KnitCrush

Mish-Mash & Meaning

How do designers do it? How do they actually get patterns designed, charted, written, and knit? I have a plethora of designs ready to go. I get an idea, get all crazy-excited, chart it all out (even on-the-go--hello, BlackBerry!), and then hunt for stash yarn with which to knit. In that initial excitement, I really do believe that "I'll just get this one started," then I'll go back to the one that's half-knit. I harbor this fear that, if I don't at least get a swatch knit right away for a new idea, I'll forget some important detail & have to trash the whole thing. This is why there are many, many, many unfinished design projects just lying about the house, looking forlorn.

I did start something this weekend that is not my own design, because there have been so many ideas flying around up there that I needed a little mental vacation. I realize this doesn't get any of the design work done. Shush. It's minimal-thought, short-row, garter stitch, cotton lovliness, and the only thinking I have to do is follow someone else's pattern--brilliant! Shawl That Jazz is exactly what I needed. Again, colors make me so silly-happy. (This is the second attempt, because you all know that I must cast everything on twice. The first attempt was in a worsted wool, and I hadn't adjusted the pattern numbers for the increase in yarn weight. I realized this about four rows in to the pattern and promptly pulled the needles out. Jenna & I stretched the resulting piece of knitting almost all the way across the living room. Ahem.)

Oh, want a cool BlackBerry tip? I think I read about this at Crackberry, but didn't realize its full potential until I started playing around with it. If you go into Options-->AutoText, you will see a whopping list of words that the BB will automatically fix if you mistype them. You can leave apostrophes out of contractions and BB will put them in for you (for the most part). You can also add to this list. For example, I have one email template saved on the laptop that answers all of the general questions regarding our fall registration for AYSO. Whenever I get an email asking some of those questions, I send that template email as a response; that way, I don't have to type the same email over & over again.

If you push the Menu button while you're in AutoText, and select New, you can add whatever little shortcut you want to the menu. Type what you want the shortcut to be, scroll down, then type in as much text as you need. Now, every time I type "fall09" in response to an email, it automatically inserts that whole form letter for me. Awesome.

I also had some thoughts on the last RadioLab Short, but I think I'll save those for now. Darwin & Richard Dawkins, and the purpose of flowers.

Peek-A-Boo!

I see you! This is what results from trying to sneak a picture of My-Only-Hunter-In-The-Whole-World. He catches me every time, no matter how sneaky I think I'm being. He's like a neen-ja. (I love the funky green of his eyes; they've been ever-so-slowly changing from blue to green for years now.)

While I was trying to sneak a picture of him, I was working with this. It's luscious Misti Alpaca Handpaint Lace. At the time, it wasn't too humid outside to work with it; in the intervening days, it has alternately been great to work with or too-sticky-in-the-humidity to work with. I have fiddled with this yarn from almost a year, never happy with the stitch patterns I cyphered out for it. Now, I've come up with something dandy. (Yes, I said "dandy." Why? Because the colors of this yarn remind me of fields of wheat, of the Plains, and of Little House on the Prairie. And "dandy" fits that, I think.)

The deal-breaker (thank you, Liz Lemmon) with this yarn? The needles. Matt gave me the Knit Picks Options set of needles for Christmas a few years ago, and I also have several sets of Addi Turbo circs. I had started this on some Addi Turbos, but they were just a smidge too blunt--and I do mean "smidge." There is only the most miniscule difference in the pointiness of the Addis versus the Options in this small needle size, but it has made a massive difference. The double-decreases aren't sliding away from the tips of the Options like they did the tips of the Addis, which was really irritating me. See that? Addi Turbos on the top/left, Options on the bottom/right. Squint, really hard, and you can maybe see the microscopic difference in pointiness that kept me from chucking the whole thing into the garbage bin.

Finding the Time

It can be so difficult, sometimes, to find the time to get things done. Not the ordinary things, like cooking, cleaning, and running errands--those things get done because they have to be done. It's the knitting things, My things, that get pushed aside. Please don't misunderstand me--I don't have a huge issue with this; I fully grasp the fact that we have a lot of kids and opposite work schedules, and that's all fine. But when the ideas start to pile up in my head and I can't get to all of them, it makes me feel a bit unproductive.Ideas for patterns float around in my spacious brain all the time, but I don't think I'll ever have the time to get them all knit up.

I have charted out many lace shawls and stoles(I absolutely love doing the charts--flying that geek flag proudly!), but I don't think the knitting will ever get done. I work on things here & there in little stolen moments that don't seem to amount to a whole lot, especially in laceweight.

Take this sweet little bit of lace. It's Misti International Handpaint Laceweight (forgive me, I don't remember the color--I want to call it Foxglove for some reason, though). This poor yarn has tried to be several different things, but not one pattern fit it just right. I thought maybe a scarf instead of a wrap, because maybe I can feel more productive with fewer repeats per sitting. That bit there is the result of some scattered minutes of knitting yesterday.

And then these things happen, which irritate me to no end but are seemingly unavoidable. That, friends, is the result of casting on 256 stitches to knit a stole sideways so that the subtle striping runs the length of the stole. Over several days, I got about 5 long rows done. I left it at the side of my desk while I made supper the other night; when I had finished cleaning up, I found my poor, abused tiny-beginning-of-a-stole with about 30 stitches dropped off of the needles. A few of the boys had been using my laptop and had lain all over the desk, undoing all of those stitches. I tried to salvage it, I did, but it was too far gone. Oh, well.

(If only I could find a job just charting the lace. Then I would be so very happy.)

After the Silence...

  comes the reason WHY it's been so quiet here. I've written up a wee sock pattern to share with all of you. It's nothing brilliant, earth-shaking, or breathtakingly lovely, but it was fun to knit, so, I want to give it all to you. IF this works as it should, there should be a linky-link to it here: 

Download slightly_off_center_socks.pdf

I used Koigu KPPPM on 2.25 mm (US 1) dpns, but the pattern is written for both dpns and Magic Loop as my love for these two processes bounces back & forth like a sugared-up eight-year-old on a pogo stick. My pithy, but hopefully somewhat clear, directions for a Short-Row Heel are included.

It was fun to knit because the twist panel in the sock made me pay attention just a little bit, then I could cruise on through the plain stockinette while watching Buffy, season 1. (Yes, that's my current guilty pleasure. No, I can not explain it.)