Category Archives: Knitting Adventures

Cardigan Maybe

Believe it or not last night I started a non garter project!

After finishing* my Dark Affection (excuse the bad photo, the light is not the best for photo taking right now):

I decided to plunge into a project that sits in waiting for the longest time, a cardigan! and not only to start it but to declare it publicly and set a deadline too! So here we go:

This is the beginning of my Cardigan Maybe:

Do you think I will manage to finish it before March 10th**?

 

 

* As you can see it is not completely finished – there are ends to be taken care of and blocking to be blocked but to me a knit that is off the needles is done – how about you?
Oh and I must report: after wearing my sister’s Color Affection the other night – this is the cleverest scarf/shawl pattern I knitted in a long time!

** To this I would say: March 10th? Most certainly! What year is quite a different matter!

I Am Gartering

 

One of my favorite Israeli authors is David Grossman, in one of his first books: The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel he describes the fascination of a young Israeli boy with the present continuous tense (we don’t have it in Hebrew). The boy keeps using it in his head with Hebrew words. Ani kofetzing = I am jumping – is the one stuck in my head from some reason.

To borrow from this lovely kid, these days I am gartering.

After finishing the Candy I made for our Cookie*:

Which was the third finished (I have a fourth waiting patiently on the needles,,,) Different Lines going off my needles almost in a row (I knitted a few holiday gifts between the second and third).

I planned on knitting a cardigan (this is in my plans for the longest time,,,) but alas, I came across the latest creation of Veera VälimäkiColor Affection and had to knit it NOW!

The only problem was that the pattern is not published yet and the only way to get it is to buy a kit from The Plucky Knitter but alas, all the kits were sold, oy!

In my despair, I bought some alternative yarn, Tosh Merino Light and went on a mission to get my hands on that pattern,,, Luckily, it took me only a few days to find a raveler who wanted to sell her kit and since then I am gartering away on this lovely creation:

After getting well into the third section, I decided my esdges pull too much and I ripped it off and started again. I am now almost at the end of the third section and the rows are long (over 300 stitches and growing rapidly) but I can already see it is going to be an excellent shawl and I am going to knit a few more of it and may try some personal variation or two (I said that about the different lines and never did it,,,)

One useful thing I learned in one of Ravelry’s groups discussion is how to avoid the pulling of the edge when you have a lot of increases near it (I am going to apply it in my next pogona and other Stephen West patterns too):
Do a yarn over on the needle before the first stitch and drop it when you get to it at the end of the next row, it takes a bit getting used to but it makes the edge really nice and loose. It works nice with one or 2 colors. When I got to the 3 colors section I decided to do the YO with the thread I just used and the one I am going to use next then I knit the first stitch with both threads and after dropping the YO I pull lightly on the thread not in use right now – I think it will give me a nice edge but will give you my final verdict on this one after blocking.

I think I am doomed. I think I am going to garter to the end of my knitting life!

Oh and I really have to hold my horses not go into the longest rant about the GOP primaries in general and the Newt in particular!

 

*  Photo taken by Cookie and used with her permission.

Facts of life?

When you see this:

In both Socsk? Outch!

You probably say: oh well, this is how it goes, you should expect that if your hand knits are well used, right?

But! what will you say if I tell you I finished knitting these socks at the end of July? yes, end of July 2010! And that Joe started wearing them only around November or December and he has quite a few hand knitted socks (he loves them) so they are in rotation with about 10 or so pairs?!?

And the yarn didn’t sit in my stash for years, I bought it at the end of December 2009 and I keep all my yarn in plastic bags with nice little cedar balls to keep them company.

I just check all the other skeins I got in the same shipment (yes, I bought a few, it was a very good sale, or so I thought at the time,,,,) and I can’t see any sign of unwanted visitors.

As a precaution, I separated those skeins and put each in its own bag with its own friendly little balls.

What makes me worry is the fact that there is a hole in each sock and I can’t see a rip sign,,,,

Will you please take a close look and tell me what you think:

Holes Up Close

Smaller hole

Larger hole

Should I be very worried?

Should I freeze the sibling skeins of this one? wash them? air them? throw them all out?!?

Should I be mad?

Should I try to fix these socks or just throw them out?

Helpful ideas and suggestions will be greatly appreciated, thank you.