We've both had the experience of moving from places that were sort of the anti-Maines, and so Maine seems especially idyllic, and also, I think we were made for Maine, in many ways.

Ok, I'm kind of sleepy now and I'm not sure I'm making sense anymore, so I think I'll stop. Plus Peatie keeps trying to type for me, which surely isn't helping with the clarity here.

September 2, 2002. There was a lot of fiber stuff going on this weekend, between knitting and weaving. I've got 30 inches done on the mohair scarf for my mother-in-law, so that's almost done (I think I'm going to make it either 40 or 45 inches). I worked some on Rowan Jack, which is now 6.75 inches done on the back (which isn't much, but I've been neglecting it).

We have a 1980 VW Vanagon. Dave does all the mechanical work on it. He's currently rebuilding the engine (this is, I think, the fourth time he's rebuilt the engine...it gets faster every time). (This is going somewhere knitting-related, just give me a minute.) There is supposed to be this little felt ring between the flywheel and the pilot bearing, and it's one of those things you're supposed to replace every time you rebuild the engine. I guess our van has never had this little ring (at least not while we've owned it) but Dave thought we should get it now to maybe stop some of our oil leak problems. All of the VW places in town could get us the part, but it would take a few days, and we're hoping to take the van up into Maine when we go to a wedding this upcoming weekend. So of course I thought, "Felt ring! I can make you a felt ring!" I grabbed my double-pointed needles and some wool I had, and started knitting. It took several tries on different needles sizes and stitch numbers to get the tube to felt down to the right size, but I finally got it right. Knitting saves the VW engine! Hurrah! Dave kept calling the pre-felted tubes "socket cozies" which was cracking me up.

I took one of the too-big tubes, and, of course, made it into a cat toy. I stuffed it with catnip, blanket stitched the ends, and attached fringe to both ends. I am calling it the "Flaming Burrito" model. This cat toy is going to my pal Rupert, as it has recently come to my attention that Rupert is lacking in toys.