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:
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!
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.
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 Välimäki – Color 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.
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.
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.
