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Writing Is Not Knitting March 2, 2009
I miss knitting.
My fingers itch for the comfort of building something to specifications that will, when complete, likely work as predicted.
Imagine a knitting universe in which the pattern was always changing, necessitating frogging because who said anything about cables, and this isn’t lace at all, and what happened to the last forty (or four hundred (or four thousand))) rows, anyway? And the yarn is a different color now. And this was actually a crochet pattern, oops.
I didn’t know, until my knitting grew so infrequent, how much I treasured the orderliness of knitting. I thought the gauge swatches, the measuring, the careful counting of stitches, were tiresome. But knitting has a beginning and a middle and an end, and I know when I am done, and when I am done I know what I have.
Writing is fast becoming my life. I’m tremendously lucky that I’m able to do it as much as I can. It’s the thing that I should be doing, and I love it.
But it’s not knitting.
So, tonight, I’ll close the laptop and handle a little Malabrigo.
Math FAIL January 29, 2009
So, flush with the success of my first two hats from Boutique Knits
I cast on 4 times 19 stitches, which equals 96, right?
[Ed.: This woman cast on half-asleep, while watching Intervention: Meth Mountain, instead of taking a nap during the toddler's naptime. While watching less sensationalist fare, such as Law & Order: SVU, and while at least two-thirds awake, she is perfectly capable of simple multiplication.]
It was really, really fast! And really small! I pre-gifted it to my noticeably big-headed daughter and told myself it would stretch with time. I finished the ribbing during 3-year-old soccer practice, and was so full of hubris that I documented that for posterity.
I cheerfully started doing the colorwork after kids’ bedtime [Ed.: Still tired!], only to find that it didn’t seem to compute.
I even had the audacity to search for errata online.
Then it just came to me, as if the gods who monitor for knitting hubris had seen the red point that represents me flickering wildly on some computer screen.
4 times 19 is 76. 76 is not 96, nor will it ever be, however much I yell at the tangled pile of frogged hat on the floor.
I’m Like A Sockoholic, But For Hats January 26, 2009
I am really enjoying my romp through Boutique Knits, which I received as a surprising, most excellent and well-thought-out birthday present.
The hat pictured above is the Side Slip Cloche, certainly the prettiest little hat I have ever knit for myself. My stoic picture really doesn’t do it justice — it rocks a great Clara Bow vibe. I’ve already gotten a request to knit it up in green (since completing it this afternoon), which sounds basically awesome. Yarn is, of course, Malabrigo, in Burgundy. Tragically, I am finally running out of the stash of Malabrigo worsted and chunky I bought for my birthday last year. Stupid global financial crisis: what won’t you ruin?
I also knit Irwin’s Fawn Earflap Hat while I was at it:
Why am I knitting hats? Simple, really: hats are portable; hats can be knit in chunky yarn, which makes them fast; I have other knitting I should be doing but can’t get the materials for yet (see: Global Financial Crisis).
Also, hats are fun, and everyone likes to see an interesting hat and make much over it.
So there is that.
Next on the agenda: Chuppah II: Electric Hora, aka Bride of Chuppah, aka I need to start swatching for an October chuppah really, really soon.
First I need some sort of yarn bailout plan.
How Not To Blog January 20, 2009
For me, knitting and writing are sometimes mutually exclusive: not enough hands.
Over the last few months, I’ve discovered that knitting and writing fiction AND blogging are a difficult juggling act indeed.
I have been knitting — almost exclusively hats, but I’m also almost done with the Hanukkah sweaters I started, at the same time, right between second midterms and exams.
First of all, I’ve been trying to find the perfect (for me) stockinette Malabrigo Chunky hat pattern. I sincerely love cabling, but sometimes that is just not where my mind is, part of the reason my Tangled Yoke Cardigan is waiting for me to knit the, ah, Tangled Yoke.
Sometimes, in fact, my mind wants a stockinette beanie that looks like a blue, slightly melted chocolate kiss:
In other news, I’m particularly pleased with the Charlie Brown-esque 70s sweater I have almost finished:
I used Ann Budd’s one-pattern-fits-all child’s raglan sweater, along with a surprisingly small quantity of Brown Sheep Chunky.
This was supposed to be a less stripey sweater, but I ran out of one yarn color, which I always do, and couldn’t find the right color to match it, which always happens.
Clearly, I worked one short row too many on the back side, but I think part of the bunching in back is that the sweater’s a little too wide in the shoulders. I’m hoping blocking will somehow magically fix this. [prays to knitting goddess in her little rocking chair on Olympus]
I had no idea it was called this, but Double Knit In Join changed my attitude toward color changes. Now I stripe all the time, with something like enthusiasm. I only have about five or six ends left, and there should be approximately one million given how many stripes there are.
Now: back to writing (fiction) and knitting (another hat).
Ravelympics Wrap-Up: Bringing the Pain September 9, 2008
My Knitting Olympics project is long done, but I only just now took the photo.
I knit this sweater:
– on my couch
– in the car on the way to vacation
– on the 5 South
– at rest stops
– in San Pedro
– in Orange County traffic
– until I ran out of yarn.
SAD FACE.
So I almost finished before the Olympics, but then my yarn betrayed me. Webs is a superhero though, and the yarn arrived the day after the closing ceremonies, allowing me to power through.
Some might think I did not knit the hood because I was so tired of knitting the sweater. FALSE. I decided that I never actually use the hoods that come with hoodies, so there.
Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky in Lettuce, my favorite yarn in my favorite shade
Pattern: Hooded Pullover from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008
Size: Small, but only because I am so short. It’s a pretty huge sweater.
First Mod: I continued the cabling for another repeat on the sleeves because I liked the look COUGH forgot to stop COUGH
Second Mod: Added short rows to raise the back of the neck.
Verdict: Not bad for a first adult sweater. I have learned my lesson on several fronts.
I am trying to look fierce, but apparently I look like I just accidentally kicked a puppy
1) Swatch better. Lazy swatching (you know, that 1 inch by 1 inch square kind of nonsense) resulted in a huge sweater.
2) Measure my body.
3) Pay attention to how much yarn you have, especially before leaving on vacation.
4) I almost died finishing this in two weeks. But now I have a sweater for the end of Fall Semester, when the wind and rain roar over SFSU and I perish of hypothermia!
Yay me.
Urban Fauna Studio August 30, 2008
Well, that was quite a Sunset adventure for a Saturday morning. A new fibercraft shop — Urban Fauna Studio — opened ten blocks from my house!!!!!
When the Princess and I rounded the corner at 16th Avenue, we were worried the massive line out the door was just to GET INTO the shop, but, as it turned out, they were having some first-day computer issues.
The shop is tiny and was so overwhelmed we waited over an hour to buy our goodies. But how great is it to live in a city where a fledgling craft shop can be so swamped on the very first day, thanks to buzz on the Internets?
I was able to snap up a free goody bag with purchase (contained a stitch marker, o-wool sample, tape measure, and embroidery iron-on patterns among other items).
A frantic initial eyeballing (before I jumped in that ever-lengthening line) revealed some be sweet and o-wool yarns, a good bit of roving, spinning wheels and spindles. Everyone was sweet and apologetic. They promise classes and workshops as well. There was a demonstration of a tiny Hazel Rose reclaimed-wood loom that led to the Princess demanding (and receiving) one.
I bought a drop spindle and an ounce of Corriedale roving! Uh oh.
Law & Order: Malabrigo Edition August 15, 2008
Raise my children, or knit?
The choice is obvious.
Televised police procedural shows do an excellent job of raising children. From the flagship Law & Order they learn their place in a just society. From Law & Order: SVU they learn that every stranger is a homicidal maniac.
From Law & Order: CI they learn that Bobby Goren can smell the crushing childhood trauma behind their despicable crimes.
While my children, both under nine, learn how to identify whether an unidentified murder victim has recently eaten spaghetti, I continue to knit this pretty sweater. I can’t get over how fun knitting with this yarn is.
I plan to cast on the first sleeve during !gymnastics and Chicago-style deep dish pizza! tonight.
Apparently if I spent every free moment knitting I would get a lot more knitting done.
I Want To Take This Sweater Back Behind the Middle School August 13, 2008
I love this sweater so much, I love Malabrigo Chunky so much, it is a lucky thing this sweater is not human or the sanctity of my marriage might be in danger.
My fingers don’t hurt (yet), but I’m really hoping to finish the second and third cable patterns tonight, if I can stop falling asleep during the Olympics. The Games are riveting, but the three-year-old is keeping farm hours these days. Someone please tell him no one in the City needs to get up at 5 AM unless they have a JOB.
I Got Blisters On Me Fingers August 12, 2008
Yes, I am participating in the Knitting Olympics. Yes, I am already behind. Yes, I am moderately stressed about it. Hobbies are so fun!
The pattern is “Hooded Pullover” from Vogue Knitting Fall ’08. It seems to have been published not-in-English before, I’ll research its provenance at some point.
It’s really fun, because it’s a pretty cable suspended in the middle of mindless stockinette. So traditional Stockinette Malaise isn’t setting in. I am knitting it, of course, in Malabrigo Chunky because it is my love. I LOVE it. It loves me too.
I’m in this to win this! I can do it.
