A Bitter Knitter

Take some yarn... (well, not just some yarn.  Lots of yarn.  About 1200 yards in this particular instance.) Add some knitting needles, a few stitch markers, a handful of blocking pins, and an emergency crochet hook.  Wait 125 days (who knows how many hours... I'm not sure I really want to know that number...) and then, if the Knitting Fates have smiled upon you... ...your yarn will grow up to become a sweater. My NaKniSweMo sweater is finally all grown up.  *sniff*   More photos when I can get some one to take them for me--I'm just ecstatic with the fact that these sleeves are LONG ENOUGH for my abnormally long arms . Also, since my last post, I've finished another pair of socks: These are the first pair of socks I created without a specific pattern--they are knit straight from my brain.  They are also my first socks with afterthought heels.  I love the colours, especially of the variegated yarn.  The LYS I ...

Dear Pair of Pesky Purled Stitches- You hid so stealthily from me while I knit the sleeve of my sweater, waiting until the sleeve was soaking wet to expose yourself.  You placed yourselves on the sleeve right where it would crease at the elbow so that you knew I would see you every time I wore the sweater.  And you did it all to torment me.  You knew that being faced the wrong way would cause you to catch the light differently than all the other stitches in the broken rib pattern.  You wanted  to draw attention to yourselves and away from the sweater as a whole. Multiple people told me that you were just two stitches and no one would notice, that you weren't worth the effort, and that I should just let you be.  But you and I know that isn't true.  From the moment you showed your faces, you should have known that you were doomed.  I could not allow you to besmirch my sweater, and so you had to go. I admit that I was intimidated by you. ...

If I would stop stealth knitting, you would get blog posts.  I'm planning a post for late March that will show you what I've been up to in January and February, but you're going to have to wait until then for most of my knitting progress. For today, however, I have some good yarn-y news. I have finished all the pieces for my sweater! Yes, my NaKniSweMo sweater is finally cast off.  It's currently blocking (perched precariously on my piano) and looks like a puzzle waiting to be put together...  A sweater sized jigsaw puzzle... The second sleeve is hiding down on the piano bench.  Each sleeve took a whole skein of yarn.  Or, to rephrase, it took 200 yards per sleeve to make them long enough for me.  Of course, it was after  knitting all 400 yards (or 50 inches) of sleeve and putting the whole thing in to soak that I noticed the mistake below: Two stitches that should have been knit that I distractedly purled instead.  If I had noticed before...

It's looking sweaterish!  After 18 pattern repeats, I finally finished the horseshoe lace pattern.  I have successfully divided for the back and fronts and managed not to flub the shaping!  Today I begin the sleeves... all 50 inches of sleeve... but with how fast the back and fronts went, I actually don't think that it will be too bad.  (Of course, I'm saying that now.  Ask me how I feel about it later, when I'm done with one sleeve and realize that had I normal length arms I would be a third of the way through the second sleeve.) My niecelette (3yo) has discovered Fraggle Rock.  She called me the other day because she was watching an episode and the Doozers take up knitting because they can't build, which is what they usually do (for whatever reason.  I missed that part).  But they sing a song about knitting.  And I know you want to see it too, so I've embedded it below.  (If you find it hard to understand the lyrics, you can read th...

We're now over a week into the new year.  I've been mulling over the past year and what I want to "resolve" to do this year, so here's my 2011 knitting goal: Complete at least 24 knit projects. That's an average of two a month.  (Last year, my first complete year as a knitter, I finished 20 projects of various sizes, so I think this goal is extremely reasonable, as I was also in school for half the year.) Among those projects I want to: Knit a project with beads. Knit a pair of mittens. Knit a pair of gloves. Knit a pair of toe-up socks. Among my list of things to knit "someday" are the following: Knit an afghan Knit with 100% silk Knit with cashmere Knit a drop stitch pattern Knit a pullover sweater Knit a cardigan with buttons Knit something that has steeks Knit something with entrelac Knit something intarsia I also want to learn how to knit Continental and how to knit and purl backwards.  If any of these happen this year, great...

If you do not care to read religious blog posts, feel free to close this one now.  I don't mind.  Have a pleasant day. For those of you still here, I wish you a Happy Christmas.  I recently finished rereading Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."  My favourite line in the book is when Bob Cratchit is speaking to his wife about Tiny Tim.  He says, "Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard.  He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk and bind men see." Tiny Tim put it well.  This Christmas season has given my family good cause to think of the Saviour.  We think of my tiny nephew, Tommy, who passed away this month and we remember on this Christmas Day He who suffered for our sins that we may be forgiven and then died and rose again that we ...

I'm currently reading the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and all the books (except the 13th) are titled with alliterations.  He also uses alliterations for many proper nouns throughout the books.  It seemed fitting that my own "series of unfortunate events" follow the same pattern. I needed a coat.  It's cold and snowy where my in-laws live.  I don't believe in snow, but that doesn't change the fact that it's cold in there and I therefore need a wintery coat.  So today I set out to buy one. Destination #1: Burlington Coat Factory Reason: Lots of coats of the warm, wintry sort (and I want a black one under US$200.) Results: I must have tried on 20 to 30 coats. to no avail. In order for you to truly understand my dilemma, there are a few things you must know. 1- I have really long arms.  Really, really long arms.  Longer than they should be for a person of my height.  Typically, a persons arm span (from tip of middle fi...