A Brief, Illustrated History of my Life in Knitting - Part I

Given my recent obsession with all things Knitting (with a capital "K"), one would think that I'd always been a knitting fool. However, this is not the case. As with a large majority of knitters, my grandmother taught me to knit the summer I was six. She gave me a pair of big (size 12) plastic knitting needles with red tips and a skein of yarn and showed me the basics: how to cast on (from a loop over my thumb), how to knit and purl, and importantly, how to pick up dropped stitches. I remember that getting a consistent tension was my biggest challenge. I assiduously knit a scarf on our way home by train (I don't remember the details of that trip - why the train?), and I was thoroughly engrossed in the process of knitting all the way home. I ended up with a scarf that waved in and out at the sides due to my very inconsistent tension. And then I stopped. I don't think I knit another thing until I was 18. I can't really say why I didn't knit after that except that my mother didn't care that much for knitting (although she knew how) and much preferred to sew. So, during my school years I sewed quite a bit in an attempt to keep up with the latest fashions.

I wasn't inspired to knit again until my senior year in high school. See my blog entry my-original-knitting-inspiration. It was at about this same time that I saw this picture in American Home Crafts magazine (Spring Summer 1977) and became completely enamored of this look.

The photograph captured a fantasy of what, at 18, I hoped to be: An elegant, sophisticated woman of the world with a great sense of style. In those days I somehow thought that if I knit this sweater I would also magically appear to have great cheekbones like the model's (Margareta Stupakoff, a former Miss Universe). But, I digress.

I went out and purchased the chunky chenille yarn in a dusty rose colorway and a pair of knitting needles and set to work. I did not bother to get gauge and simply followed the directions. I knit the whole thing in simple stockinette stitch and sewed it together with crocheted seams. It did fit me apart from the fact that the sleeves were much too long, despite the fact that they were supposed to be folded up. Also, it turned out that the chenille yarn was quite drapey and the cowl-necked collar never stood up the way it does in the photo. It would flop down in a very inelegant manner, no matter how I folded it. The final insult, however, was the terrible smell of the yarn. It literally had an acrid, dusty odor (as its name "dusty rose" might suggest) and the chenille wasn't all that soft on my skin. I concluded that the chenille yarn must have been manufactured from some offensive plastic and chemicals. So, for all of these reasons the sweater wasn't a big success and after carting it around from place to place in my 20's, and never wearing it, I finally gave it away to Goodwill.

My next two projects were sweaters for boyfriends, and although neither of those relationships lasted (thus providing two instances to support the myth of the "boyfriend sweater curse" from my own life), what did last was my memory that I fearlessly dove into knitting sweaters that involved cables and bobbles and loved every minute of it. I was proud of both of those sweaters and I imagine they are still out there somewhere in the world, hopefully keeping someone warm.

At that point I decided to knit something for myself again and chose this vest:

It was begun in 1983 during a period of time when I was working to save money for college. It then sat around in suspended animation until 1995 when I completed graduate school and in a burst of activity finally finished it. It fit me fine, but I learned two things upon its completion. One, I loathed intarsia and, two, I no longer found an argyle vest to be all that stylish. So, I promptly gave it away.

That was the sum total of my knitting from 1978-1995: three sweaters and a vest. Not very impressive. But, although my output wasn't very high, my level of satisfaction with the process was always quite high. After 1995, my output steadily increased.

To be continued in Part II.

Three Finished Objects: From good to not-so-good

Well, my plan worked. I've been focusing on my WIPs and knitting and knitting and I was able to cross three projects off of my list.

The one I like the best is the Selbu Modern Hat. I guess 1,237 Ravelers can't be wrong! The pattern was clearly written, short, and easy to follow. And, best of all, it resulted in a very pretty hat...just in time for spring the winter wear closet.

And the inside of the hat is almost as pretty as the outside.

My next project did not turn out as well. The backstory is that I've been reading Alice Starmore's book about Fair Isle knitting to increase my knowledge and gain some inspiration. She writes about how she uses the things she sees around her to provide a jumping off point for her beautiful designs. Based on this idea, I took a napkin holder from Mexico (of all things) and used it to create a pattern.

My execution of this design was less than pleasing to me. The flowers look like fiery blue suns and the V-shapes look like elongated blue hearts. Hmmm.

So, I filled in with a tried and true Dale of Norway rose pattern. After I had made about 1/3 of this I decided to turn it into a cosmetics bag based on the one found on page 90 of Holiday Knits by Sara Lucas and Allison Isaacs.

I especially like that it is fully lined.

One of my sisters has a fetish-like obsession for cosmetics bags. She must have hundreds of them ...which has never stopped her from obtaining more. So, I thought it would make the perfect Mother's Day present after I fill it up with little heart-shaped soaps and a packet of lavender bath beads.

Finally, my last project is a completely original design for which the new slang word "meh" is a perfect description of my feelings for it. I don't think it's going to ever get a mate, but it did send me back to the drawing board with a better idea...

... to be blogged about at a later date.

Happy Knitting!

April is "Working on WiPs" Month

I have far too many works in progress (WiPs). Before Ravelry I never worked on more than one knitting project at a time. I didn't have a stash of yarn either. For most of my life my approach to knitting was to become inspired to knit a particular project, buy the necessary pattern and yarn for the project. Knit the project until it was complete. If I lost momentum, I simply laid the project aside and came back to it whenever the spirit moved me. When the project was done I would come up with a way to use up any extra yarn I might have had leftover. This usually meant knitting a coordinating scarf. And it might have been months or even years before I became inspired to knit something else and then the process would repeat itself in much the same way.

The Internet, Ravelry, and knitting blogs have changed all that. I wander in and out of Ravelry on a regular basis and feel like a kid in a candy store. The yarn! The patterns! The finished objects (FOs)! The knitting books! They all call out to me and it's hard to resist their siren's call. I have now reached SABLE (stash acquisition beyond life expectancy), have shelves of knitting books, and worst of all, far too many WiPs. In fact, the number of WiPs is making me feel stressed out and uncomfortable. It's just not my style to have all of these projects hanging about and it's making it hard for me to concentrate on any one project. So, I've declared April the month for winnowing them down. Don't get me wrong, I will never finish them all by April 30th, I would simply like to cross several off of the list. So, without further ado here they are:

1. My version of the ever-popular Selbu Modern hat. I think I stand a chance of finishing this soon.

2. My version of a cosmetics bag adapted from the one in Knitted Gifts. (It's not a Poetry in Stitches project, I'm just using the handy bag Hifa yarn used to send out with their kits inside.)

3. A Dale of Norway sweater, Narvik, that I'm making for my beloved brother. Can I just say that he's a very big guy (6'4") and the 19 inches of lice requires a fair bit of patience?

4. A baby blanket for no particular baby. I was swept away by the colors of the Cascade Superwash yarns that are now available and I thought they'd be pretty in a baby blanket. So far I have about 1/3 of a blanket.

5. My "Chanel" socks. They actually have nothing to do with Chanel the designer other than the fact that I was reading her biography when I started them and I'm using the colors black and white. (The gorgeous blanket under my leg was knit by my wonderful grandmother on the occasion of my marriage.)

And that's about half of the list. You can see how far I've strayed from the days of old when I was a monogamous knitter. Now I'm playing the field with whatever project catches my eye. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just different for me and a little bit overwhelming. So, I'm going to see if I can whip these WiPs into shape...or rather into completion.

Happy Knitting!

Experiments in Mosaic Knitting

Although there has been radio silence on this blog recently the knitting has continued apace.

Lately I've become interested in mosaic knitting, a technique I believe was invented by Barbara Walker and was written up in her book, Mosaic Knitting. The fabric is created by knitting with one color at a time for two consecutive rows, (the first row is knit and the second can be purled to create a textured look), and then changing to the second color which is also knit and then purled for two consecutive rows. Stitches are slipped in a pattern in order to create the desired design. It is different from stranded knitting in that you are never carrying two yarns at once. To my eye the results are graphic and striking.

Because I am also continuing in my sock craze, I have been experimenting with mosaic knitting as applied to socks. So before starting my latest pair of socks I worked up a sampler to decide upon a design.

Before knitting the sampler I was convinced that this yarn, Classic Elite Alpaca Sox in Carousel, would be gorgeous in the flower pattern with a grey background. However, as you can see it just laid there with no pop at all. I then tried white which did allow the flower design to come to the fore but the color combination just seemed boring to me. The pattern was also much too "fiddly" for me to tolerate for the duration of two socks.

I then decided to try out a mosaic pattern used by Charlene Schurch in her Sensational Knitted Socks: Caesar's Check. It's a very striking pattern and works well with the mosaic knitting technique. Here it is paired with black.

As an aside, I feel compelled to mention that that rhythm of this pattern, Caesar's Check, is in sevens. There are seven stitches in each section and seven rows to complete each part of the pattern. I followed this through by knitting seven repeats of the pattern so there would be continuity. This kind of pattern rhythm is something I've noticed that occurs in knitting. It isn't visible to the naked eye per se, but is a notable part of the experience in creating the fabric.

And, without further delay, here are the socks themselves:

Please excuse the blindingly white winter skin! Also, the wide black area near the toe on the right sock was done intentionally to widen the sock at that point. I thought it would be an interesting touch, but once the sock was done it just looked like a mistake.

Overall, I am satisfied with the results. The mosaic (garter stitch) legs of the socks are soft, flexible and comfortable. The feet fit me perfectly and I like the vertical stripes (as opposed to the horizontal stripes called for in the pattern).

Specifications:

Completed: March 27, 2010

Yarns: Classic Elite Alpaca Sox in Carousel and Malabrigo in Black

Pattern: Caesar's Check by Charlene Schurch in Sensational Knitted Socks

I've already  moved on to more experimentation with mosaics in black and white. Working as a professional in an urban area on the East Coast means wearing lots of black. So, I've been attempting to come up with a sock design in black and white that could pass muster in an office setting. Here's what I have so far.

Not sure how well this works. Stay tuned...

Colorplay with Ingrid's Blues

Not long ago I fell in love with the colorway, Ingrid's Blues, from Claudia Hand Painted yarns, so I purchased four skeins from a fellow Raveler. The yarn made the trip from Minnesota to Boston twice (which is another story) and when I finally got it in my hot little hands I decided to make the basket check socks featured on the cover of Little Box of Socks by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott. Here they are:

(The sock on the left has not yet been washed & blocked so the color is brighter.)

And here's a close-up up the bird's eye slip-stitch heel.

And, a comparison of the skein and the knitted fabrics.

My reaction to the final product was only tepid as the colors seemed muddy to my eye. So, for a little fun, I decided to do some swatching to see if I could come up with a color combination that enhanced the colorway once it was knitted up. Here's what I have so far (shown during a rare moment of sunlight).

In the picture below it is combined with Gold Dynasty cashmere yarn from Zen Yarn Garden. The bottom is plain gold, the next section shows the two yarns held together, next is a section of alternating rows of gold and Ingrid's Blues, and finally, a section of just Ingrid's Blues alone. To me, the addition of the gold causes Ingrid's Blues to lose its essential color qualities that make it so appealing in the skein.

I also tried adding a brown, Autumn Leaves from Destination Yarn. I like the brown by itself, but combined with Ingrid's Blues it makes the colorway even less eye-catching.

I also tried adding Baby Ull in Lagoon and that seemed to really pop the colorway! You can see the alternating rows on the bottom and then the two-tone lattice stitch as described in Margaret Radcliffe's Essential Guide to Color Knitting (a really useful resource).

Maybe it's just because blue happens to be my favorite color that I like this particular color combination, but I do think I like it better than Ingrid's Blues alone. What do you think?

I'm not sure if I can bring myself to frog the socks and make them again with the Lagoon -- I'm not much of a frogger. I might make a second pair of the socks using these two yarns, but more than likely I will be moving on to other projects that are calling my name!

 

Watching Knitwear in the Movies

You know you're a knitting geek when all you can do during a gripping, white knuckle film about four mountain climbers whose lives hang in the balance is to...look at the knitwear. As in, a climber is hanging from a single rope 3,000 feet up and may fall to his death at any moment and I'm thinking "Wow, his gray handknit knee socks are really nice!"

Okay, I'm exaggerating. The film was "North Face" and it is a German (2008) film set in pre-war Germany before the 1936 Olympics when there was (among other things) a national frenzy for climbers to scale the vertical North face of the Eiger. The movie is very well done and it subtly examines many of the relevant social issues of the time while documenting (somewhat loosely) a particular climb that took place in July, 1936.

But, whoever did the costumes for the movie selected several vintage handknits for the actors. Of particular mention, the lead actress wears a beautiful aqua pullover with lovely cables down the front and back and later wears a gray scarf all done in seed stitch. The actors who play the climbers wear the aformentioned gray knee socks with very nice cabling. They also wear handknit headbands and mittens, but those items are more run-of-the-mill. It was a little distracting to focus so much on the clothing, but it actually added to my enjoyment of the film.

Is it just me or do you do this too? :-)

2009: A Summing Up

I am not a numbers person. I've never liked math primarily because I'm not good at it. But, I do like data. For some reason, for me, expressing certain things quantitatively has a certain definitiveness to it; a certain elegance; a certain je ne sais quoi. That's why I keep track of some things by adding them up at the end of the year. For example, I know that I conducted 750 therapy sessions in 2009. I don't know how many hours I spent on paperwork or on the phone because it would be much less satisfying to tally up those kinds of things. I guess I mostly like to keep data on things that feel like accomplishments. This definitely applies to my leisure activities. I have lots of data on the things I do on my own time.

In 2009 I swam 64,475 yards. This is a somewhat pathetic amount of yardage, but I only really swam consistently for about 6 months this year, so from that perspective it's not so bad.

In 2009 I read 30 books for fun (not including professional reading). That's 12,238 pages. In this case, it may be more meaningful to list titles rather than just the data.

1.  World Without End, by Ken Follet
2.  Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama
3.  Georgiana - Duchess of Devonshire, by Amanda Foreman
4-7  The Twilight Series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn), by Stephanie Meyer - because I work with teens ... sometimes
8.  Devil Water, by Anya Seton
9.  The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
10.  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John Le Carre
11.  Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John Le Carre
12.  The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa (excellent!)
13. Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
14. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
15. March, by Geraldine Brooks
16. The World Over, by Julia Glass
17. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark
18. Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult (distressing)
19. "T" is for Trespass, by Sue Grafton
20. Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger (intense)
21. Await Your Reply, by Dan Chaon (dark)
22. Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Kate Atkinson (excellent)
23. Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson
24. One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson
25. When Will There Be Good News?, by Kate Atkinson
26. 1066: The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry, by Andrew Bridgeford
27. The Bayeux Tapestry, by Carola Hicks
28. The Needle in the Blood, by Sarah Bower
29. "U" is for Undertow, by Sue Grafton (great!)
30. Mistress of the Monarchy, by Alison Weir

 A rather motley collection, I must say. I often set literary goals for myself, but this past year I read whatever came to hand or struck me as potentially interesting. I also went on reading jags with particular authors I was enjoying at the time.

Ah, but now for the knitting. This was by far my most productive year with respect to creating knitwear. I attribute this to Ravelry. Before Ravelry (or BR) I would knit one, or possibly two, things a year. Many years went by when I didn't knit anything at all. After Ravelry (or AR), I have knit significantly more. There's something so inspiring about seeing things others have knit, accumulating patterns and yarn, queueing the projects, etc., that creates a much higher level of inspiration and productivity. So, now for the data. I knit exactly one dozen projects. "Projects" may have involved more than one item (e.g., a baby sweater, romper, and cap). When counted individually the tally was as follows: 2 sweaters for myself, 2 baby sweaters, 3 pairs of baby pants, 2 baby bonnets, 2 jumpers for my niece, 1 shrug for my niece, a smoke ring (or cowl) for my mother, a scarf (unblogged so far) for me, and a pair of socks (there were actually three) for my DH.  Okay, so I'm a slow knitter. But I had a blast doing it!

If I were more techno-savvy I would include a photo collage of these items, but alas I am clueless as to how to do this.

You may have noticed that I did not include the number of knitting books I acquired or how much yarn I purchased. Like I said, I only keep data on things that feel like accomplishments and don't involve guilt.

As for my resolutions in the New Year: No new yarn! Knit down the stash in 2010.