Seven Years

Although some might believe that I am a conscientious knitter who never has projects that have been thrown into a dark closet in disgust, I am in fact as fallible as the next knitter. Today I'm going to confess a deep dark secret. The following project has remained unfinished for seven years!


I recently went to see Notes on a Scandal and a sweater worn by Cate Blanchett's character reminded me of my sweater.* I decided it had been lying around long enough! It's time for me to finish it!

The sweater is from this book compiled by Kristin Nicholas for Classic Elite Yarns in 1998.



The pattern is called "Quick & Simple". I guess I didn't find it all that quick.


* The fingerless gloves worn by her character in the movie also inspired me to knit Fetching. Monkey see, monkey do!
Incidentally, the movie was really amazing. I highly recommend it.

Turn it out

After the interminable socks, I needed to knit something that would be done in a hurry. Enter: Fetching! I finished one of these in almost one night. They've been perfect for the warm weather we've been having here this weekend. The only problem I have with them is that the cuffs are rolling. I hope that some gentle steam blocking will fix that problem.


Vital stats:
Pattern: Fetching from Knitty
Yarn: Andean Silk from Knitpicks
Color: Bluebell
Needles: two size 6 circular AddiTurbo's
Modifications: I knit only 16 rounds before the final set of cable turns because I have small hands and did not want to run out of yarn.

Of course, the next thing I did was to cast on for another sock. After conferring with my sock knitting expert, I decided to start a pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. Although, I've had this book for a while, this will be the first pattern I have knit out of it.

3D

A couple of weeks ago, Laura treated us to a graphical representation of knitting happiness. Unfortunately, I felt that her graph could have been a little more mathematically rigorous.

Click on the graph for a bigger picture.

As you can see, the graph has two axes that represent knitting pleasure and knitterly frustration, respectively. The z-axis is a combination of these two quantities. Knitting pleasure is a combination of variables, including how nice the yarn is, how much fun is the stitch pattern and how cool is the finished item. Knitterly frustration is also a combination of variables, including mistakes in the pattern, annoying yarn and boring knitting. The exact equation for me is z=2x/y because I'm usually just happy to be knitting and can often overlook the frustrations.

I put a number of recently completed projects on the graph to demonstrate some of the above ideas. For example, the Clapotis was almost the perfect project. I loved the yarn, the stitch pattern and I wear the finished item all the time. My vest from Jaeger was really fun to knit and I wear it a lot, but the yarn was only OK, so it falls a little short on knitting pleasure. The Jaywalkers were made with great yarn and fit really well, but the stitch pattern got a bit boring and they took forever to finish. Finally, knitterly frustration is so high with Reynolds Gypsy (it splits like a mofo!) that no amount of knitting pleasure can overcome it and any project registers low on the knitting happiness scale.

These are just my opinions and I'm sure that the equation for knitting happiness is different for every knitter. Stay tuned for some knitting happiness from me later this week!

It's not that easy being green

Peapod and iPod

DNA and I have finally joined the 21st century and gotten cell phones. Of course, I had to get a green phone to match my iPod. As you can see I have a first generation mini. The observant among you will notice that I have swapped out my Apple headphones for a pair that are much cheaper and better.

Walking on Sunshine

Project Wrap-up:
Pattern: Jaywalker by Grumperina on Magknits
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport
Color: Purple Club
Needles: two size 1 needles by Knitpicks

I'm so glad to be done with these! It's even going to be 33˚F on Friday so that I can actually wear them before it's really Spring. I had to double check the ball bands to make sure that the two skeins were the same dyelot after noticing how different the patterning is for the two socks. (I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't really notice the difference until I looked at the photo above.) They are indeed the same dyelot. How strange!

Although this yarn only has 200 yds/skein, I had plenty of yarn left over. I'll have to think of something to do with the leftovers because I really liked this yarn.

So close, yet so far away

It seems like I've been working on these socks forever! And, they are still not done. I'm getting close, though.

As you can see from this picture, I like to knit socks on two circular needles. These are size 1 needles from Knitpicks that make the knitting go fast. How do you like to knit socks?

My Boyfriend's Back

No apologies for not knitting or blogging this week. After living in Cleveland without my husband since July, DNA is now here to stay. We had a really great week remembering how much we enjoy being married to each other.

Aren't they cute?