What I have learned over the last year or so is that there seems to be a battle between the main fiber arts. Knitters seem to think that crocheters pursue an inferior craft. As a result, crocheters are very combative toward knitting, often overcompensating by saying nasty things about knitting in return. It is not a pretty sight. In fact, today I read a comment on the Knit Picks staff blog, where a crocheter took issue that the new crocheter hired at Knit Picks would want to learn to knit as well as her admitted ability to crochet. The person went so far to say: “I still will refuse to buy yarn from you because of your bad attitude.” That is, of course, her own choice. But she assumed in her comment that the crocheter in question would be entering into a hostile environment for those who enjoy crochet, which the Knit Picks staff have endeavored to show is far from the case. Over the year that I’ve been buying from Knit Picks, I’ve seen more and more crochet items showing up, and the staff seems to have taken a greater interest in crochet as a medium, including writing many posts on the blog about it. Yet, this crocheter still feels that her craft is not only underrepresented but also reviled on the site. It is a sad thing to see.

Why does this rivalry exist? Many of the same things can be made with both knit and crochet, often to incredibly similar results. The fact, however, is that each craft is used differently to create different results. A crocheted hat is just as beautiful as a knitted hat, but it is different than a knitted hat. And that is part of what makes it beautiful and special. Crocheters, as far as I am concerned, have a magical ability to create things which completely baffle me. I did try to crochet, but what I ended up with was a wobbly-looking uneven scarf… thing that I couldn’t bear to give to its intended recipient in the end. I admire crocheters for their ability to take a hook and some yarn and make things. I can’t figure it out. (I’ll need to take a class someday.)

I do not understand why people who crochet are so hostile toward people who knit. I do not understand why some people deride crochet as inferior. It makes no sense to me. The crafts are different, but equal. The people who pursue each are no different – they are people who like to use fiber and hooks or needles to create lovely things. I hope to see this warring subside. However, much like everything else in the world, it seems there will always be combative people who choose to make issues where there are none.

This issue still exists, and it may be that there will never be a time where all knitters and crocheters will respect each craft equally. In the meantime, I’d like to extend the olive branch to those crocheters out there who have ever felt slighted by a knitter. I think your craft is fantastic and I wish I could pursue it. Instead, I will look at your lovelies on Ravelry and instead continue to knit things which I believe are lovely as well. Your craft is nifty and I plan to learn how to do it someday (when I ever have free time again).

The knitter and the crocheter should be friends!

The Knitter’s Manifesto
By Donald Sutton

No longer will I be known as merely a crafter, nor will my knitting be considered a hobby. I am an artist, and my art deserves to be recognized as such by the world. If the world refuses, it will be so recognized by me, for I am the only one who can truly determine the validity of my art.

I am an artist whose medium is yarn, whose tools are simple needles, whose palette encompasses every known color of the spectrum. I paint with string, carve with sticks, and the click of needles is its own special music. I create objects out of next to nothing that are functional as well a beautiful.

I am an artist and have spent years honing my skills. That time spent is invaluable to me, and increases with each work I complete. I am the only one who can determine fair recompense for my artwork. Each stitch is well and honestly considered, and if an incorrect stitch is left in the work, it is because I have determined it should be so, not because I made a mistake. I am the only one who can accurately determine how my art is displayed.

I am an artist. My creations are as personal as the thoughts in my head. Should I choose to keep any or every piece I create, I will not be labeled selfish or uncaring. These are painstaking works; years of study are involved in each stitch, each pattern, and each color choice. They deserve to be received by someone who will recognize and appreciate the costs involved, not merely in materials, but in time and skill as well. In the event that my gifting was ill-considered I can at my own discretion retrieve the piece without being thought of as selfish, or known as someone who gives and takes back.

I am an artist and I will always retain the authority, decision and right to determine the final disposition of my works. Each recipient is matched with an original, unique creation – this is not done lightly or without thought. I do not take requests, either for articles or works in specific patterns. Each work is carefully considered based on my knowledge of my own skill and the characteristics of the intended recipient, even if that recipient is me. For the most part, my works are created for a single individual, and thus are to be considered even more priceless than an installation that will be viewed or ignored by the masses.

I am an artist. I am not selfish, stingy or greedy. I do not take myself, my skills or my art for granted. They are gifts from a power beyond me that are enviable and coveted. I pity those who will not create; I do not despise those who cannot.

I create because I must, but not because I am obligated. To not create is unthinkable. It is my desire, skill and creativity that make me an artist, not anyone else’s opinion. It is my choice to work in the medium of sticks and string.

I am a knitter, and I am an artist.

Let all of us who knit (or crochet, or sew, or cross stitch, or weave, or spin, or do beading, etc, etc, etc) stand together and make similar declarations!

My name is Laura. I am a knitter, and I am an artist.

When it came time for me to make my first pair of socks (at least the first pair that I actually envisioned finishing – I did do one half of a sock last year, but it wasn’t until later that I realized that I hated the stitch pattern on the yarn and was probably never going to finish the first sock, let alone do a second!), I followed suit. I like the idea of socks from the toe-up, particularly for Johnathan, since he wanted knee-length socks and I wasn’t positive I’d have enough yarn for that. Plus, knowing that I have second sock syndrome (a syndrome in which the knitter indefinitely puts off beginning or finishing the second sock because said knitter has tired of the pattern; my first mittens were made well over a month apart!), I wanted to try two-at-a-time. Two-at-a-time from the toe up on one circular needle. I found a tutorial for it, and off we went!

The tutorial is for worsted weight yarn and larger needles while I was knitting with fingering weight yarn and tiny needles. They aren’t the smallest size I own, but just about. I cast on for two colorwork socks, with striped toe and heel, reversed a pattern from being cuff-down to toe-up, and just jumped in with both feet and started. It was a pretty enlightening experience, mainly in how easy this was to accomplish for me.

I won’t say I haven’t had my fair share of setbacks, however. First I made the socks about half an inch too short – uncomfortably short for Johnathan’s feet. So I ripped out the heels and knitted longer, then did the heels again. Then when I got to the color work, we found that it was too tight. Well crap. So, I got really mad at the socks, threw them across the room, fumed for a bit, then came up with a plan to fix it. I put out all sorts of fires in the knitting of these socks!

Starting out with a technique that is perceived as difficult to many makes me feel kind of good. It makes me feel fearless. Even though I’m not starting these things this way to show off, it makes me want to boast to other sock knitters how well it’s going. (Until I run into a snafu, that is.) I feel wonderful knowing that by not letting myself think something is hard, I’m able to accomplish it. Even the warnings on the tutorial that said tutorial should be for experienced knitters didn’t deter me. I have two successful socks in progress that hopefully will fit Johnathan’s feet perfectly – better than any store-bought sock could.

Now that I’ve conquered sock knitting, lace is next on my list. I couldn’t, of course, pick an easy project for that, either. No, I have in my queue (and the materials in my stash) for a shawl that, as written, can measure anywhere from 44″ square to 50″ square depending on the knitter. Start easy? Well, clearly that’s for other knitters. Not this stupidly fearless knitter!

I have had this pattern favorited for a while, and it was the only thing that I could see coordinating with the Grove pattern, which required the yardage that I had, was free, and was at least sort-of fitting with the style of the mittens. I probably could have made up a hat to go with the grove pattern, but I didn’t want to get into designing when it comes to hats. I’ll stick to scarves for now.

I started the hat on Monday. I must have cast it on about ten times that day, with my last attempt garnering me a fairly uneven cast on of 95 stitches. I needed 96. So I started over on Tuesday. I got the right number of stitches cast on the first time, and it didn’t look like crap! Hurrah! So I started the brim.

K1, P1, K1, P1. I got two rows into the pattern before I realized that I was not knitting, I was knitting through the back loop, which produces a different kind of stitch than a regular knit. Oh well, I’ve decided to say that’s a custom design element, meant to go with the twisted stitches on the mittens. Now it coordinates! Totally planned, I swear.

The rest of the hat was a trial at best. Not because the pattern was bad, because it wasn’t. I just couldn’t seem to pay enough attention to it to do it right the first time. I would knit two rows, realize I had done something wrong, then go back to fix it. This went on for almost the entire duration of the hat. On Saturday night, I was finishing with it, and by the time I got done, I realized that my decreases had somehow gone wrong. I ended up with twenty stitches when I ought to have had sixteen. Well, crap. So I just did a ssk, k2tog around and finished with ten stitches. That was good enough for me, and threaded the yarn through the remaining stitches and called it done.

There really was only one problem when I finished. It neither looked nor fit like a beret. I know that the Swish yarn from Knit Picks relaxes a lot when it’s washed, but I did not expect it to relax quite that much. I washed it anyway, and pulled out a plate to see what would happen. Much to my surprise, the hat fit over the full-size plate! I guess it was going to be a beret after all.

After blocking, the hat was definitely a beret. It’s not a very floppy or loose one, and it stays fairly close to my head, but it’s definitely not a beanie anymore. I love how it turned out, even with all of my mistakes.

I need more winter gear like I need a hole in my head. These mittens, though, they have been calling to me since Jared Flood released the pattern last summer in his book Made in Brooklyn. I waited until it was available as an individual PDF, because nothing else from the book was calling to me as strongly as these mittens. I got my yarn, as usual, from Knit Picks. I went with orange, partially because I liked the color of the ones in the picture and partially because I don’t have anything that’s orange and I thought it would be nice for the dreary, dull winter.

They’re not very hard to knit, honestly, once you figure out what the pattern is doing. I started with size 6 needles, but after doing part of the pattern, I decided they would be too small, so I ripped it out and started over in size 7. I’m glad I did, too, because they fit perfectly after blocking, and they certainly would have been too small if I hadn’t gone up a needle size. The cuffs are pretty easy. They are the only part of the mittens that require cabling. I used a cable needle because the yarn is slippery and with my nickle-plated needles, I didn’t want to fight with cabling without a cable needle, even if I’m capable of doing it. After the cuffs, the charts start, and they’re pretty easy to read once printed out from the PDF. I understand that they were very small in the book, but they take up a whole page on the PDF so I had no problems reading the different symbols.

Most of the pattern is pretty clear, but I did have some problems with the chart. One of the symbols is defined simply as “purl” when it should be decreasing two stitches. It appears twice on each mitten and six times on each thumb, so I really needed to figure out what it was. After searching the internet and Ravelry, I determined that I am apparently the only person who had this problem with the pattern. I looked up common chart symbols for knitting and ended up looking up a way to do a two-stitch no-lean purlwise decrease. The left-hand chart was fine – I had no problems with it. There were some mistakes on the right-hand chart where there were some missing symbols, but by that time I was well-versed in what the pattern should be doing so it didn’t mess me up at all.

Can I just say how much I love these mittens? They’re bold and beautiful. They’re also very soft, owing to the superwash wool, and they fit me very well. I can’t wait to wear them when the weather backs down from “amazingly hot and muggy”. (Okay, so it’s only kinda hot, but it’s also only June. It will be amazingly hot soon enough.)

I did goof with this, though. I ordered 3 skeins of Swish worsted based on the yardage mentioned for the mittens, expecting to use maybe half of the third skein, if that. It’s always better to have a little more than necessary, right? Well, I think I went far beyond “a little.” I used less than 1 skein for the first mitten, and I got at least 1/3 of the way through the second mitten before I needed a second skein. I used 28 grams of the 50 gram ball, so I have 72 grams of yarn left – 171 yards! That’s almost enough to make an entire second pair of mittens! I’ve decided I’m going to make a hat to go with the mittens. I need another hat just as much as I need another pair of mittens, but how can I resist when I’ve found a wonderful pattern to showcase this beautiful yarn color?

There are only a few things that I’ve heard of in knitting, the mere mention of which can bring some knitters to tears. One of them is steeking. This is the act of cutting something open in order to form arm holes (or for other purposes, but most of the time I’ve heard it in regards to armhole shaping). It makes me shiver to think of doing all that work on a sweater, only have to cut into it. I know it works or people wouldn’t continue to do it, but the very idea frightens me. I don’t think that has anything to do with my belief that the skill is difficult – I think it has to do with cutting open a goddamn piece of knitting!

The other skill that I have heard mentioned in fear and awe is kitchener stitch. Kitchener is a way of combining two ends or pieces of knitted items without creating a seam. This is useful for things like the tops of mittens or the toes of socks. And that sounds pretty good to me! I had never really had a reason to pursue learning the stitch, as I have made exactly one half of a sock so far (and I did that one toe-up), and the two pairs of mittens I’ve made  have both employed the three-needle bind-off at the top so it didn’t really matter at that point either. However, reading other peoples’ account of what they did differently than the pattern recommends on the mittens I’m making, I saw that a few did kitchener stitch to close up the top. Hmm, no seam at the top? These are close-fitting mittens, so not having a seam at my fingertips might be nice. So decided to try it.

Like I do every time I want to learn a new skill, I looked up tutorials. There were several picture-by-picture tutorials, at least one text-only (not helpful in that this needs more visual instruction, I think), and a youtube tutorial. I read the tutorial for kitchener on Knitty, on another site where the person used enormous needles and contrasting yarn to accomplish her photos (which made me giggle), and the youtube video. After reading both, I was thinking, “I don’t get it, why do people think this is so hard? It looks easy to me!” Then I watched the youtube video, and really got confused about the difficulty level. Seriously, I could not figure out how that was supposed to be hard!

Everything I’ve read about kitchener stitch recommends practicing a few times first with easy-to-use (non-slippery) yarn in good lighting with no distractions. I have to be honest: practicing for me is basically doing. So practicing? Out of the question. Besides, I wanted to finish the top of the mitten! So I dove in while watching the youtube video. Through the front as if to knit, then the next as if to purl. Through the back as if to purl, and the next as if to knit. Repeat. I finished just a few seconds after the youtube video ended, and while I did not achieve the most even kitchener stitch, and it looks a little silly if you examine it too closely (I should have waited a few more minutes and found out how to do it in pattern), it looks very clean when not being closely examined and has no seam from the inside! Win/win!

So… I guess the point here is that I don’t understand what’s so hard about it. I think that would make me a terrible teacher, at least for this skill. All-told, though, the most fear that I had associated with doing kitchener stitch was from word-of-mouth, not because it actually looked hard. If I can do a sewn bind-off, I can do kitchener stitch. It might take a few tries until my tension on it becomes more even, but it is that which practice will improve, not my execution of the stitch.

There are a lot of things in life that become a lot easier if the expectation of difficulty is removed. Math, for me, is one of those. The harder I think it’s supposed to be, the more likely I am to have trouble with it. I don’t know if this goes for other people, but it certainly has been true for me. Knitting is one of those things. I’ve jumped right in to do something because I thought it was pretty, only to later find out that what I was supposed to find it difficult based on my skill level. Ignorance in this case is bliss.

When you get down to brass tacks, though, almost everything can be broken down into smaller pieces. Knitting is just a series of knits and purls done in specific formations, twisted around or crossed over one another to make interesting and different patterns and styles. Math breaks down into the four basic operation: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. If you have your basics down pat, then you should be able to tackle the harder stuff. It just might take a little longer. I realize that it’s a gross oversimplification of math to think of it that way, but mentally reducing it to something that is less difficult usually makes it easier to tackle the more difficult portions, at least for me. (And math has always been difficult for me, so I do everything I can to ease that.)

What is difficult seems to be mostly in the mind. And what is not is there, too. My perceived difficulty of something is likely to affect how difficult it is for me to do, and likewise my ignorance of the difficulty level of something affects my ability to accomplish something that I otherwise might have considered difficult. It’s amazing what tricks our minds can play on us.

I really didn’t know where to get one, other than Knit Picks, and getting one there has the added benefit of meaning that I can acquire more yarn simultaneously. So I ordered some yarn, a more portable tape measure and a ball winder. The day we got it in the mail, I waited until Johnathan got home, remembering how mesmerized he had been of the ball winder at the shop in Columbus. He called his mom to talk shortly after coming home, and while I worked on some things in the computer room, he had taken it upon himself to unbox the ball winder and wind a ball of yarn. He was so very excited to show me that first yarn cake! He was like a puppy dog. If he had a tail, it would have been wagging.

After he got off the phone, I came out into the living room and made myself comfortable with the camera and took photos of him winding yarn. Bulky yarn was done in a flash! Suddenly, instead of a troublesome skein that I would ultimately end up tangling, it was a center-pull ball. Beautiful! Fingering weight yarn took longer, but the end result was the same; it was beautiful. Lace yarn took even longer for the same yardage and had the added frustration of being very fine and difficult, on occasion, to handle.

It didn’t take long, though, before he had wound up nine skeins of yarn: five bulky, two fingering weight and two lace weight.

I think the most amazing thing about all of this was how much fun he seemed to be having. It’s very utilitarian for me. It means that I’ll be able to just pick up a skein of yarn and start knitting, but Johnathan actually genuinely seemed to enjoy it! And that, to me, means a lot. It meant he was taking interest in a facet of one of my hobbies. For that time, it was a connection we had via knitting. I like feeling connected to my husband.

We did have one mishap with some lace yarn along the way. He used too much tension while winding some black silk-blend lace yarn and it ended up becoming such a tight mass that once the end got pulled inside, it was basically impossible to get it back out. We did end up getting it loose without having to unwind and rewind the ball, but it took a lot of frustration and just a bit of swearing.

The ball winder and swift are possibly the coolest knitting hardware I could have, though. I love how much entertainment Johnathan gets out of it, and it’s honestly pretty cool to watch the ball winder spin around. The cats have been pretty entertained by it as well, but I think their humans get the most benefit from it.

Seriously, this thing is just cool. How did I ever knit without it?

And then – a miracle happened. Well, okay, maybe it wasn’t really a miracle. I discovered a project on Ravelry of a swift that had been constructed out of PVC pipe. It looked pretty simple in its construction. I showed it to Johnathan and it served as a major inspiration for him. He instantly insisted that we go to the hardware store for supplies. He studied the pictures and the instructions given by the person who made the original and came up with a plan. It was amazing to see his excitement for something that would, ultimately, be for assisting with my fiber habit. I mean, it wasn’t even for his own hobby! But he was excited.

While Allison visited, we went off to the hardware store and he went here and there picking up the necessary pieces to construct it. He wanted to start right away when we got home. I, however, chose to sit and knit. Not once did I touch the supplies except to help bring them inside. He did start immediately after we got home. He sawed pieces and drilled holes and less than two hours later, there was a working swift sitting on the floor.

It stands about two feet tall (I’m not exactly sure – it hasn’t ever occurred to me to measure it), and it spins. It has no handle, but that’s okay. I’m not even sure I would use a handle if it had one. Johnathan plans to make the arms adjustable later, but for a first try, the thing is absolutely wonderful. For approximately $15 in supplies and less than two hours of work, Johnathan built me a yarn swift. I’m proud of it, and I’m sure he is, too.

There was really only one problem with the swift after it was completed. I had no ball winder. So it would still take some time to wind into balls, and then they wouldn’t even be center-pull! Much to my delight, Johnathan said that I should order a ball winder, and like I do, I managed to get the free shipping from Knit Picks by adding a few yarns to the order. I mean, why not? Especially because they were from my wish list!

The swift is wonderful. I’m so glad I found the project, and even more glad that Johnathan viewed it as an interesting and worthy project on which to spend his time.

Tune in next time for the amazing conclusion: And Ball Winder Makes Fun!

The interaction got me thinking (and talking) about what feminism means. I have heard a lot of people refuse to identify themselves as feminists, usually while enjoying the freedoms that feminism has awarded us over the years: voting, working at whatever we like, heck – wearing pants! So why not identify as a feminist? It seems that the people who refuse to identify as feminists are misunderstanding the message behind feminism. They believe that it is about women dominating, about women being on top instead of men. This type of feminism tends to be very ugly. It is often about hating and reviling men, about insulting them and proclaiming (frequently) how women are so much better. This is not feminism as I know it. I’m not even sure what to call it that isn’t insulting to anyone. But it sure as heck isn’t feminism.

Feminism, to me, is the idea of perfect equality. It is the idea that women and men can have equal opportunities that have nothing to do with their gender. In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter what our chromosomal makeup was, but rather what our skills are when it comes to finding a job. It wouldn’t matter what we look like – we’d just be people. Male, female, whatever we identify as – doesn’t matter. I’m a person and you’re a person and the rest is just details. That’s the ideal, and it’s one that I don’t expect to see in my lifetime, although I will continue to hope for it.

The trouble that’s easy to run into with any “wave” or form of feminism is that the message is easily distorted. Some have distorted the message in such a way as to believe that in order to be equal to men, we must act like men. So, we wear trousers and act gruff and aggressive, and because of sexism which has persisted through the years, these women who act masculine are ridiculed for it, especially if they find successful careers in doing it. And by changing themselves in such a way, they have taken a step back in for the feminist cause. They have confirmed that to be successful, one must be male, or at least behave in the way that males are expected to behave. A woman, therefore, cannot succeed unless she sheds all that is feminine about herself. It is a very discouraging outlook. The ones who try to retain their femininity are often looked over as being too soft. Any woman who wants to have a family as well as work is ridiculed and likely to be left behind her male counterparts because in some way or another, she is expected to balance the demands of work with the demands of home, whereas men are expected to ignore the demands of home. If you ask me, this is a disservice in expectations for both sides.

Men and women both suffer while we are unable to find a fairness and equality that is sustainable. Men are expected to behave in a certain way, to want certain things. And these things usually do not include the pursuits of home. I don’t know any stay-at-home dads, but I’m sure if I did I would know that they were ridiculed by others who believe that they are doing something that is somehow considered unnatural. It’s okay to expect a woman to stay at home to care for home and children, but if a man were to want that for himself, he would be considered a freak. A woman who doesn’t somehow want that very existence is too masculine. If she wants pursuits outside of the home, she is doing a disservice to her family and causing the ruination of society. But if she does want to stay home, she is an empty-headed drone who doesn’t do any real work. There is no winning situation here that I can find.

Feminism is not about deciding that one group of people is better than another. That is the complete reverse of the purpose of feminism. Feminism began as a movement to give women equal standing in the government and social life. It was intended, not to put men down, but to lift women up. It was not to make everyone the same, but to make our differences less of a factor in decision-making and in the distribution of legal and social rights. Feminism is then, to me, the basic rights of all people to have the same thing as everyone else. It has less to do with women being better than men and more to do with women wanting a voice in government and the right to work if they want. Men should have the right not to have a traditional career if that is what they want. Should, of course, being the key. It is not the generally accepted way of life yet.

I suppose what I’m getting at is that I think there are people out there who totally don’t get it. Feminism is not about avoiding things that have previously been considered tasks or jobs that women did. It’s not about one gender being better than another. It isn’t about what we wear or how we act. It’s simply about our equality as human beings. Not pursuing a hobby or career because women used to do it is completely missing the point and is really taking a step back as far as equality goes.

Feminism goes far beyond the simplicity of gender equality (which isn’t so simple at all). It extends to careers, hobbies, interests, preferences, politics… it’s about being willing to accept that people don’t always fit into prescribed roles, and that’s okay. It’s definitely about accepting that hobbies and interests and politics are not governed by gender. It’s absolutely about an open-mindedness that allows us to understand that not everyone’s life experience will even come close to our own. It’s about being allowed to be whoever we want to be and not be ridiculed or denied rights for it. In reality, the term feminism means a lot more than “women’s rights” or voting equality or workplace equality or any number of other things that feminism has had to actively campaign for in the past.

I identify proudly as a feminist. I will continue to knit because I enjoy it. I will continue to read books branded as “girly”, not because they are for girls but because I think they are good books. I will continue to watch the so-termed chick flicks because I like them. It has nothing to do with my gender, and it doesn’t make me in any way inferior to the man or woman who happens to enjoy slapstick humor and action movies and shoot-’em-up video games. We are, at our core, the same. We are human. We just like different things. That’s cool with me. You let me like what I like, I’ll let you like what you like, and we’ll all get along better for it.

Feminism shouldn’t ever be about hating anyone else. It should be about acceptance and ultimately about understanding that there are people who do and like different things than we do. Feminism is love, open-mindedness, acceptance and absolute equality.

Late in April, I was inspired to join in on a test knit call for a scarf. I’m not totally sure why – every time I make a scarf, I swear it’s the last one, because they take so damn long and there’s a feeling of hopelessness somewhere around 3/4 of the way through. But this one apparently was calling to me. So I ordered some yarn (none of the stuff I already had would do!), and on the second of May, off we went!

The result was 29 days of on-and-off knitting that was sometimes very satisfying – in that it was a pattern that was easy to memorize and didn’t require too much attention to accomplish – and also very maddening – because, well, it’s a scarf! What was I thinking?! What I wasn’t thinking was that I would end up with something so singularly gorgeous. The pattern and the yarn got along very well, and I’m very, very happy with the end result.

The end result is 87.5″ of scarf, made from approximately 98.5 grams of Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Queen Anne. It is light-weight and soft, and will make a wonderful spring/fall scarf for Johnathan’s mom, who I decided some time after I started knitting it would be the ultimate recipient. Her birthday is tomorrow, so if she spoiled herself by reading our blog — oops. The scarf was easy to knit with an eight-line repeat done approximately a zillion times until I finished. If I were to make it again, I would push it just one more gram (up to 4g left instead of 5), which would probably make one more pattern repeat and use up the entire skein of yarn, save a few inches, most likely. For a one-skein project, this is pretty fabulous!

The front side of the scarf

The back side of the scarf

Best of all, the pattern for the scarf is reversible, so it won’t matter what side is showing while wearing it, as with other scarves I have made.

Now, I’m ready to profess that this was my Last Scarf Ever, but that would be a bald-faced lie. I have a scarf planned for my brother and maybe, just maybe, someday I will knit a scarf for myself. I’m not holding my breath, though. A year and four scarves after I picked up knitting again, I have yet to actually knit one for myself, or even actually plan one for myself. So, until the next time I knit a scarf, this is the Very Last One.

was looking around at the store for a new purse recently. I’ve been using the same purses for quite a while now, and they’re both looking pretty tired. Once I realized that I didn’t like any of my options in the store (people want to carry those? really?), I decided that maybe knitting one would be my best option. I’d had this bag in my favorites for quite a while, and I definitely wanted to make one. Well, what a perfect excuse!

The bag is made up of DK weight yarn – I used CotLin from Knit Picks in pomegranate (I have a thing for red, I’ve learned). The CotLin is sturdy and I love the texture of it. It’s sturdy, but soft enough to be nice to touch. The bag itself was pretty easy to make, but I had to kind of make things up here and there, because the instructions were vague at best in spots. The instructions on how to sew the liner were especially vague, and since I definitely don’t know how to sew, I had to enlist Johnathan’s help in doing so.

We bought the fabric just after the yarn came in, so it was all ready to go when I finished the bag. We set about measuring things and cutting out bits of fabric. All-told, we had six pieces: four sides, one bottom and one piece for the pockets. It took about two hours, and there was some frustration involved as we got everything sewn in. We ended up using black thread to sew the liner to the bag which looks okay, even the spot where the sewing machine jammed a little bit toward the end. There’s only one spot that got caught and sewed in funny, and it was on the side, which was going to get sewn down anyway.

I was okay with how it turned out, but Johnathan felt like he could do better. So, on May 28th, we ripped everything out and started over. The second time around, we got actual maroon thread, so it was less obvious, and he sewed it in a bit differently. Instead of going all the way around, he did the two long sides individually, then we fixed up the short sides. This time, everything went much smoother! I sewed on the handles in the car on our way down to Columbus, and the bag was finished! It is wonderful! It held my scarf-in-progress (feature post coming soon), wallet, sunscreen, sunglasses, nook e-reader, and the purchases that we maid through the day. Plus, it just looks awesome.

While we were out and about this weekend, however, my wonderful new bag met with slight catastrophe. Johnathan kept a chapstick in the car, and not thinking about hot it had been in the car, I decided I needed some. So I opened it. It was liquified. And it got all over my bag. Thankfully, a quick search on the internet showed me that this isn’t ruination, but it sure doesn’t look awesome. The chapstick can come out, if we can ever find somewhere with dry cleaning fluid. Thank good ness I made this bag out of a cotton and linen blend and not out of wool, or things would be a lot more difficult!

No matter, though – I’m very happy with this bag and can’t wait to carry it to work this week.

I started this cowl in January, while I was still working three ten-hour days a week and two fives, and doing part time eSecurity and part time help desk work. It was a nice reprieve from a very busy schedule. About a week after I started it, I was almost finished, and realized about five rows later that I’d mistakenly purled two stitches that I should have knitted. So I dropped them down to fix them. And I didn’t have my crochet hook with me, so fixing it was really difficult. I took it home that night to fix the stitches, and then promptly forgot about doing it for three months. It was late in April when I finally got around to fixing the stitches and finishing the last five rows that I had to do. In the meantime, I’d knitted two hats, a toy robot, a bag and a mitten. It took maybe an hour, at the most, for me to finish. Boy, did I feel pretty stupid for letting it sit there! But at least it’s finished now.

It’s made with Cadena yarn from Knit Picks (in cranberry) which is a little bit scratchy on the neck, but much better after having washed it. I’m going to try washing it again with conditioner, which I’ve heard can soften up the scratchiness sometimes. It’s very graphic and I think it will be lovely and warm when winter weather visits again. The red will do nicely to brighten up the gray weather.

Gotta love the funky tan line.

I’ve decided to start a new “series” of posts so that maybe once and a while I’ll actually post something! I’m going to post when I finish a project. “Finished Object” features!

First up is a set of mittens that have been in progress since November. I started these for Johnathan so that he would have warm, soft mittens for the winter, with short mitts so that he can still have the full use of his fingers and flip-tops so that he can have the added warmth when needed (like when he’s unburying his car).

The mittens are based on the News Item Gloves pattern, which is a vintage pattern from the 1940′s. It calls for dk weight yarn, but Johnathan wanted a bulky, squishy yarn, so I picked a yarn and he picked a color. I went up on my needle size to fit the yarn and cast it on circular instead of flat, and imagine my surprise when the pattern as written pretty much worked out! I made the mittens significantly longer than the pattern written, so he’ll have that extra touch of warmth in the freezing winter weather.

The first mitten was originally made with fingers, at Johnathan’s request, and as I finally started the second mitten (five months later!), I thought they would look better with just mitts and no fingers. And they do! The shaping was largely made up, and the flip-over part was also mostly improvised. I really did have to kind of make these up as I went.

I learned a few things with this project: write things down if you’re modifying anything. When I started the second mitten, I realized that I’d done some modifications, including decreasing for the wrist and then increasing again for the thumb and hand. I also had no idea exactly what I did for the flip-top, and since this yarn is a bit on the dark side, it can be hard to count stitches on it. So there was a lot of guesswork at what went through my mind as I was making the first mitten in November/December.

I also learned that it’s probably best not to let five months pass between making a pair of items. My knitting when I made the second was much tighter and, I think, more even than the first time. So the second mitten looks a little bit neater than the first. Blocking and wear will probably help, and it isn’t as if they don’t look the same. The differences are probably only obvious to me, really, and they don’t fit differently.

So, Johnathan has new, handmade mittens. Just in time for summer! Oh well, maybe it’ll go better next time.

So this week, after Johnathan got a little fussy at me about wanting to buy even more yarn, I decided to destash a little. I gave away all of the Simply Soft yarn that I’ll never use (two pinks and a purple; liked the purple but can’t ever see myself wearing that particular color myself, and I can’t keep giving Allison only purple things!), and some red heart that I bought thinking I could swatch with it, only to realize that I hate knitting with it, and my proof of concept wasn’t going to look the same on it anyway. I still have some Plymouth Encore for two aborted Harry Potter scarves that’s free to anyone who wants it for the cost of shipping. (In other words, you pay what it cost to ship, and you get the yarn!)

I also committed myself to finishing the things that I have in progress. I had a bag that I was working on that I finished knitting last night. It needs to be washed, blocked, lined and have the handles sewn on still, but the knitting is done. Today I finished a cowl that I started in January and set aside because I needed my big crochet hook to fix some stitches and didn’t have it with me at the time. It came home and sat on the table next to the couch for three months. I fixed the stitches, knitted the five remaining rows, and even learned a new bind off!

Next up: The other flip-top mitten for Johnathan, started in November and postponed because I didn’t feel like knitting the second one yet. Sadly, the pattern was semi-improvised, so I will have to try very hard to recreate it, almost six months later. But, it’s the next project I have committed myself to making, and make it I will! After that, I have another fingerless glove to make, again with an improvised pattern, this time for myself. I finished the first and cast on for the second, but set it aside when I got sick in the fall and never finished it. So, two gloves to make. There’s also the Selbu hat that I started, even got halfway through making, but later realized was going to be way, way too small for me. I ripped it out and haven’t had the patience to start again. I will be starting that after the other two, and then I will have no WIPs left!

As far as my queue goes? I have another Retro-Style Knitting Bag, this time in Harbor instead of Pomegranate,  to make for myself, Grove mittens in Saffron, Space Invaders socks for Johnathan, two more robots for Johnathan’s birthday present (incidentally, his birthday is today! Happy birthday, Johnathan!), a scarf for my brother (that I’m going to design) in Forest Heather, and a test-knit that I’ve committed myself to make by June 1 in Queen Anne. Plus a lot of other stuff that’s on the list and that I have the yarn for but which isn’t so immediate.

I’m glad I’ve committed myself to getting these WIPs done. I want to knit all these other things, so if I finish the WIPs that have been languishing, I can start on the new things that I want with  reduced guilt. That is ALWAYS A+.

Alright, back to knitting.

January and February were uneventful for me. I was working for the Evil Cable Empire, not really loving it but managing nevertheless. There was snow, it was cold, and generally the status quo stayed the same. Our year in snippets:

• We bought a new couch (which is pretty great).
• We saw Spring Awakening (which I loved).
• I joined my very first D&D campaign.
• We saw The Drowsy Chaperone again (to much less satisfaction than the first time).
• The Cleveland International Film Festival started again (and we loved it from start to finish).
• We saw Spamalot (and it was only okay).
• We saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee again (and it was exactly as expected).
• We went to Knoebel’s opening weekend.
• We saw Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin live in concert (it was pretty great).
• I lost my job at the Evil Cable Empire.
• I started knitting again.
• Johnathan started working for the hospital again.
• I finally got my wisdom teeth out.
• We went to Walt Disney World for two long, long weeks (it was really, really hot! but fun).
• We saw They Might Be Giants in concert (it was a Flood show – pretty fun!).
• We saw Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm in concert again (last year’s concert was better).
• I got the flu twice – the “regular” flu and H1N1. It was a “fun” month.
• I got a job at the hospital working at the new help desk.
• We saw Mamma Mia! (it was enjoyable).
• We saw Wicked (still a great show).
• We quit our D&D campaign.
• We visited Allison in Bloomington for a few days. (She visited us in Cleveland a few times, too.)

In other news, I watched 361 movies this year. It’s not quite one movie per day on average, but just about. I’ve seen a lot of good ones, a lot of bad ones, and a lot of mediocre, unmemorable movies this year. I really loved doing this, though. It was nice to have something to work toward this year, particularly after I became unexpectedly unemployed.

In addition to my 361 movies, I read 26 books. I seemed to let my “50 Book Challenge” fall by the wayside this year in favor of films, and that is okay with me. I completed 24 projects: 4 scarves (none for me), 10 hats (about half of them for me), 3 headbands, 2 coffee cozies, 1 pair of mittens, 2 market bag (very stretchy and wonderful), and 1 tank top (not my favorite project). I partially completed one set of fingerless gloves for myself, I made one flip-top mitten for Johnathan (the other is still in queue), one more market bag, two hats for me, half of a sock, part of a scarf for my brother (for which I have once again changed patterns), half of a second tank top (which I loved, but didn’t have the patience to finish), and another try at flip-top mittens for Johnathan which ended up not working as well as planned. Not to mention, one of those 10 hats had to be ripped out and started over again because I made it far too big for a normal-sized woman’s head.

As far as “big things” go, this year has been nothing compared to last year. I’m okay with that. A job loss was bad enough, I think!

2009 hasn’t been bad to us. I hope that 2010 will be better.

1. It’s not as hard as I had it worked up to be in my head. I made a scarf to learn cables, and quickly learned to love them. I made a neck warmer to learn how to do herringbone stitch and did a practice swatch of what appears to be daisy stitch (according to some – elsewhere called a diagonal knot stitch). I’ve learned how to cast on in the middle of a project, create stitches where once there weren’t any, do a gusset for the thumb of a mitten… I know there are a lot of techniques that I have yet to explore, and I look forward to learning them as I go. No beginner projects for me – I’m learning new techniques by doing them.
2. Hobbies can get expensive, and knitting is no exception. There are some really gorgeous colorways out there, some handspun, some themed to interesting things (like Harry Potter themed yarns among other things), and lots of them incredibly expensive. I’ve found a happy spot where I get good yardage for my dollar, but yarns that aren’t scratchy and inflexible (like the Red Heart Superwash tends to be in my still limited experience). I do have to keep reminding myself that while it’s nice that some knitters can afford to spend upwards of $50 on one hank of yarn, I just can’t do that and I don’t know if I’ll ever get to the point where I will.
3. Elitism is everywhere. It’s there in all aspects of life and especially in each and every hobby or interest I’ve pursued. I haven’t found anything yet that was free of it. There are some knitters who refuse to use anything but natural fibers, or even better, handspun natural fibers (which can get very expensive) and are fairly vocal about those who use anything man-made. Others swing the other direction and are fairly judgmental of those who don’t use man-made fibers. It’s inevitable that this would happen. It’s not a very nice thing to witness, but I think I’m getting better at blocking out the elitism.

I’m really enjoying knitting things up. I stayed up late on Saturday night to finish the mitten, and it was absolutely amazing to see how it ended up shaped like a mitten, without any truly complicated techniques. As far as finished objects go, here’s what I have:

• Sharfik for Allison: Nine feet and one inch of scarf pre-fringe. -faint- It took me just under three weeks to actually finish the scarf, mostly because I think I was losing motivation for it. Scarves take a long time. There’s no real sense of reward when it’s done becasue it takes so darn long to finish. I still need to attach the fringe, but I was waiting for it to dry after washing it. I should do that soon since she’s visiting this weekend. [Pattern]
  
• Coffee Cozies [1] [2]: Johnathan got coffee pretty much every day at his old job (he started his new (old?) one today, yay!), and I figured that since he wasn’t taking his own mug to get the coffee, it was ending up being pretty unfriendly to the environment. I had about half a skein (give or take) of yarn left over from the scarf that I made for his mom’s birthday, so I figured, why not make a coffee cozy? Can’t be hard, right? I made the first one in the same woven cable pattern that the scarf I made his mom used. I seamed it up very badly, and put a pretty button on it. Where the seam is, the cozy gets pretty bulky, so I’m a little disappointed with how it came out. The second one was much better. It was a herringbone stitch pattern (which I had just made a neckwarmer out of – more on that to come), and it knitted up just as quickly as the first one, but because the edges were more straight I had an easier time seaming it. I seamed it up while watching an episode of chopped, left off any buttons and called it done. It is less loose than the first one because I made it just a little bit undersized, to let it stretch. So, all in all, #2 was much better than #1. I still have probably a quarter or more of a skein of that blue yarn, so I figure I’ll make some more, unless I can figure out something else to make with it. Any ideas? It was nice making these, though, because I didn’t use any patterns for them, so I felt kind of original in doing it. (Even if both stitch patterns came from another pattern that I originally followed.)
  
• Herringbone Neckwarmer: I’ve had this pattern bookmarked for a long time. It was one of those “someday…” projects that I had no idea when I’d be able to actually make it. I bought yarn with my birthday money from Johnathan’s mom, and had no reason, at that point, not to make it. I started it on Tuesday night, and by Thursday night, it was totally finished, including buttons and buttonholes. The buttonholes were an interesting part for me. The pattern calls for binding off, then picking up and knitting fifteen stitches with doubled yarn. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to make it work the way the pattern called for it to work, so ultimately I ignored the instructions. I looked up how to make a one-row buttonhole, and worked it into the pattern instead. It turned out pretty well! The buttonholes were a little bit big, so the buttons don’t like to stay put, but I figure I’d rather sew them smaller than have to un-knit and redo the buttonholes because the buttons won’t fit through. I really like how the neckwarmer turned out. Now I just have to wait four more months until it’s cool enough outside to actually require it! Aw, man… [Pattern]
  
• Mary Sue’s Bella’s Mittens: I am not a Twilight fan. I read the book last year and more than once wanted to throw the book through a window. It’s horrible. However, when I saw a picture of a pair of look-alike mittens that a friend on LJ made, I couldn’t help myself. I was in love! These mittens are great. They’re long, which I like, and have a neat horseshoe cable going up the top side. I started the first one on Friday night, after acquiring a longer cable needle so that I could do the magic loop to make the mitten. It took me a few hours on Friday night to make most of the cuff, then a few hours spent on Saturday got me the rest of the way finished with the mitten. Unfortunately, I stayed up until 3:30AM to finish it, because I just wanted to see it completed. As such, I didn’t get much sleep, so didn’t knit at all yesterday. As of this moment, I have exactly twenty of the requisite forty-three stitches cast on for the second mitten, so today’s looking like a knitting bust, too. Maybe this is second sock syndrom, but for mittens? I’m not sure. Either way, I’m really happy with how it turned out. I just need to finish the second one now. [Pattern]
  

Before I started my mitten, I also threaded beads for and cast on for an Odessa hat (another pattern I’ve had my eye on for quite a while), so that’s “in progress”as well. Coming up, I have plans to make a couple of pairs of socks (my first self-made socks!), a couple of things for my mom for Chirstmas, a couple of things for a friend who is moving to a colder climate at the end of the year, and a pair of Space Invaders socks for Johnathan (don’t worry, he already knows about them!). I should have plenty of projects to keep me busy until I find a new job. (Hopefully longer than that, too!)

My only real wish is that I could subsist on knitting commissions. I have exactly one so far, and that one won’t start until finances are in the right place for her, so I’m not sure when I’ll need to start on that. I’m excited to do it, though! So, uh, want something knitted? I’ll do it for you! If you pay me, of course.