Cozy
Can I distract you from the weather outside with something alarmingly cozy? I told you I was taking the slippers off to Washington with me in hopes of getting some pattern pics. I took the slippers, I took the camera, I even managed to snap a few decent pics. Alas, none of them are quite perfect. I think the trouble was that we were all too busy actually being cozy, and actually being cozy more or less precludes getting photos that look all snuggly and magazine perfect. Getting that look generally requires that the model be doing advanced yoga poses, [...]
Squeak
We can talk about the pattern later (next time I'll show you the two sides together, and then you can revel in the niftiness of the stitches) but for now, look at that loop of yarn. That loop is what happens when you're working the last part of the hand and realize you're going to be really close on yarn. Really really close. Really a lot. And so, in an effort to make the most of the available yarn, you go find the other end of the yarn (hint, it's not very far away, that's the whole source of the [...]
Truth in Advertising
This is for everyone who writes to me and says their knitting isn't as pretty as mine. I'll let you in on a little secret. Mine isn't either. Or rather, the knitting when it falls off the needles isn't as pretty as the carefully blocked and enthusiastically lint rollered knitting I usually show you in pictures. So just to make everyone else feel better, I'll show you the before shot. Ends flapping in the breeze, crown all wrinkly, stockinette less than smooth. It always looks like this at this stage. Always. If your knitting looks like this, you haven't done [...]
Tip Top
I really should be telling you about all the other stuff (slippers, that little experiment in gauge, a book or two) that's making progress in the background. But I'm not going to do that. I've been taken over by this purple hat and its reversible nature. It seemed dreadfully important that I come up with crown decreases that were every bit as reversible as the rest of the hat. I'm sure it's immodest to say, but I think I nailed it. Side A: Side B: It's all so marvelous tidy even I am impressed. The Boy continues to profess his [...]
Growing
I'm loving this more and more the taller it gets. This is three days of knitting. (The rounds are longer than you'd expect. Those cables are rather big and draw in the knitting a fair bit, meaning you need more stitches than you'd think to wrap comfortably around your head). I'm absolutely itching to have it done and have already hatched plans for a set of mitts to match. But I do feel like I need to mention something. Come here. Right up close. This is important. Listen carefully. Please do not get in touch with me and express your [...]
Non-linear
If I were feeling oppressed by the tyranny of a linear chronology, I would show you some of the things I worked on at the retreat. But I'm really really not. I am, instead, feeling incredibly distracted by the shininess of the new. So I'm showing you the hat I cast on Sunday night. That's one side, and the other side looks like this. I truly have not decided which is the outside and which the inside (and since it is The Boy's hat, I suppose he gets to make that determination for himself). So while it's not reversible in [...]
In which Knitters live up to expectations
Yes, I was gone. And yes, I have returned. Normally, on trips like this, I do my very best to either go a bit early or stay a bit late or carve out some time in the middle to go exploring. Alas, this year, that didn't happen. The current spate of snow storms meant flights were a mess, and I couldn't make it on time. (As a side note, I was flying United, and they were less than impressive. Once it became clear snow was going to mess up my travel, I asked if I could take the exact same [...]
Homeward Bound
The exigencies of winter travel and the dictates of large group schedules have meant that not only have I not blogged while I've been here, I've even been so unreasonable as to not have any blog-worthy adventures. Today, as I begin my travel home, I will do my best to partially remedy this. After a close consultation with the weather gods, the ferry schedule, a host of maps, and a variety of folks more versed in local traffic patterns than I, I have decided that the signs augur well, and I'm going to attempt to make it over to Orcas [...]
Options
The more I knit, the more I find myself interested in options. I almost never knit something without thinking 'hmmm, I could do it this way, or I could do it this way, or maybe I could try this other thing' and wanting to more or less do them all. Now often, this is a bit impractical. Eventually I just have to settle down and knit the thing. And if I'm writing a pattern (which I do for almost everything I knit), I don't feel good giving you options for variations I'm not showing you pictures of. Doing that would [...]
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