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.

4 thoughts on “I Am Gartering

  1. Carrie#K

    You are gartering quite delightfully.

    But aren’t you looking forward to having President Gingrich and the First Who– in the White House? (Oh, that’s so unfair. She’s at least the second.). I find it ……amusing? dumbfounding? that he’s running on the Family Values platform. What, one family after another? Always marry ’em eventually?

  2. margene

    Lucky you to have one of the kits. I’m waiting patiently for the pattern release. I’m a big fan of garter shawls because of Veera. Thank you for sharing the tip on the first stitch. I have the same problem.
    Just ignore the ignoramuses. The just get your blood boiling and there is nothing you can do about it.

  3. Kym

    I think I could garter for the rest of my knitting life and be completely content! Lucky you to nab one of the kits!!! (I have turned off my news channels. I can’t listen or watch anymore. It’s the only way I can even manage to get through my days.)

  4. Cookie

    You are so good! With the gartering and with finding patterns and kits. I love my stripey wrap!

    Unlike our CarrieK, I find it very American, but not in a good way. ;^)

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