Helpful? Whassat?

I am starting a special stranded sweater for my mother. I wanted the neat edge a tubular cast on gives, but the information I had was for 1x1 ribbing. I was fairly sure it could be done, and willing to wing it, but this is going to be a gift and I wanted it perfect. So I went to a knitting social site and asked if anyone had done this in the past. One reply. The writer said yes, and that she used the method in Davy Jones' Useful Knitting Trivia (not the real name). The person did get someone to hit the "love" button. I don't have that book. Excerpts aren't available on line. My library has never heard of it. I think she meant well. Truly I did. At any event, after work I wen ahead with a google search. I found a designer who has blogged a number of easy to follow tubular cast ons, with either video or clear directions. I adapted one to fit my needs. So a HUGE and heartfelt thanks to Ysolda original patterns (www.Ysolda.com)!! I'll be prowling through her patterns too!

Meeting people in yarn stores

I seem to have an ability to attract new knitters.  Maybe it's the yarn fumes coming off my clothes.  Maybe it's my hair color.  Maybe it's the way I am usually holding multiple hanks of yarn while I make up my mind.  Or maybe my aura reaches out and grabs them (there is a precedent: many years ago at a mall in Philadelphia my "aura" reached out and grabbed a passing psychic: she told me it had done so and she had something she had to share with me...I apologized and told her I thought it was better trained than that). 

Anyway, I am often minding my own business, trying to pick up inexpensive yarn for a quick washable project and they will come.  The conversation always begins with one of two phrases.  The one I don't care for is "you look like you knit a lot" (unless I'm wearing a home made item). The other is "are you a knitter?"

Of course I answer yet, and then the conversation begins.  Today a lovely woman at a store wanted my advice on needles and yarn for a baby project and whether the store's beginner classes were any good.  We had a lovely chat.  I hope she gets hooked and that I run into her again, so she can show me what she made for her niece or nephew.  There is something magical about the first piece of knitting, even if it is a little off square or the tension isn't as consistent as it will be in a few months.  It means someone liked the craft enough (or loved the recipient enough) to keep at it until it's done.  

When someone "gets" homemade it's a beautiful thing

One of my co-workers mentioned in passing that his wife was due, almost immediately, with their first child.  I love making baby things for co-workers, but this was cutting it a bit fine.  So I thought it through, went to one of the largest yarn stores in the US and picked up some Lorna's Lace sock yarn in a berry color way.   I whipped out my crochet hooks, figured that a size E was closest to the right size and began designing my own sweater.    I started on a yoked cardigan with raglan sleeves and determined that I really wasn't loving the pooling.  So I dragged my color expert (also known as my sister) to another Local Yarn shop and we poured over the yarns.  I finally found a cantaloupe color that picked up one of the shades in the variegated.  One of the store clerks found the perfect buttons and 4 days later it was done. 

 I gave it to my co-worker on Friday.  He's a guy.  I figured he'd say thanks, but his wife might like it.  15 minutes later he was at my desk, hugging me, asking about the sweater, thanking me.  I had to smile. 

I really had to smile at lunch time.  Just about everyone in the office told me how much Ben (not his real name) had loved the sweater, how he'd shown it to everyone, and how he couldn't understand why I felt I had to explain it was crocheted and not knitted (I was explaining the texture.

I've made dozens of crocheted baby sweaters.   I've largely designed them all myself.  Three times stand out.  The time the pregnant woman on the train cried (she'd lost her grandmother and was not expecting a hand made sweater),  The co-worker whose wife was expecting twins.  He thanked me nicely, then came in the following Monday with roses from his wife, because she didn't think he thanked me enough ("do you know what hand made sweaters like these would cost at Filene's) and this time.  I loved giving a gift to someone who appreciated the work that went into it. 

His daughter will be blessed.  He really will love the plaster casts of her hand, the clay pots and the refrigerator art.  And he made my day. 

Musings

I've been monitoring a board on cooking and knitting and I noticed that the moderator was looking for some help. I volunteered, since three things I love are knitting, cooking and eating.  We're looking for creative things to bring people onto the board.  More shared recipes.  More shared patterns.  That sort of thing.

The mod suggested food themed knit-alongs and I thought we could do something like dinner and a movie: you know, dinner and a hand knit potholder, dinner and a dish cloth, dinner and an apron.

I have one burning question: how do I keep the food from getting all over the cashmere? Oh, and can we call tomato stains dyeing with natural pigments?

This may go someplace: I never could get the berry stains out of my white jeans...would yarn treated with, say, a combination of raspberry juice and blueberry juice sell, or would I need to have it as part of a high fiber diet? cooked a la pasta?

Perhaps a more profitable line of thought would be food based amigurumi: knit eggplants, carrots, asparagus...

I'll stop now before I make a bigger fool of myself.

the things knitters carry in their knitting bags

Like most yarnies I know, on any given day I'm carrying at least one project.   Also like a number of my brethren and sisteren (see, Peter, Terry and Dan, I mentioned you) I have a number of bags of differing sizes. 

I like colorful bags.   Most of them are Vera Bradley bags I got used (some barely used) and a couple are by Laurel Burch.  Because every knitter needs a kit, I have a little make up case I move from project to project.  In that I have:
- at least 3 cable needles (in my case size 3 or 5 dpns
- at least 2 different sized crochet hooks
- a tape measure
- a pad and pen
- more stitch markers than I care to admit to
- a power bar
- blue scissors shaped like a cat (bryspun)  http://www.brysonknits.com/Bryson%20Dist/Scissor-Display-Cat.jpg
- a nautilus shaped needle sizer http://carolinahomespun.com/miva/graphics/00000001/DGneedlegaugeMetric.jpeg
- tons of chibi needles
- the occasional earring I took off because it hurt my ear
That's the basic list.  But sometimes I find the most unusual things in my knitting bag. This one greeted me the other day!    

Vera Wang.  Wearing Vera Bradley.  And I had no idea she was there until I reached in to get my cabled cape.  Doesn't she look smug?

A good day for a knitter

A little less than 2 years ago I saw a pattern on interweave knits. A stranded Cardigan knit back and forth. Now, lurking in color work, while doable, is boring so I decided, even though I wasn't using a pure animal fiber, that I'd knit it in the round, steek it, and take it fom there. I calculated the adjustments I needed to make and whipped up my steeled cloisonné Hackett. And forgot about it. I was not looking forward to today, so decided to wear some hand knit comfort. The morning started with an elegant co worker raving, she loved the colors and wondered where I had found it. Another person told her I'd made it. Throughout the day, people I barely knew stopped to admire it while the ones who knew me well kept checking the inside to see how I'd finished it. They all oohed and aaahed over the Czech glass button. You have to understand: the day was still difficult, but this made it bearable. It feels great to actually have you work admired. No one asked how much I'd spent on the yarn or suggested there were other ways to "waste my time".

String therapy

You often hear knitters claim that knitting is like yoga. Or less expensive than therapy. Or keeps them from killing people. I admit it is a stress reliever, rhythmic and soothing. My sister would argu I'm full of baloney; she's heard me cursing as I drop down 20 rows to reknit a cable or when a pattern instruction is less than helpful. Or when I find out there's errata available after having frogged and reknit a section more than once. She's probably right, but with the day I've had a little string therapy would be nice about now.