15 Minutes, Part 1

Part One

If you knit, or spin, or raise sheep, or otherwise enjoy yarn in any capacity, and you haven't heard of the Yarn Harlot, you have some catching up to do.

I started reading the Yarn Harlot's blog back in the early spring of this year. I think I stumbled upon her site while looking online for mitten patterns, and Google came back with something called Tricoteuses Sans Frontières, or Knitters Without Borders. I checked it out, then went back to Google some more mittens. I can't remember why I went back a few days or a week later, but when I started reading her site, I couldn't stop. I ended up reading through all of her archives, spending nearly all of my free time catching up on her hilarious perspectives on yarn, more yarn, and tiny metal pointy sticks.

Luckily for me, it was only a week or so after I finished all of the archives that the Yarn Harlot's first book was published, At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much. Not willing to wait for shipping from Amazon, I found it at Barnes & Noble and was unable to put it down. I've heard about all of these people who read a little bit each day and savored the book slowly. Not me. I was up into the middle of the night, unable to stop until I turned the last page. And then for the next couple of weeks I carried the book around with me everywhere, reading parts of it to anyone who would listen (thanks, Mom!). I told everyone about it.

Then, on the Yarn Harlot's website, she started posting tour dates. New York. Toronto. Boston. Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon? Ohio? I had to be there. So I made plans and left work early on April 26 to drive the three hours to Mount Vernon (in the rain!) to see the famed Yarn Harlot. I was one of the first people there. I sat in the second row. I would have sat in the first row, but in my defense, the first row was awfully close to the podium. I didn't want to scare her. I pulled out one of the three projects I was working on and talked briefly with the knitters around me. And when the guest of honor arrived? Just like everyone's experience, she was wonderful. Charming, funny, (she only said "arse" a small number of times); I thoroughly enjoyed her speech.

After the speech and some questions, we meandered down to the yarn store in Mount Vernon, Craftsman Hill Fibers, for the book signing. I had brought my copy with me, but since Craftsman Hill was donating the proceeds from any book sales that night to Knitters Without Borders, I bought two more (one for my knitting teacher and one for my sis-in-law) to have them all signed. It was even better talking with the Harlot one on one. She remembered me from the lone comment I had made on her blog, complimented my mitten, and took my picture for her blog. I have to admit, I was starstruck. If you're interested, here's my debut on the Yarn Harlot's blog.

At the same time, knowing how the Yarn Harlot likes to show her socks a good time, having them pose in famous places or with famous people, I thought I'd do the same for my socks. Unfortunately all I had at the time was a lame disposable camera, but I suppose it did the trick. For the first time, here are the pictures of my socks posing with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.
She made me take two, in case she looked drunk in one of them. I'll let you decide.


These socks are from the Dublin Bay pattern, modified so that the lace pattern goes all the way down to where the decreases start for the toe. I can't remember the yarn, but I love it. The orange in the colorway caught my eye at the yarn store, and I love how the socks turned out.

When it comes to knitting socks, I have a Cinderella theory: whoever fits in the socks keeps them. These ones fit me! I rarely make stuff for myself, so these socks are extra special. Here they are finished in all their nearly-symmetrical glory:














And a close-up, for good measure:














And if you're wondering about the mitten from the Yarn Harlot event, it's the Greek Mitten from Folk Mittens, only I started mine at the cuff instead of at the fingertips. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've only almost finished one of the pair, shown here, sans thumb.


















Tomorrow: Part 2

Decisions, Decisions

Simple Decisions

When I moved into my first apartment, my parents and a couple of friends came along to help me move. We packed up most of the stuff I had accumulated in the first 22 years of my life into two vehicles and trundled southward to a teeny tiny town in southwestern Ohio. Along the way we stopped for lunch. It may have been Arby's, but you can substitute your favorite fast food place and it works just as well. My father (always generous when it comes to eating out) was buying, it was only up to us to decide what we wanted. It seemed to take an awfully long time for one of my friends, and I remember my dad getting very impatient with her. He may have said something like, "It's not like you've never been here before."

I think of this little happening just about every time I'm faced with a simple (or not-so-simple) decision that I have trouble with. So... I think about it a lot.

When it comes to these simplistic decisions, the difficulty of the decision is inversely related to the affect it has on other people. I have an incredibly wonderful problem. Anthony loves to cook for me. If he had his way (and lots of cash and energy), he'd cook for me three meals a day. If it weren't for Chipotle (and maybe Smokey Bones), he would probably never want to eat out. Where's the problem in that, you say? The problem is that I have to decide what I want him to cook. I'm not allowed to ask for his input. I have to come up with it all by myself. This is a blessing and a curse. Why is it so incredibly difficult to come up with what I want? Partly because I want to make sure it's something he'll eat, too (not often a problem), but also because I think there are just way too many choices.

Same with choosing where to go out to eat. I love going out to lunch with coworkers, but sometimes it takes us half of our lunch hour to decide where we're going to go. Why? Well, we want everybody to be happy, but there are more than 20 restaurants within a half-mile radius from where we work. Too many choices.

I'm going to be more diligent about making decisions. It's starting to annoy me as much as it annoyed my father that day. And depending on the situation, sometimes it's okay to make the decision that makes you happy, rather than worrying about every little thing that someone else might say as a result. So keep me accountable on this decision-making thing. I don't want to be the pansy that defers to someone else every single time.

Not-So-Simple Decisions

Now on to something tougher. Struggle on with a troublesome project or cast on with the next thing that catches my fancy? I sucked it up this weekend and continued on with the fair isle earflap monster. Check it out:
(Nice volleyball, don't you think? The sad thing is, I doubt this hat will fit on my head when all is said and done. That's okay. It's not for me.) This hat doesn't scare me any more! Okay, so it's not a ton of progress, but I'm still impressed. Sure, the pattern says to cast on 168 stitches, and sure, I somehow started with 169, but I caught it and decreased before it started to matter. And sure, I did the first row of the rose pattern COMPLETELY WRONG and had to tink back 168 stitches to start over, but I did it. I didn't even put it down and console myself with another work-in-progress, and I certainly didn't cast on for anything new. Even when the 7th or 8th row tried to mess me up again, I only had to tink back about 20 stitches and resolve the problem. There's no way I'll finish the hat by Tuesday (tomorrow!!), but maybe by Saturday. If not, it will be a good project to work on in the store. Maybe I can entice some potential class members.
Here's another photo for your viewing pleasure. I might even end up liking it when it's done. I still think the weight is a little light for a winter hat, but I'm starting to see some potential.

This is all I worked on this weekend so I could give Anthony some quality time and check out Wallace & Gromit in the theater. I'm a big fan of Wallace and Gromit anyway, and this was well worth the wait. You should go.


Tomorrow: My brush with fame.

Cat-In-The-Box

Here are a few finished objects for your viewing pleasure.

This sweater is from Kids, Kids, Kids: 40 Winning Patterns from the Knitter's Magazine Contest. I am enamored with the sweater on the cover of that book even though I haven't knit it yet, and there are only a couple other patterns from the book that I would even consider, since many of them are dated or just plain ugly. This sweater was a gift for a coworker who had a baby earlier this summer. Her twins got pink and blue sweaters a year and a half ago (in the same pattern as yesterday's Coke Sweater), but Michelle needed a sweater to call her very own. Yarn is Rowan Wool Cotton (another favorite) in the lavender shade, plus a white 100% cotton edging.

This is the Accordion cardigan from Knitty, made for my niece's third birthday this past August. Sources have told me that she loves the sweater, enough not to want to take it off even when the weather isn't conducive to cardigan-wearing. That's what Annie Grook likes to hear. However, I'm still waiting on pictures of said niece wearing said sweater (hint, hint, Marysville-Momma...), but I can be patient for a while longer. Yarn is KnitPicks Shine in Grass, Blush, and Cream. Not bad for the first zipper in a knitted item.

I'm going to have to come up with some more creative places to pose my finished objects, I can tell.

Last spring, a small group of friends from work started having knitting parties every month or so, and in July we combined our knitting party with my friend Brenda's bridal shower. I believe it was officially called the Bridal Knitting Shower Party Extravaganza! We had an incredibly fun time going out for Indian food and then knitting at a small coffee shop.

That's Joy on the left, then Kimmie, Leslie, and the bridal-iscious Brenda on the far right.
I wish I could sit and knit on that porch every day.

There's Kimmie and Leslie again, knitting away.
From left, it's Joy, Brenda, and myself.








Amazing concentration, no?

Lastly, as promised...
Cat-in-the-box!

The Good, The Classes, & The Deadlines

The Good

Introducing the Coke Sweater (better than calling it the crack sweater, no?). The pattern is from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies and is probably my most oft-used baby sweater pattern. It's knit in one piece from the bottom of the front to the bottom of the back, and if you can get through the occasionally-tedious, life-consuming rows during the sleeves, you end up with a fabulous baby sweater. The pattern for the cashmere booties makes a very sweet match, if you can do it, but I haven't yet for this sweater.

One of the few friends I keep in touch with (if by "keep in touch" you mean "she sends me email all the time but I'm a slacker so I email sporadically at best") from high school had her first little one on September 29, and she's a cutie. See?

Her name is Lanea Mary, and if she's anything like her mom, she'll love all things Coca-Cola. The sweater is sized 3-6 months so she'll be able to wear it when it's cold out. I used Reynolds Saucy 100% mercerized cotton.





My niece Maggie will have a baby brother sometime around the end of November, and these are his favorite colors. (Don't ask me how I know. It has to do with being the bestest aunt.) It was my very first time using ArtYarns Supermerino, and I highly recommend it. Incredibly soft, beautiful colors, crisp stitches. Lots of colorways... if you haven't used any yet, get some. Hat pattern here, adorable baby socks pattern here.

I. Love. These. Socks.
Pattern is from Elann and can be found here. Even though this is the first sock, and it's not done yet, I'm posting pictures for Brenda, who is also knitting this pattern because, in her own words, "I tried the latest toe up sock pattern you sent me. (Yes, I have to do everything that you do.)" So I want her to see how mine are turning out. I'm using Lorna's Laces (also my first time with this yarn) in the Liberty colorway and I love the little color stripe that's working its way diagonally across the sock. The best part is that the two hanks of Lorna's that I got have different color patterns. The one I'm using for this sock goes blue-white-blue-white-red-red-white and so on. The other hank goes blue-white-red-white. I can't wait to see how the other sock turns out. And I hope the recipient (it's a secret! Don't tell Lanea's mom!) doesn't mind fraternal socks. Here's a closeup of the top of the foot. Aren't those cool stripes?

The Classes
So there's a new yarn store in town. Yarns & Fabrications. I have the awesome privilege of being in on the deal, too. See, one of the co-owners of the store contacted me after I had a pattern published in Knitty, and now I'm teaching knitting classes at the store. In fact, last week before their grand opening, someone signed up for one of my classes! That's pretty exciting, since that was the first person to sign up for any of the knitting or quilting classes. I'll be teaching my Tychus hat, a fair isle earflap hat, and a simple children's sock pattern. The Tychus hat? No problem. The fair isle hat? Well...

Do you see the hat? No, not the red and white one on the paper. The other hat. The green one. See it? You don't? Yeah. That's the problem. That class starts on October 19. I probably need to have it in the store before then so people can see a sample. I'd like to have it in the store by October 11 when my Tychus class starts. But this hat is kicking my behind. I don't like the yarn... it seems much too skinny for a hat pattern. But I will persevere! Yes! I love the hat! (Someone help me!!!)

Here's the start of the sock for my sock class. The yarn is also Lorna's Laces in a colorway not surprisingly called "Rainbow". The word is that many of the other instructors at the shop want to take this class. That could be interesting.

The Deadlines
* Above mentioned fair isle hat for class: October 11
* Above mentioned children's socks for class: October 26
* Shoulder warmer/sweater for father with broken shoulder: November 2
* Alien illusion sweater (from SNB) for fiance who will die without it: November 12
* Brand new baby gifts and big-sister surprises: November 24
* Baby sweater for friends of the family: December sometime

We've not even begun thinking about Christmas presents here, folks.

Grand Opening

I asked Jeeves how many knitting blogs there are, and while he couldn't come up with a straight answer, he did come up with 56,700 results. So by my estimation there are... a lot of knitting blogs. So is it a desire to conform that I am starting my own? Not really. It's mostly a desire to keep track of my projects, document my successes, and share the joy. And possibly complain. But I'll try to keep that to a minimum.

Hopefully my already-off-by-a-day trend won't continue and I'll enjoy posting regularly. I have good reasons for delaying my grand opening though.

That's right. MacGyver stopped by to wish me a happy birthday.

Hey Sexy,
I hope you have the best birthday ever. I'd come to lunch with you but I'm busy using a toothpick and coconut to infiltrate the fortress of evil. When I'm done maybe we can run away together and you can teach me how to knit.
Love, Your Little 'Gyver

Dreamy. Can you imagine? Battling mafia hitmen and then turning a heel? Dismantling a bomb with DPNs and stitch holders and then casting on for a sweater? Narrowly escaping the slowly collapsing room using only a 2x2 rib swatch and a yarn needle, then celebrating with a trip to the LYS? Good times.

I'll be telling you all about my Adventures in Knitting(tm) in the coming weeks and months and so on, but here's a parting shot for today. A birthday gift from coworkers wrapped in knitted ribbon and knitting needles. Priceless.

Calming the Drunken Monkey

"The purpose of meditation is to quiet the mind so that it can sink down into contemplation of its true nature. You cannot stop your mind by an act of will any more than you can stop the beating of your own heart. Some cultures describe the mind as a drunken monkey, reeling from place to place with no rhyme or reason. Like meditation, knitting calms the monkey down... I believe that in the quiet, repetitive, hypnotic rhythms of creating craft, the inner being may emerge in all its quiet beauty. The very rhythm of the knitting needles can become as incantatory as a drumbeat or a Gregorian chant."
-- from The Knitting Sutra

Drunken Monkey Knits

Grand Opening October 3, 2005