K3tog: ILx Knitting 3

Have any of you read Knitting Without Tears by Zimmerman? I'm reading it now and I love it so much. It's like having an extended conversation about knitting with estela. Haw.

"If you hate to knit, why, bless you, don't."

That shit is on my bookshelf! She has this discussion of loose v tight knitting in there that like made me resolved to knit loosely, I feel like I took it to this ridic extreme. She is so funny and sharp.

"If you hate to knit, why, bless you, don't."

I know a few women I could tell this too.

otm + lol

somehow i knew you'd be a fan, abbott!

I am going to make my brother a pair of these that say
DIAB ETIC
because he is, and because it's something he writes on his knuckles all the time, anyway.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs341.ash1/29191_429676421954_630836954_5906703_7402695_n.jpg

I ordered Felted Tweed for it & I am p stoked to work with it. Just came in the mail today (nowhere in town sold it). I was worried it might be too "girly" but OTOH I remembered he asked for them in purple and basically doesn't GAF abt anything, so no worries after all.

I had been making them in acrylic but made too many fuckups on the first one I did + the yarn was not v good (by which I mean it didn't do a good job of hiding my fuckups).

I am making a hat with ears + deer antlers for a guy friend, too – I was worried abt Manos (as rx'ed, dunno why I am so into pattern recc yarn lately) being too "girly" bcz of the thick/thin. Then I remembered the hat has fucking antlers, he can't be that concerned about some gender essentialist conception of headwear properties. It is way nicer than knitting only black & grey for most of the other men I know!

hat sounds really cool abbott. are you using a pattern or just going for it? i'd like to see what it looks like.

does anyone have a recommendation for a QUICK project for a baby made out of sport weight yarn? forgot friend's baby shower is tomorrow night AAAHH

this is the pattern, rox.

Baby hats go v v fast! Do you have a ravelry acct? If so, here's a list of their free baby hat patterns in sport weight. I also like these mittens but it's worsted – you can also hold the yarn double if you have enough & want to make something with fattier/quicker yarns.

I kinda like this crazy pointy one!

oh my god i love that so much. im going to make one for myself. that is like 100x cooler than i even expected and my hopes were high

i do have a ravelry acct - ive never made a baby hat tbh but i think it is time to start

aw @ gnome hat!!

They go even quicker than basic adult hat bcz, you know, they're babies. Babies do have big ass heads tho – (in art anyway) 1/4 of the height of a baby os the head, only 1/7 for adults.

http://i1.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/590/draft_lens14954031module130318991photo_1288636640crochet-baby-hat.jpg

omg

http://i1.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/590/draft_lens14954031module130318991photo_1288636640crochet-baby-hat.jpg

omg

!

When I knitted my friend a baby blanket, he didn't even want it. He said, "I already have one of those." argh wtf? SO I have this baby blanket sitting around still. I should give it to charity or something.

This was like over a year ago, I should really get over it.

haha oops 2x owl

re: blanket god, some people do not GET IT

Every baby should have a pointy hat. It should be the law.

lol @ "i already have one of those"

i am almost done with the back of aidez. i feel like this is the first sweater i might actually finish! also that hat i made a couple months ago, i wear it all the time. i'm now a hat-wearer. i want to make more stuff out of madelinetosh.

ps my mom sent me "new england knits" as a belated xmas present. looks good.

i really want to make more sweaters. it's just so slow!

Abbott, you could also donate the blanket to an animal shelter, depending on what it's made of.

I use the baby hat pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts a lot. The last time I saw the baby I made one for, she was wearing it.

i am gonna make this next maybe: http://100-rain.blogspot.com/2010/11/golden-wheat-cardigan.html
v close to being done with every piece except right sleeve (which i am doing after all the other parts are seamed anyway) on aidez.

im working on:
a shetland wool hat for my boyfriend (first hat without a pattern)
a "pizza skin" laptop case
various baby stuff (hats, shoes, leg warmers)
a camouflage hat for myself to wear in the forest

I finished my goth snood - it is a godsend! It seems everyone in London is wearing huge bulky knit cowls, and I have a sparkly fluffy lace thing - I think mine is better though. It's a really good use of the kidsilk night, it's so warm yet light.

vaguely rub photo here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robot_starry/5438671822/

I've also knitted the body of the o w l s jumper - I'm afraid I hacked the actual pattern to pieces - well, tbh I didn't follow it at all apart from the chart and as a guide to how many owls to fit on the yoke. I also added some short row bust shaping and am very proud of myself for figuring it out! Now I need to pick up for the sleeeves which I'm a bit concerned about :(

I am also concerned that the jumper makes me look like a sausage, but we'll see when it's finished! Bulky yarn is troublesome.

I finished up the gloves I made for my brother!

http://images4.ravelrycache.com/uploads/Abbigail/55569152/KNUCKS_medium.jpg

I am going to make a pair for myself but I can't decide what I want them to say. I was thinking ANOS MIC! because then we could both have gloves of our wacky conditions but then I thought ppl seeing my right hand out of context would think my glove said ANUS on it.

Those gloves are great! You should make yours, people might think they say YEAR 5099!

I taught myself double-knitting and am making a scarf for a good friend, variegated purple and variegated black with an angel fish on each end. It's taking forever, but is very cool getting 2 sides at once.

yeah abbs i was hoping to make some like that for myself too, but stuck as to what they should say

might make ROBI NSON

I was thinking DRAW MORE
or William Blake's poem FOUR ZOAS
until my husband pointed out "four zoas" is something in Eckankar, too...wtf?

Your embroidery is so much better than mine! Also, my Knucks ended up with holes between some of the fingers which I have to fix.

Mine say STFU and LOLZ because I was a lolcat for Halloween.

Your embroidery is so much better than mine!

^^ I was thinking the same thing! I don't think I could embroider legibly.

i finished all the parts of aidez and it's mostly sewn together but, like everyone says, the sleeves are too small! too tight and too short. i added extra repeats of the pattern to make them longer but they're still too short. i don't think i want to do them over again. i'm just going to block as much as i can. also i started the starfish cardigan in malabrigo rios. it's v v soft.

Guys I have a frigging knitting room. Eat that. hah.

Also:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5131/5408835552_b896d94cbd.jpg

Niebling inspired of course. Like you wouldn't be able to tell. LOL I am kidding. Anyway, was fun to make. Did it with Wollmeise (YAY) and in lace weight (YAY).

I also bought a linker (look it up, KNIFTY hehe). But I realize I'll probably stick with manual knitting anyway. I prefer it somehow. Nothing bad to say about machine knitting! But I prefer manual knitting.

Anyway yeah I am having fun knitting. Next up probably a fair isle poncho, a few lace shawls and another bunch of stranded hats. Love'em.

Oh and I am getting my first pair of Signature needles. YEEHAAAA.

Nath you are always an inspiration! Signatures sound so $$$sexy$$$.

They are hellaexpensive I know! But fuck it, I wanna try'em out. :-)

I timed myself knitting the other day, and horrifically, it took 75 minutes to knit 15 rows of the never ending scarf. Phyrric is going to be the best outcome here. Also is my wrist REALLY aching or is that psychosomatic :(

Cast on for a cardigan in the meantime, which I am going to knit in the hemhem continental manner, as I need to make myself more 'fluent' in it.

75 minutes :( There's so much more to do. Nath, can you send me your knitting machine :(

I am working on a sock like that – I will knit through a whole movie and it'll maybe be 10-12 rows longer. So demotivating.

I put the scarf aside for a month or two and have managed to make a jumper in that time, and the scarf has still got at least 50% more to go (maybe more like 60%) - horror :(

What even scarf is this, that eats time with such fierceness?

This one:
http://www.cosmicpluto.com/blog/ashworth-scarf/

2.75mm needles, Wollmeise laceweight, over a MILE of yarn...

And I don't even know if I really love how it's knitting up as much as I thought I would (basically I didn't think the yarn was as variegated as it is). And perhaps I should have got a fuzzier laceweight... BUT THERE WASN'T ANY, oh dear... must not start to cry...

unsolicited advices post:

look up portuguese knitting, if you haven't tried it. it's wonderful and fantastic.

and if hand pain ever seems to get a touch worse, consider switching to continental, or english, whichever. from time to time. yes, the learning curve sucks. learning portuguese takes about 20 min, in contrast. bit varying up yr knitting styles is much easier on yr hands/arms.

just don't ignore an achy wrist. i can tell you a cautionary tale about that, but i will refrain. just, it sucks. lots.

hand stretching/rotating/etc? also, good to do from time to time when knitting for very long. take care of those hands so you can knit as addictively as you want!

xp(oy gevalt laceweight! that's quite a project!)

I'm not picking up the knitting today just in case, and might look up some hand exercises too.

Never heard of portuguese knitting! I'll give it a go and then go to the posh knitting group and show off my magical methods at the knitting sn0bs :) (Who incidentally told me off for switching English/continental and made horrified faces at "oh, your tension will be all OVER the place!", oh for goodness sake, for 3 rows each? Ch).

And the laceweight is actually twice the weight of the FIRST yarn I ordered, which I thought was laceweight, but is actually gossamer and sooo soooo thin. It is delightful but I am terrified of ever using it. Most people make actual heirloom stuff... and I like crocheting pokémon... so... yikes! Might try and resell it to a better home, but not quite sure how to find the market!

The ISO/destash group on ravelry is good for selling yarn if you don't mind shipping it off in the mail.

Well I've put it as 'will trade or sell' now... I still would love to do something with it though, but goodness only knows what. A skein is 735m, and I have two, so holding them doubled could get me a super nice shawl - like maybe a Haruni done in stocking stitch apart from the border or something.

Although I can barely even contemplate the thought of another laceweight thing right now.

So I went to the knitting shop, and met a chihuahua puppy, and then accidentally bought knitting books (I wasn't allowed to buy yarn, but somehow... spent money anyway...). One of them was Nancy Marchant's brioche stitch book ("brioche stitch" makes me too hungry, apparently the Dutch is PATENTSTEEK, which I like much more, as a/ I am an intellectual property wrangler and b/ PATENTSTEEK). So here is some patentsteek knitting, in yucky variegated and headache pink. I think it's the most awesome thing ever.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robot_starry/5557839869/

Made by my friend, not me! I haven't managed to get round to it yet as all my knitting energies must go to scarf.

I have seen that book in the library and I thought it was truly crazy and also inspiring! One of those things I put on the back burner as there's not a lot of call for the insulation of patentsteek(!) in the Sonoran Desert.

I timed myself knitting the other day, and horrifically, it took 75 minutes to knit 15 rows of the never ending scarf.

THree hours for 5 rows of Ene's Shawl. That is nothing like the Mountain Ash one: one evening was two rows. Four hours maybe? Yes. Lol.

I blocked and fucked up my Fair Isle hat:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5294/5560145349_8f4e5dac9f.jpg

My friend noticed my floats were crap. So she told me. I know :-( I have to learn a lot. :-(((((