knitting-mania

I have taken to knitting on the bus and subway, during lunch in the cafeteria, and whenever otherwise not engaged. My fingers can't get enough. If I'm not typing away on the keyboard...they are itching for needles.

My sister's stocking is on hold until I get dpn in the correct size. They will not be metal! (see previous post)

In the meantime, I am working on a Christmas present for my mother. My first afghan. It's great. You work the patches individually and then sew them together at the end. I really like this. You work on itty, bitty, portable pieces. Each one takes a day or two (especially when you work as compulsively as I do). You feel you are making great progress...rather than working on a massive piece that never seems to get closer to the end. I'm really excited about this.

I have lain out the patterned squares and the various colors on a piece of paper...now all I have to do is keep knitting like a mad-woman. Can you understand my insatiable fingers?

I do have a question about the afghan. It reads - selvage st = garter st (knit every row). However, when it says Selvage St in the pattern, it isn't for an entire row. Does this mean I simply knit the one time...or do I knit one row and pick up afterwards?

Call me clueless. Logically I think I should create one row of knitting all around each block to provide a uniform edge through which to sew them together, but I don't feel that is how the pattern reads.

This is the only confusing part...so far. Whew. Can't wait to go home and knit. ;-)

Hope everyone is safe from Ivan...this has been a crazy hurricane year!!!

Metal Mentality

Yesterday I got the yarn for my sister's Christmas stocking. It's a simple stocking, really, just needed more yarn (isn't that always the way?). Luckily I'm visiting my mom in North Carolina, so I found yarn that will work perfectly for much less than I would at home (New York City). Only problem, I have metal needles!

Ergh!

I just discovered how much I hate metal needles. I am using a 100% acrylic yarn and metal needles. My gauge is huge (and off) because the yarn slips so easily from one needle to the next, I have little/no control.

From now on...it's bamboo!

Going to watch a Bob Hope & Bing Crosby movie (Road to Bali), knit, and hang with mom. More kvetching later...

All she wants to do is knit...

Longest of long days at work. I really just want to be home knitting. Of course, I don't have the necessary needles to finish the current project, so I'll be running to the Yarn Co. on Broadway to pick up the necessary supplies.

This is more dangerous than usual for many reasons.

1) Isn't going to the yarn store always dangerous? Especially when in the midst of 3/4 UFOs? I mean, when you have a few going...what's one more!

2) I am bored at work, which means I have spent all day scrolling through other blogs and getting inspired. Now I am dreaming of all the things I can make!!! My head is 100% in the clouds.

I'll be flying stand-by to my mother's this weekend, and I'm almost hoping not to get on the earlier flight so I can sit around the airport knitting undisturbed!

Is it natural to be this obsessed with my projects?

Oh, I almost forgot. I won't be able to finish the series (the cabling one mentioned earlier) because it is for a family member I will see at home...and it's a surprise. So, while at the Yarn Co. I am afraid I'll talk myself into an unnecessary project in order to have something to work on while at my mother's!

Save me from myself, someone...

cable shmable

I know...I know...I know...It's August...not the Day after Thanksgiving...but...if I am going to knit my friends and family things for Christmas presents, I had better get right on it. Usually I make photo albums for them. This year, however, I fell of the photography bandwagon. So...they'll get something I knit as the personal touch.

This brings me to today's post - cabling!

Oh boy. Found exactly what I want to make for a certain member of my family. It's a cable-stitch pattern hat. Perfect. I can alter the pattern to make a matching scarf and mittens. Easy-peasy!

While I am at the store, I have the brilliant idea to knit the cable one color and the background of the hat another color. Did you know this is virtually impossible? Yup...it is.

First, I knit the cable one color and the background the other pulling the strands of the unused color behind the one in use. This didn' work b/c the hat lost its elasticity.

Next, I cut strands of color so I could knit the cable by itself and the background by itself. Unfortunately this meant that while the appropriate parts were the appropriate colors, they were not connected.

I called my mother for advice. While she is not the world's greatest knitter, she is very clever and crafty. Perhaps, she would pull through. Her words of wisdom, "I don't think you can do that."

Thanks, mom. So, the hat is now one color. When I learn how to post images, I'll put one up of the hat. It'll be great when it's done, even if a single color.

Once Upon a Purl

Here goes nothing...my first real entry. One day this will seem normal, sharing (what's basically a diary) with whoever cares to read it on the Web. If you had told me ten years ago, when I got my first email account, that I would be doing this...I would have thought you were crazy. Back then all I wanted to do with the Web was find information on the Dukes of Hazzard and the Beastie Boys.

Today...I'm writing whatever comes to mind for strangers to read and comment on. ::nodding head, rolling eyes::

I picked up crocheting, first, actually. My grandmother taught me when I was really little, but it never stuck. Then, when I was just entering college (about the time of that first email account), I said to my mother, "I want to learn to knit."

She tried to show me how to cast-on. That sort of took. Then she showed me continental knitting (and purling); I made a scarf, ofc. Unfortunately, the visit ended before I was finished with the scarf, so I never learned to bind-off. That scarf sat in my closet, unfinished for at least eight years.

As my fear of flying increased, my doctor said, "Try doing something active; don't just read on the plane." Out came the unfinished scarf...now I knit almost daily, whether I'm flying (on a plane) or not.

Of course, I haven't quite managed to knit anything besides hats and scarves successfully. Soon you'll see pictures of my first complete set of mittens...The first mitten was so poorly sized my roommates took to calling it the penis glove. The thumb was that big (er, disproportionate)! Fortunately, or unfortunately, I unraveled it and started over. However, the second mitten hardly turned out the same size as the first.

Then there was my sweater. I haven't sewn the sides together, but it could fit bigfoot! When it's finished I'll put up a picture of it, too. Maybe even on me, just so you can see how OFF my gauge is!

Day One

Hey All,
I really just need to get something up so I can see how this works, get used to the buttons, and...well...you know.
Once I get the hang of this, I promise to have more to say!