Such a deal!

I was at Ben Franklin Crafts today looking for some red yarn to make a coworker a scrunchie.  I noticed they had some solid colored sock yarn.  I have been thinking for a long time about making a sweater with fingering weight yarn.  I know it will take longer, but I think the drapeyness will more than make up for it.  I found this sock yarn by Cascade.

I’m not sure what kind of a pattern I’ll use.  I’d like to try my hand at set-in sleeves from the top down.  Maybe I’ll modify a commercial or free pattern.

Anyway, they had some sock yarn that I had bought there before, Online Supersocke.  It is a pretty decent yarn.  75% wool, 25% nylon.  A nice, basic sock yarn.  I’ve used it before with good results, but I think I paid about 13.95 for it, which is still a good price for a large ball that makes a pair of socks.  But it happened to be on sale.  And when I say on sale, I mean ON SALE.  Check out the price sticker.

Yes, you’re seeing that correctly.  Three dollars for a ball of yarn large enough to knit a pair of socks.  Woo-hoo!  I bought three of them.  They weren’t colors I would go ga-ga over, but for three bucks, who cares?

I’m almost done with my scarf.  Can you believe it?  After that, I’ll have to find two more projects to work on.  Only two.  No cheating.  Can I stick with my plan?  I think so.

Discipline

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to be working on one project only (a scarf)) until it was finished.  I’ve kept my word on that, and to my surprise, I’ve got 28 inches done!  Wow!  I think this will make me a better knit blogger, too.

I blog about a project, then I blog about another project, then I blog about another project, and by the time I get around to blogging again about a previous project, to either show what progress I’ve made or to show the finished object, I have to give a link from six months prior to bring the reader up to speed.  Frankly, I find it annoying.

So, from now on (one hand on heart, other hand raised), I will no longer work on more than two projects at a time(either knitting, spinning, or crochet).   I will write down in a notebook all the ideas that I have for future projects, and when one is finished, I will start another one.

It is going against my nature somewhat, but sometimes we can become unbalanced, and even if our nature is more P than J (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), it doesn’t mean that we can’t become so unbalanced that the multiple projects become overwhelming and start to stifle creativity instead of enabling it.  I feel the same way about a huge stash.  If you like the yarn or fiber, then do something with it.  If you don’t like it, give it away, or sell it.  That’s why I like a periodic de-stashing.  It freshens things.  One problem I’m having is that I have a lot of sock yarn.  I like knitting socks, so I figure any sock yarn that appeals to me in the store is game.  But I’ve been thinking for a while now about the idea of making sweaters with thinner yarn.  It’s hard to find sport weight.  Mostly it’s worsted and DK.   But there’s a ton of fingering weight around.  I don’t really want to make sweaters out of superwash wool and nylon, but the colors are fabulous in sock yarn.  So, now I’m looking  at my stash of sock yarn and thinking, gee, if I just had four more skeins of that yarn I could use it for a sweater.

I think, though, that the dearth of sport weight yarn in nice colors could be the excuse I need to spin my own.  I might have to do that.  I got a lot of nice stuff at Black Sheep, which I will take pictures of and post soon.

But I’m looking forward to this new leaf I’m turning over of being more disciplined, tieing up loose ends, and takin’ care of business.

Challenge

I don’t knit for others very often.  I gave handknit gifts to everyone one Christmas, and it was a bust.  Most people, especially if they are not knitters, do not understand how much time and effort go into a knitted item.  So, after that fateful Christmas, I decided not to knit for anyone besides myself (and maybe my cats).

So, I’m a bit surprised to find myself knitting a scarf for someone I don’t know, except virtually.  It’s winter in Australia, and a woman I know from a feminist forum offhandedly mentioned that she could use a new scarf, and could I knit her one.   After questioning her to make sure a.) she was serious and not joking, b.) that she doesn’t have an allergy or aversion to wool, and c.) that she doesn’t have an allergy to cats, since it’s well nigh impossible for cat hair to NOT get on anything I knit, I agreed to do it.

She said she liked green, so I combed the yarn store for something nice.  I don’t want to take any pictures or even get specific about what kind of yarn and what kind of pattern I’m using, in case she reads this blog.  She reads my other blog and there’s a link to this one, so it’s possible.  Trust me when I say that so far, the scarf is turning out beautifully.

This is going to be interesting for me.  I am not on a deadline per se, but since it’s winter, I’d like to get it done as soon as possible.  I also have never really knitted on a deadline (except for that one Christmas).  It’s not my “thing.”  I don’t like pressure, especially for an activity that brings me pleasure as a hobby.  If I have to knit, it will feel like a job.  I don’t want that.

I’ve decided that I won’t force myself to knit if I don’t feel like it, but if I feel like knitting, I will only work on the scarf until it’s done.  No picking up my socks for a couple quick rows.  No crocheting on my top-down short-sleeved top.  No starting any new projects.  I have to knit on the scarf if I’m knitting.

It will be interesting to see how long it actually takes me to knit something when I focus solely on one project.  I’ve never gotten an actual true estimate, because I have so many projects going at once, that it seems to take an inordinate amount of time for each one.

I’m thinking I need to change my ways and have fewer simultaneous projects.  I don’t think I could stick to just one thing at a time, but 5 or 6 things at a time seems excessive.

Yes, I’m alive

I usually hate reading blogs where there is a long lapse between posts, but I’m doing it myself.  In my defense, I do have another blog to attend to.  This one is fiber-only content.  My other blog has everything else…vegetarianism, primitivism, feminism.  I figured a one-stop blog would offend too many people, so I split them up.

I made some purchases, recently.  I bought a set of crochet hooks that Grumperina recommended, but I ended up returning them.  They are too short and hit my palm in an uncomfortable place.  I’m used to hooks that completely clear my palm and stick out the other side, like knitting needles.  I bought them because they supposedly have a comfortable grip.  I have been wanting to try amigurumi, and since the stitches are so tight (to keep the stuffing from poking through), it was mentioned in a book that hand crampss might be a problem if one didn’t use a comfort-type hook.  But I’ve been eyeing the Addi Turbo crochet hooks.  They have a comfy-looking grip on them.  But I also saw a video on YouTube the other day about making your own handles for crochet hooks out of polymer clay.  That’s a thought.  I wouldn’t use my current hooks, though.  I’d buy new ones, b/c I love my Susan Bates, and some of these go way back, when they used to be made better, so I wouldn’t want to ruin them.

I have been crocheting dishcloths and scrunchies.

I used Paton’s Grace for this scrunchie.  I bought it at Michael’s, I think.  It’s mercerized and sport weight.  It’s nice yarn.

This dishcloth was made with half double crochet alternating in the front and back loop.

And this is just plain half-double crochet (I think), with a single crochet border.

These dishcloths were made from Knitpicks CotLin which is 70% cotton, 30% linen.  It’s DK weight.  I used to crochet dishcloths out of worsted weight “kitchen cotton,” back when I didn’t know how to knit.  And they were serviceable.  However, when I learned to knit and made knitted dishcloths, I found them to be better because they were thinner.  So, this DK weight yarn is great for crocheted dishcloths.  I don’t think it has the same scrubbing action as the cotton that most people use for dishcloths (Peaches and Creme, and Sugar ‘n Cream), but it’s fine.

I also ordered several skeins of Shine Sport from Knitpicks.  I can’t decide if I’m going to crochet a summer top with it or knit one.  Now that I’m crocheting so much, I get frustrated with the slowness of knitting.

I’m also crocheting a tank top with a DK weight cotton/merino blend, but I had to rip it out and start over because it was too snug.  I swear I either over-estimate or under-estimate how wide I am.  I did read a nice tip in a magazine recently, though.  When you measure your chest, you shouldn’t measure around your breasts.  You should measure above them, just under your arms, and if your breasts are large, you can put in bust darts (like short rows).  Interesting.  It makes sense, because I have a store-bought sweater that fits me really well, and it is not the measurement of the fullest part of my bust.  The sweaters that I have made with the measurement of the fullest part of my bust are huge on me.

The annual Black Sheep Gathering is next weekend.  Woot!  I’m looking forward to it.  I’m going with a friend this year (I think).  The friend that I taught to knit.  She could never go before, because she worked the same shift as a coworker who always marked the calendar first…even though she has been going every year since its inception, she couldn’t pass up one year to let a new knitter go.  What a bitch!  Anyway, my friend is in a different department, so she’ll most likely be able to go.

Hopefully, posts will pick up.  BSG always inspires me to knit and spin, even if I have been taking a break from it.  The energy there is so wonderful.  I really like I’m surrounded by my people.  The first year I went, I actually teared up a bit.

More crochet madness

I went back east to visit family and got back a couple days ago.  I took one extra shirt, two pairs of underpants and an extra pair of socks.  My plan was to wear the same pants and shirt for the time I was there, and I’d wash my socks and underwear every couple days in the sink and washing my pants and shirts once or twice while I was there.  I pack light clothes-wise because I don’t really care about clothes, but primarily so that I’ll have more room for my knitting and crocheting.  I like to take just a carry-on–no checked baggage–so I pack things to keep my occupied on the plane and in the airport, so there is little room for clothes.

I took the tank top I mentioned in the last post (crochet) and a pair of socks (knit).  I’m really enjoying crocheting again.  Gosh, I have such a complicated relationship with crochet.

Just like I’ve come full circle with my thoughts on synthetic yarn, I’ve come full circle with my thoughts on crochet.  I think part of the problem was that I was trying to do everything with it (because I didn’t know how to knit).  Then when I learned to knit, I thought knitting was better in all respects than crochet, and I was kinda mad at crochet because it wasn’t giving me the same type of fabric that knitting does.  But I think I’ve come to a point of acceptance with crochet where I understand that it is its own craft and it has its own limitations (knitting does too).  But there are positive things about crochet and those should be enjoyed for their own merit.

Here are some random musings about crochet and knitting:

* If you’re going to crochet a garment, use thin yarn.  You shouldn’t use anything thicker than DK, unless perhaps it’s for a coat.  Fingering and sport are great for tops.

* Crochet definitely looks better when the stitches are smaller.

* Some things really shouldn’t be crocheted–like socks for example.  If you want to make socks, learn to knit.

* There’s nothing wrong with using crochet primarily to make afghans and dishcloths.

* Because of the variety of stitches, crochet can look more interesting.  It’s a shame that so many people just make granny squares and boxy, thick, and stiff sweaters.

* Crochet will never be as elastic as knitting.

* Crochet is about a 1/3 faster than knitting, but it uses about a third more yarn.

* Crochet stitches are thicker than knit stitches, so if you want to knit ribbing on a crocheted sweater, you can double the yarn to make the thickness more consistent between the ribbing and the body of the sweater.

* It’s a bigger pain in the ass to try on something as you go with knitting, because all the stitches need to be slipped to a thread.  With crochet, you just pull your loop up longer so it doesn’t get pulled and unravel and try it on.

* Crochet increases and decreases are always straight (no leaning), so shaping is a breeze.

One of the things that sparked me recently was going through a lot of my books I had stored at my folks and find my Harmony crochet stitch book.  I was looking at all those stitch patterns and thinking, Yowza!  That’s gorgeous!

I think I’ll probably have much more of a balance between knitting and crochet projects.

A crochet bug bit me

I’ve written on this blog many times about how I learned to crochet as a young girl and did it exclusively until I learned to knit about 8 years ago and I have been knitting ever since and all but abandoned crochet.  Every so often I think about crochet and then I end up writing a scathing post about how unsuitable crochet is for most things.

But I always feel bad about it, because crochet was my first craft.  So, I scour the web for patterns and look at books in the library and I’m inevitably disgusted by what is out there.

But the last few days I’ve been crocheting up a storm (crochet is quicker than knitting, remember).  And I’ve mostly done dishcloths, because they are fast and they are very useful (especially for me because I need inspiration to wash the dishes, and a shiny, new dishcloth does the trick).

Also, I found some cotton/wool blend I had purchased to make a tank top.  Why not crochet it?  The yarn is less than worsted (I think maybe DK), so it won’t be too bad crocheted.  Crochet makes thicker fabric than knitting, so you almost never want to make a garment out of worsted weight.  Maybe a coat.

I might not have enough, since crochet takes about a third more yarn than knitting.  I’ll use up one skein and see how far I’ve gotten.  I’m using half double crochet, which is the nicest for garments, I think.  Single crochet takes too long (might as well knit), and double crochet is sometimes too long of a stitch and makes too much of an open fabric.  Half double is just right.  I’m also doing the half double as a linked stitch, meaning that instead of a yarn over, I am putting the hook through the previous stitch and then pulling up a loop.  That way the stitches are connected at the sides instead of just at the top and bottom.  Makes a less open fabric.  I don’t plan on wearing a bra with this top, so I can’t have my nipples poking out.

Oh, the cowl I was working on?  Abandoned.  I wasn’t feeling it.  I think I may have to abandon my 3 X chic sweater, too.  I made it too small.  All my previous sweaters were too big, because I over-estimated how big I was.  When I finally measured a sweater that fit me well, I realized the error I was making.  But  measuring a gauge swatch made of ribbing is a difficult thing.  So, I messed up.  Meh.

I think garment-wise I’m going to concentrate on making short-sleeved tops and tank tops for summer.  I’ll worry about sweaters again another day.  I do want to finish my patterned yoke sweater, because I’m designing the pattern myself, and it’s going to be too cute!  I’m still making headway on the EZ garter stitch blanket.

I feel like such a bad knit blogger, because I have so many projects started and abandoned that I wonder if people can even keep up with me.  Some people knit so fast that they can mention a project one day, and then two days later, there’s a pic of the finished item.  Not me.  I start a million projects, then abandon half of them, then pick up other ones after I and everyone else has forgotten about them.

I can’t remember…is knitting supposed to be enjoyable?

I don’t know how typical of a knitter I am in that I start numerous projects, and it may be months before I finish something, simply because projects are picked up and abandoned willy nilly.

Back in October of last year, I started a pair of socks with a beautiful quasi-solid hand-dyed sock yarn.  I got halfway up the foot (starting from the toe) when I realized that I didn’t make the toes long enough.  I wanted the toes and heels in a contrasting color, and I changed color after increasing to fit my foot, but I start with more stitches than is the norm (24 for fingering weight, when the custom is 16).  So, when I was finished increasing, I should’ve kept going with the toe color for a while longer.  I didn’t like the way it looked, so I ripped back both socks (I was doing them both at the same time on double points, as is my customary method).

OK, so then some time ago, I started over.  I had one toe done and hadn’t started the other.  So, last night I decided to get the socks out and finish them.  I made the second toe.  Then I realized that I used a different increase in the first one.  Rip.

Then I started the toe again.  I got several rounds into it, when I realized I didn’t have the right number…I missed an increase somewhere.  Rip.

Then I started the toe again.  I don’t remember what happened.  I think at this point, I’m started to repress things.  I ripped again.

Today, I cast on again for the toe so I’d have something to knit while walking to the beauty parlor for a trim.  I knit all the way to the beauty parlor and when I got home, I continued on the sock.  At some point I realized I had one fewer stitch on one side of the foot than the other.  So, I increased a stitch and then afterwards, I found the lost stitch SEVERAL rounds back just hanging there.  I went to undo the increase and then go back and try to rescue the lost stitch but something happened that caused me to mess something up irreparably, and I ripped the toe back again.

OK, now I’m getting pissed off.  I decided to just abandon the socks and get out a completely different ball of sock yarn, one that doesn’t have bad mojo.  It’s a skein of Knitpicks sock yarn in a really pretty colorway.  I reach in to find the end.  Where is it?  I can’ t find it.  Usually when that happens, I just grab a hunk and pull it out.  I refer to that as the skein burping up a yarn baby.  (Why burping up and not birthing is beyond me).  However, this is the biggest yarn baby ever.  It’s half the damned skein!  And it’s full of knots!  Grrr.

So, now I’m fucking pissed off at knitting and socks and sock knitting and stupid yarn.  I was looking at old posts within the sock category and I found a reference to a skein of yarn being all knotty and preventing my socks from matching exactly stripe for stripe.  The culprit?  Knitpicks sock yarn.  I’m starting to think their yarn bargains aren’t really bargains when you lose half the  skein to knots…especially a self-striping skein.

I usually knit to calm down, but it’s knitting that’s got me riled up.  Ack!

Makin’ headway

I am halfway through the third piece of my EZ garter-stitch blanket.  There are four pieces.  It’s such an easy knit, and I love how it turns the corner with the short rows.  I love short rows.  They can turn sharp corners…

or make rounded heels…

or triangles…

or bust darts…

I would probably knit the blanket again.  I’m thinking of making one for my mom, to match her new furniture.  I crocheted her an afghan about a decade ago, which matched her then couch.  But it’ll depend on how bad the sewing up of the pieces is.  If it’s too bad, I probably won’t want to tackle it again.  But it’s such a fun knit.

I got some new fiber in the mail, and have some more ordered.  Once I get batteries in my camera (an ever-present issue with me, it seems), I’ll get some shots up.  And I want to write a couple book reviews.  I have “No Sheepp for You” from the library and “The Intentional Spinner” which I bought recently, and they are both most excellent books.  Look for reviews in a few days.

I’m also plying the shetland I mentioned that I would be making full-fingered gloves from.  Look for that soon, as well.

Short rows

I’ve never liked the way my short rows looked.  I’ve tried every method out there for concealing wraps, and even methods that don’t involve wraps.  I found one method that doesn’t use wraps and it’s really good at eliminating any holes, but it’s too difficult to memorize, and I have to keep looking at the  directions.

But this method by Cat Bordhi is great!  It’s easy to memorize once you’ve done a few of them, and it looks so clean from the front.  This will be my go-to method from now on.

Yarn snobs…meh

I mentioned in a previous post that I have gone full circle with my thoughts on synthetics.  I had a brief dalliance with yarn snobbery, but it’s not a viable way of life for me.

I was talking to a woman on the bus this morning.  I’ve seen her several times during my morning commute, but it was only after she saw me knitting that she started a converstion.  Knitting is like that.  You feel comfortable talking to strangers when they knit.

Today, she mentioned that she had enjoyed knitting a couple baby blankets, but she didn’t know any babies, so she was saving them for a possible grandchild in the future.  I said to her, “If you like knitting small blankets, why not donate them to the Humane Society?”  Her response was that she wouldn’t waste such a nice blanket on a dog, and that she only knits with natural fibers.

Oh, for pete’s sake.  Is she going to die if she comes in contact with acrylic?  I mean really.  The ludicrousness, it hurts.

I love natural fibers.  I really do.  And I use them as much as possible.  They are superior for most applications.  There are a few instances, though, when synthetic fibers are the superior choice.  When?  Well, when you want something that can go in the washer and dryer.  Like my EZ garter stitch blanket, for example.  With two cats in the house, the fur is flying.  I am constantly picking cat hair off my plate.  I think I eat my weight in cat hair a year.  Everything I knit has cat hair incorporated in it.  I know this blanket will be covered in cat hair within minutes of it going on the back of my couch.  Plus, it’s large.  I am not interested in handwashing and lying flat to dry something that large.  Plus, a run through the washer and dryer will get all the cat hair off.

Another instance when synthetics are superior has to do with cost.  Synthetics are, for the most part, cheaper (although some of that frou frou yarn at the LYS that’s 20 bucks for a tiny skein is synthetic…read the label).  I would rather knit with synthetics than not knit at all.  I would knit with twigs and blades of grass that I spit-spliced together.  Knitting isn’t just for wealthy dilettantes.  It’s for anyone who is seduced by its charms…rich, poor, female, male, old, young, conversative, liberal, hippie, yuppie.

At the present moment, I can afford (the cheaper) natural fibers, and I am more than happy to buy them.  When I buy cotton for summer tops, though, they are usually blends with acrylic (occasionally wool), because cotton is heavy.  When I am making something that would benefit from being machine washable and dryable, I will use synthetics (not a fan of superwash for things other than socks).  Such instances might be baby clothes, large afghans, blankets for the animal shelter, clothing for someone whom I know will not handwash the item, etc.

If I were going through an insolvent period, I would probably buy wool for smaller items that would benefit from the warmth, like mittens, gloves, and hats.  I would probably use synthetics for sweaters (maybe even jackets/coats) or any large item.

No one should ever be made to feel “less than” for what they knit with, how they knit, or what they knit.