What Homework?

Like I said, I've been fitting knitting time in whenever possible, which is completely unlike me. I'm normally a very lazy knitter who prefers to read blogs, buy yarn and plan sweaters 3 years in advance. This is everything I've been knitting for the past few weeks:

I was caught downtown a few days ago in a t-shirt in fifty degree weather, necessatating a store bought sweater. I bought one on my break that looks like something i would knit myself, except it was missing elbow patches, so I knit some:



The patches are knit out of knitpicks telemark on size 2 needles. I haven't had time to block them and sew the suckers on, but all in good time.

I'm knitting a scarf on the train:



This scarf is really killing my fragile knitter ego. First of all, the yarn is beautiful, soft and spongey. Run it through my grubby man-hands and it becomes snagged, pilled and hairy. I'm trying to compensate by handling it more gently, but that results in really ugly stitches. It kind of looks like I was knitting baby cables. The best I can hope for at this point is a bohemian look. Le sigh.

I started knitting Major from Rowan. Well, kind of. I had to use a completely different pattern due to Rowan's really awful sizing issues and worse schematics. I'll add the details from the origional pattern to a sweater sized for a human being and all will be well.



*Note: Please ignore the awful lighting. I knit this in my studio, where natural light is only spoken about in rumor. That also explains why I've only knit 5 inches of the back of a sweater knit on size 17 needles. Don't judge me. I do plan on passing this semester.

I'm still knitting the zipped raglan. I finished the body and have started a sleeve. I'm knitting the smallest size, but I knit it to the length of the large. This may be finished one day. I'm aiming for Thanksgiving. Please do not hold back ridicule if the end of November comes and I have a body and half of a sleeve knit. Be cruel, otherwise how am I ever going to learn?



And a sleeve:

Zen. Well, Not Yet

I found a copy of Bernadette Murphy's Zen and the Art of Knitting in a used book store the other day (as well as A Guide for the Jewish Homemaker from 1956, which I also bought, but I digress). It's been my subway reading for the past week or so and I must say, it is enthralling. For the past few years I've definatly been what one could call a product knitter. I stress over how well I can knit something and how fast it gets done. No matter how fat the yarn is or how simple the pattern, I always find myself racing for the finish line with white knuckles and my naturaly colorful dialect erupting from between my cleched and grinding teeth. Either that, or I abandon a project in the second half if it's not going as fast as I want it to.

I realized this morning that it's been 10 days since my last post (horrors!) and how while I've been knitting, I didn't have much to show for it. I found my sweater stopped halfway through a row and on the first row of a new stripe. While this would normally infuriate me to no end (I'm a really laid back guy, I just seem to have some completely misdirected yarn rage issues) I just picked it up to finish my row and and continued worrying about the fact that in just two years I would be jobless, and 100k in the hole. When I noticed that I was knitting a sweater out of $15 balls of wool while stressing about money, I laughed. Hard.

I looked at my big pile o' wool and wondered how I was able to afford all of the yarn for this sweater when three years ago I considered buying lambspride a luxury. I remembered that Andrew bought me a ball for our first Valentines Day, and I bought three more in the same color with a gift certificate I got for my birthday. Two balls came from a day I aced a Botany exam and so on.
While normally I try to avoid the corny, the wistful and the hopeful, I had an ephiphany. A lot of small steps go a long way. My knitting will get done. My work will get done. The house cleaning probably won't get done ( let's be honest here).

Okay. that being said, Here's where I'm at on the sweater:



Here's the yarn:



Oh knitting, you are wise and have many lessons to teach us.

Insert Bad "Dye" Pun Here.

I really like dyeing yarn but I don't get around to it as much as I would like to. This is probably because I am constantly lining up new projects that don't require my beloved hand dyed yarn. Oh well, at least I have pictures.

This is a hank of merino lace weight I dyed for my cousin Amy. Does she knit lace? Couldn't tell you. It's pretty, though.



Here's a close up:



I also dyed a skein of self striping sock yarn last fall that lingered in my stash for months.



Close up:



This is it in ball form:



And in sock form:



These will serve me well in the winter months. Carry on.

Still Going

I am not a sock a week kind of knitter. I normally work on them for not only months, but seasons. The trekking sock is moving right along, though. It's amazing that I can knit 4 inches of foot in 3 days but I started these socks last August. Hopefully I will be done pretty close to the start of next week.



Unfortunately, I've already picked out two new pairs of socks I want to knit. I'll just add them to the next pair I have to knit, the two sweaters, pair of gloves, hat and multiple scarves in the line up. Those items can be started as soon as I knock out the WIPs I've got now. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time while I start grad school this fall, right? Oh well, at least projects in yarn form are nice to look at too.


That's Pastaza, a bulky single ply 50/50 wool/llama blend. It really is that color, too. Be still my heart.

The Line Up

Alright. we're going to start this blog just as our ancestors did before us. That's right, it's roll call.

First up we have socks


This is a pair of trekking men's size 12 socks in a 5x1 rib pattern. I started these, oh, last August. I think I only knit a round or two every few days. I'm knitting the heel flap on the second sock now. Likely hood of finishing? Strong.

Next we have a scarf:

This is Elsebeth Lavold Angora in a 2x2 rib. If manlier colors ever existed, I want to know about them. In a subtle army green, subdued brown and grey blue stripe, it will work with everything I own. I started this February and I've got about three feet done and four to go. Finishing? In the bag, yo.

Okay, moving along. There is a vest. Yes, I did say vest.

This is the back of the Bob Dobbs vest from Domiknitrix. I'm going the intarsia route because I really didn't want to spend the next seven years of my life doing duplicate stitch. Her instructions on the website for converting the pattern are really helpful. I just happened to find them after I figured it out with a calculator and finished the back. All that's left is the intarsia front and the facings. Odds of finishing this year? It could happen, right?

Last but not least, we have the stole.

What we have here is a lace stole knit in Euroflax sport weight. The pattern is Drooping Elm Leaf from Barbara Walker's Treasury 1. I really love this pattern and the yarn, but there are some downsides to this particular project, or at least my ability to finish this project. I started the stole as a wedding present for a friend who is getting married in about 4 days. I'm 30 hours into the pattern and about a third of the way done. Also, I was sure that 520 yards of yarn would be enough. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Maybe it'll be done for a one year anniversary gift.

Finally, in other news we have the yarn I can't wait to use.

This is Unikat. It's distributed by skacel and I'm pretty sure it is the best thing that has ever happened to a sheep product. It's a felted single ply and I want to make love to it. Eh, maybe not, but it is super dope.

All in all I think I have a good assortment of stuff to keep me occupied until I cast on for the winter knitting. I'm thinking that having the entire world know what a lazy knitter I am will force me to finish them all a hell of a lot quicker. Otherwise I'm going to have to get a lot better at the art of distraction.
Look! Buddhist kittens!

In the Begining

There was a boy who desperately wanted to make things. Anything really. He just wasn't any good at anything he tried. In desperation he taught himself to knit. This he could do.
And it was good.