The Disordered Life

Life, I have noticed, does not feel sequential to me. Like a novel, different story lines fade in and out as the days pass by. In this blog, I am trying to create knitting anecdotes from non-consecutive, uncooperative events, which doesn't really work. Maybe I should save the stories for my knitting book (everyone is writing them these days, so why shouldn't I?) and just report my day-to-day progress, such as it is.

Megan's Dishcloths

As has been my dishcloth knitting habit of late, I selected a stitch from The Knitting Stitch Bible and transformed it into a cotton dishcloth made from Lion Brand Lion Cotton, this time in Poppy Red. The stitch pattern was "hearts" which, for some reason, was a bitch to knit, at least in non-stretchy cotton. And I forgot that stitches are taller than they are wide, so instead of squarish, the dishcloth came out rectangular. Were I to knit this one again (and I'm not!), I would space out the hearts to increase the width.



For Megan's second dishcloth (I always seem to knit them in pairs), I used a 9-patch pattern I found here. (Let it be said, when I first saw the Mason-Dixon Knitting book at the library, I did not even crack it open because I assumed from the dorky cover that it would be full of patterns for toilet seat covers and finger puppets. I stand corrected, and as penance, purchased my very own copy and also pay daily visits to their website.) What drew me to this pattern were two things: mitered corners (how do they do that?) and no seaming (how do they do that?) The fun thing about mitered knitting is one starts on the long edges and decreases, so the closer one knits to the point, the faster the knitting goes. (Unlike sweater sleeves knit from the cuff up.) The colors here are Poppy Red and Natural.



Not my Socks?

The executive summary:

Pattern: from Sensational Knitted Socks, a four-stitch ribbing, in garter rib

Size: women's 11 (don't start)

Yarn: Schaefer Yarn "Anne" in some one-of-a-kind colorway

These socks look HUGE to me. Before starting to knit, I swatched (otherwise, I would never have purchased the recommended size 1 needles) and I measured my feet against the size chart, and now that the socks are blocked, I measured them against the size chart as well. Yes, all the numbers match, BUT. They. Look. Huge. They feel kind of loose, too, and the ankles bag a bit. And yet, they feel comfy.



Rarely do I knit something for myself, but I swore these socks were for me. And yet, they don't feel like mine. They feel like they belong to Karen, the instructor at a writing workshop I attended recently. She saw the socks in progress, and exclaimed over the colors, and then I realized that the colors were her colors; they matched her outfits. The rest of the weekend, I kept sneaking peeks at her feet, debating on whether the socks would fit. I think the socks are a bit big for her, too, but given Karen's propensity for going barefoot and her starving-artist lifestyle, I'm thinking she needs them more than I do. We'll see.



Another reason I felt dissatisfied with the colors is they stockinetted better than they ribbed. And the dark yarn was difficult to work with except in daylight. But this pattern, on size 1 needles, used a lot of yarn; only 17 grams remained, out of a 4 oz. skein. Had the skein been the usual 3 oz. (100 g.) size recommended for a pair of adult socks, I would have run short.



Three pairs of socks do not make me an expert, but I feel like each pair I have knit so far has been 'way too much of a learning experience. The next pair will be a repeat, of either the Magic Socks pattern or the Ann Norling pattern.

More (I Must Be Nuts) Lace

After the swallowtail shawl, I did not think I would ever knit lace again. But I am. And this time I am actually using a lace weight yarn, a mohair (emphasis on hair, as in hairy) and silk blend: Rowan "Kidsilk Haze" in a color called Liqueur, probably because it will drive you to drink.

I was the only one in the shawl class who did not use such a yarn, and if I had, I would never have finished that shawl. This yarn is like fine, hairy thread. The body of the yarn is barely visible because of the hair, and the hair clings to itself like Velcro, which makes frogging nearly impossible.



So the plan is to frog and tink as little as possible. (Stop laughing!) And since I have trouble counting above 80 (has nothing to do with the number of toes and fingers I possess - I have a tendency to either skip from 89 to 100 or to count the 80's twice - don't ask me why), I am strategically placing stitch markers every 24 stitches (the pattern repeats every 6 stitches). And I may employ lifelines every 12 rows or so, as the pattern is 12 rows high.



The pattern is from Glamour Knits and is a fitted top for my daughter. It is designed to wear over a camisole and hug the body. So I was forced to not only knit up a swatch (which was an excellent opportunity to practice the lace stitching) but also soak and block the swatch to see how much it would stretch out. Because lace knitting s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s.



I had already decided to drop a needle size because this is my usual MO, and the swatch came out very close to the 4" x 4" expectation, but snug enough that I rounded up to size 38.



Now I am crossing my fingers that this will actually work out in real life.

Blogger Aside

I have not been posting lately, so this is the first time I noticed that Blogger automatically saves drafts. What a great idea! Several times this week I have read postings on typepad other blogs where the blogger is complaining about losing a post while editing. Maybe they should learn something from the free blog hoster!