Category: knitting

Business first. Eleanore has won the giveaway for the fingerless gloves. Congratulations! But we’re not done, watch here as plans unfold and take shape.

It’s time to come clean and admit that I am what someone called a pattern hugger. I would give her credit for coining this phrase, but I don’t remember who it was. 60, what do you expect.

So what is a pattern hugger? A knitter who follows a pattern by the letter, and if you’re me you might even get the same yarn and colors.

Now that makes perfect sense to me. I browse for hours on ravelry. Now there’s a place I deposit hundreds of hours of my life. And then from one second to the next, kapow, here is what I want need to knit. I fall in love with the whole thing. Including colors.

But there has been a little shift in wind directions. Take the Jimi Shawlette started and finished recently. Add to the mix a Zuzu’s Petals. Do a mashup and what do you get? A Zuzu and Jimi baby.

It’s wet blocking right now as I write this. There’s still some tweaking to do before it’s perfect and I’m happy. But you see, this pattern hugger has evolved. Only a tiny bit, but  she’s moving along now. This prototype will go in a giveaway box for now.

What precipitated this change? Loving the Zuzu’s Petals pattern but getting a little burnout at the same time. I love how quickly it knits up, and everything that knits up quickly gets my attention lately. So the idea of combining the Jimi and Zuzu was a no-brainer.

Perhaps more inspiration will flow in my future. For now I reminded myself about another Haberdashery cowl I wanted to knit for the holidays. Discipline, marianna.

It’s one of the knits that has a long set-up before the knitting fun begins. You cast on a million stitches and do a band of linen stitch. It takes forever, or so it seems. Once past that chore, you start enjoying the process.

Somehow this was not my day for starting the Haberdashery. I cast on 197 stitches, but on recount noticed I was 10 stitches short. Not a problem, add 10. Once past the band there is a row where you decrease by one to get to 192. 192? That can’t be, that would make cast on 193. Correct. Whatever alternate universe I was inhabiting during cast on was gone. Again, no problem I’ll just decrease by 5 this round and we’re happily continuing. You think?

Now we are introducing the next color and there is a pattern repeat. At the end of that never-ending row I am nowhere near where the pattern tells me I should be. Time to recount my stitches. What? 202, 10 too many. The ten I was short in the other universe showed up here.

Unfortunately, yes, you guessed it, frogging I go. All evening for naught. What is the lesson here and why am I not learning it? Is this the first time I miscounted? Nope. Will it be the last time? Probably not, but I can wish, right?

So let’s take one long last look at what will be no more as soon as this post is published.

Just about now I switch to full panic mode. All good intentions from last year about being prepared for the holidays were not heeded. Or more likely, quickly forgotten at some time during summer.

Where are all my knitted gifts? Sure, I made a lot, but mostly for fun without anyone in mind. I made socks and depending how big they got determined the recipient. Our family has all sizes, from 7 1/2 all the way up to 14, and everything in between, so how can I go wrong?

Then throw in baby socks that I make from leftover yarn, socks I have absolutely no use for. And I hope to have no use for them for a while in my family.

Next the cowls. I was on a Zuzu’s Petals pattern binge earlier this year. So far I’ve found 4 of them. One is definitely for me. I love the yarn from the plucky knitter and I love the yellow color. I’m finally old enough to admit that I love yellow.

But mostly I’m flailing about and wondering how fast I can knit and what I can get done before the holidays. I could use several more pairs of socks. Some more Zuzu’s Petals?

But my reality is sadder. Except for Liana and boyfriend there is no one in the family that appreciates a knitted gift. Stephen also excepted. So maybe I do get to relax instead of being swept up in the communal frantic search for the perfect present that no one needs anyway.

I think I talked myself down and can go into this weekend with some calm and start that shawl that has been on my mind.

And talking shawl, I jumped on the Jimi shawlette bandwagon. A very quick knit and it used up another skein from Stitches West. This time it was the Malabrigo Rios. I did make some changes. This is not a shawl but rather a shawlette. I wanted to use all of the two skeins and first made more mesh pattern repeats, and repeated another mesh pattern just before the end. There was some yarn left, what was I to do.

I’m still in shock. Knitting shock. Having difficulty finding the words. No one died. Except for this lovely sweater. That sweater died this evening.

Progress was so satisfying, I was so proud (hubris as it turns out), and my knitting heart was so, so happy with this sweater.

I finally allowed myself to turn the pattern page to see if I am anywhere near the armholes. What? Side decreases for sweater shaping? You have to be kidding me. Starting at setup row 7? I mean, take a look, that’s all the way down to the ribbing!

This is not happening. I’ve made many sweaters in the 70s and 80s that had no shaping. I just knit until it was done. A box. Why did knitting have to evolve?

I tried the sweater on Stephen and no matter how I look at it or turn it or pull it lengthwise, this is too wide. It seems to expand as it grows. And remember here that this is knit in the round so you only see half of what I have to frog.

I am a knitter I can deal with this. I can deal with anything. This is not the end of the world. The world is round and I will not fall off.

The only thing worse than having to frog this is frogging it and then seeing I didn’t need to. OK, I can dream. But before frogging I will highlight the pattern and read and reread since I am sure there are other opportunities to screw this up.

It’s time to cast on a new pair of socks as a consolation prize and to calm me down. Perhaps a little yarn shopping? Nah….

Hidden away somewhere is this sweater I started in the 80s and never finished. Can’t remember why, probably only needed seaming which I hated then and still do. It’s the only sweater I left behind. This will not happen to this lovely design. My daughter will wear this on the 24th of December when German Christmas and Hanukkah collide.

It all started with a sweater pattern I fell in love with. I also loved the yarn and with a fortunate coincidence found myself in Oakland at a store that sells the yarn the sweater was made of. Getting Brooklyn Tweed shelter yarn without ordering online is not a small feat, believe me.

Since the yarn did not convince me to make the sweater I love, I bought some anyway and decided on a hat. It was going to be a two birds with one stone thing, though I would never kill a bird, let alone throw stones at a bird. But I would get to test knit the yarn with a pattern of Jared Flood’s. 

The hat is big, I knit loosely. And I made the ribbing a bit longer. Probably unnecessary. Stephen just came back from a walk and reports it itches ever so slightly but only once in a while. 

This might be my first finished cable item. Let’s pretend there are no mistakes and what you see is design elements added by me. I actually signed up for a cable class with craftsy because it is my belief hope that there is a shortcut to cabling.

When I get toward the end of a knitting project I start getting postpartum depression. At that time I often put down that knit and start another one. Probably for the second and third time. Don’t even think it, but yes, by that time I have also already ordered yarn to lift the mood or whatever else needed feeding.

This is how my wips grow from knitting project to knitting project and my stash grows exponentially. 

What I don’t understand about myself is that when a project is actually finished which means all ends woven in, kitchener stitch finished socks, blocking done, buttons sewn on, etc. I feel wonderful and accomplished. Next thing that happens, I feel I’m owed a reward and go yarn and pattern hunting. 

So, I increase stash if I do and I increase stash if I don’t. 

It’s a vicious cycle I can’t seem to break. The question poses itself if I should break it. 

This winter when our daughter comes to visit I’ll just have to make sure she keeps on knitting. She usually does when visiting but then not when she’s away from here. But since her inheritance will be a huge yarn stash that I need to protect beyond death, I need to work on her.

Should I suggest a new girlfriend that knits to our son? Nah…. that seems like going too far. He loves the one he has, and so do we, though she’ll never be the knitting type.  

Is it too late to adopt? I mean I’m 60 and more suited to be a grandmother than a mother. Plus, I didn’t produce avid knitters the first time around with my biological offspring.

What a dilemma. And what a joyous first world problem!