Learning new things

It's day 3 of Ysolda's class.  I'm already behind, but I'm OK with that because I'm already learning things and gaining insight.  I didn't buy yarn for the class because I figured I could knit from my stash.  I have some DK weight yarns in sweater quantity and I need to knit down my stash.  Not to mention my bank account would appreciate it.  I went to the ATM today to get $$ and was surprised by my balance.  It's only the 6th of the month - what happened?  Oh yeah, grief induced yarn shopping.  That needs to go somewhere in my knitting stages of grief - hmmm.... but I digress.

Oh, yeah - back to what I'm learning in Ysolda's class.  She suggests we use a DK weight wool or wool-blend yarn for our Blank Canvas sweater.  It will be a while until we get to the actual sweater - but this week we are covering selecting yarn for a project.  I went to the stash to see what I had in DK weight in potentially sweater quantity.  I was shocked.  Almost all of it was cotton or linen!  Huh?  That can't be right - I live in Wisconsin.    More importantly, cotton and linen have no elasticity.  They are difficult to knit and to get the fit right.  I re-read some of my earlier posts and looked at my Ravelry project page.  A lot of my sweater knitting recently has been summer garments.   The lightbulb started to come on.  Try learning about fit with more forgiving fibers.

I think I need to buy more yarn.

Am I ready to share?

Update: Over the weekend, I worked on Laura Nelkin's Crafsty class on knit shawls.  I'm up to lesson #6.  I had to cast on about four times, but I finally got it.  Things were going swimmingly until Sunday afternoon when I got to section 4 and the star stitch.  Got about halfway through the motif and I was short a stitch.  Damn.  I missed a yarn over somewhere.  Thought I found it.  Tinked back.  Nope - that's not where it's missing.  Couldn't figure out where I went wrong.  Ripped back to my lifeline.  Started the section again.  Then, on the third row of lace, I was a stitch short.  Found the missing yarn over.  I unknit the purl row until I got to the spot and faked the yarn over by pulling up a loop from the row below.  It looks a lot smaller than the other yarn overs, but I'm hoping blocking will help it out.  Decided that my brain was done with lace for the weekend.  Worked on Tungata while watching Argo.  Decided that was mindless enough for the evening.  I have one more round of the blasted ribbing left.

This week, Ysolda's Perfect Sweater class started.  I've spent most of the morning reading the blog and introductions from all of the students.  I'm really excited.  The students are from all over the world, which I find very exciting.  One of the things we can do is share our blogs with the other students.  Am I ready to share this?  It's on the World Wide Web - so it is already "out there" in public.  But I don't think many people have found it.  That's OK with me.  I know a couple of my Ravelry friends have read some posts, but I know them.  This is really putting myself out there.  Also, I started this blog with the intent of sharing what I've learned about getting garments to fit.  But, I haven't had a whole lot of success on that front since starting the blog - thus the sporadic posts.  PLUS sharing a blog that is supposed to be about learning to get your knits to fit in a class about getting your knits to fit - highly appropriate but SCARY!   If I share my blog, then I also need to make the commitment to post regularly AND post photos because a blog without photos is BO-RING! (She writes in a post with no photos).  I will have to think about it.

Knitting ADD

I have hit a serious patch of ADD when it comes to my knitting.  I think this is a good thing. Why would I say that?   It wasn't too long ago when all my brain could handle was garter stitch.  I feel like I've discovered the knitting equivalent of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' stages of grief.  Stage 1: No Knitting,  Stage 2: Garter Stitch, Stage 3: Startitis.  Hmmm.... maybe I'm on to something here.

Let's look at the evidence that I have entered Stage 3.

Here's the lowdown on the past two weeks.  I ordered yarn for the Tungata cowl and Stowe sweater (but you knew that already).  I wound the yarn into balls after it arrived but didn't cast on because I wanted to finish my Color Affection.  I had just gotten to the short row section and adding the third color - FUN!  That was fun for about a week.  Now it just seems like it is NEVER going to end.  It takes me about 20 minutes to knit a row.  Ugh.  That's OK for times I need mindless knitting (like meetings or chatting during knit night) but I need something more stimulating than that!  SO - I cast on for the Tungata cowl.  All 300 some stitches.  The alternating color ribbing was interesting for about two rounds.  Now it is KILLING me.  It is taking me FOREVER.  Time to move on to something else.  Swatched for Stowe.  From just looking at the swatch, I'm pretty sure my gauge is too big.  The stitch pattern looks nice, but it gets tedious kind of quickly.  The thought of knitting an entire garment in that stitch - ugh.  I really want that sweater, but do I want it enough to endure knitting it?  I went back to my Craftsy lace shawl class.  Am ready to cast on Skywalker.  I also signed up for Laura Nelkin's new Mystery Knit Along, "Juego" which starts in April and snagged one of the kits from Space Cadet.  Considered signing up for two other mystery knit alongs, but decided that was crazy pants - especially since I start Ysolda's "Perfect Sweater" on-line class on Monday.  Oh, I think I ordered a bunch of random sock yarn in there too...  whew.  Just writing about it makes me exhausted!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but at least I added the links!  I'll add the photos later....

Yarny Goodness Overload

Yesterday, the postman knocked on my door and left this box of yarny goodness.

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Long Johns - enough to knit Stowe
















and Loft in Fossil, Woodsmoke and Thistle for Tungata.





Now, what to do?

Swatch for Stowe?

Cast on Tungata?

Finish Color Affection?  (I just got to the spot where you add the third color and start the short rows.)

Take pictures of everything, update my Ravelry project page, and blog?*


So much yarny goodness!


* I chose the last because I'm trying to be more organized about my knitting in 2013 and I couldn't decide between the other options.  I'm a little nervous to branch beyond garter stitch - not sure if I'm ready, but I won't know unless I try.

Knitting through grief

I wrote the entry below on January 28th.  It's taken me a few weeks to be able to post it.  I wasn't sure if  I was going to post it, but here it is...

Well, it was a sucky end to 2012 and a craptastic start to 2013.

I remember the Yarn Harlot writing about “the time of the big not knitting” when her family was going through a difficult time of grief and she just could not bring herself to knit.   

I thought that might happen to me.  But my grief and knitting are different – which shouldn’t surprise me, we are all unique human beings.  But somehow it does. 

Today it’s been a month since my father died. 

I have knit since Daddy’s death.  Garter stitch.  The first project “back” I call the “Great Garter Stitch Scarf of Grief”.  200 yards of bulky Noro knit on size 11 needles. 


With that finished, I started another Color Affection shawl.  I don’t usually knit the same pattern more than once, but it spoke to me.  I  got a shipment from Sundara of petitie sock yarn that I had ordered before Christmas.  The colors weren’t quite what I was expecting (actually I had forgotten what I had ordered), but three skeins were packaged together and I really liked how the colors looked. 


I cast on for Color Affection, then started to have second thoughts.  There are a lot of Stephen West shawls I want to do, why not try one of those instead?  I looked for three color patterns and wasn’t thrilled.  The Color Affection kept calling me.  I knew the pattern – I didn’t have to figure out anything complicated.  It felt – comforting.  That’s what I need right now, not knitting that is challenging or difficult, but knitting that is comforting.  No pressure to get it done, just knit on it when you want for as little or as much as is pleasing.  Something that doesn’t take a lot of brain power.  Garter stitch.  That’s the ticket. 

I can’t seem to go back to the projects I was working on when he died.  They seem tainted to me.  I love knitting socks, but I just can’t bring myself to even think about socks – All I think of is the half-finished pair that was to be his Christmas gift and I start crying.

Knitting feels different now.  It doesn’t feel so obsessive.  I used to feel like a HAD to knit.  There were so many things I wanted to make, learn, try, finish…  I don’t feel that compulsion anymore.  I don’t think it means that I’m going to stop knitting altogether.  I still love to look at yarn and patterns – and even ordered a sweater’s quantity of yarn this weekend.  It just feels different to me.  Maybe this is my “time of knitting differently” or something.  Maybe this is knitting through grief.

50 socks in 50 weeks

I've been in a knitting rut for a while.  I've been making lots of shawls and while they have turned out well and are very pretty, I'm just feeling kind of "meh" about them.  I don't hate them.  I don't love them.  They just are.

My attention span is also less than that of a gnat these days.  I need to feel some sense of accomplishment.  Quickly.  I have literally hundreds of sock patterns I want to knit and over 100 skeins of sock yarn (I know, just... I know).  So why not do something crazy like casting on a new sock every week?  Originally I was going to try to do 50 pairs in 50 weeks - but I don't think that is very realistic.  I  am capable of knitting a pair of socks in a week, I just don't know if I could keep up that pace for an entire year.  Plus, I know I will be wanting to knit other things as well in this time frame - so one sock a week, that I think I can do.

Second sock syndrome?  So what?  Start another pair and eventually get back to the second sock after mixing things up a bit.  Also, life is too short to knit stuff you don't like - so if it's not working, move on to something different.  We shall see how this goes.  Wish me luck.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday!  I have a feeling it's going to be a good year.  My horoscope says so, so I believe it! :-)

I had a great weekend.  I took the train to Ann Arbor to visit a friend and go to a Michigan football game.  Seven hours on the train - lots of great knitting time.  I finished a sock and got a lot of work done on my Earth and Sky Shawl.  (need to take pictures, what else is new?)  I've been knitting a lot of shawls and scarf-like objects lately, but I'm getting ready to swatch Sabbatical by Connie Chang Chinio.  I started the swatch this weekend, but lace worked on both sides and a bumpy train ride are not a good combination.  Had to rip after a few rows and save it for quiet time - that means Knit Night tonight is probably not good swatching opportunity!  Knit Night on my birthday - how awesome is that?

I will leave you with an adorable video of "Cast On, Baby" by a group at a LYS in New Jersey.   The diversity of the shop's clientele is amazing - people of all ages and races enjoying the fiber arts.  They look like a great group - I'd love to hang out with them!   I wish we had a LYS like that here...