Veni, Vidi, Steeki.

My friends, I hope you had a wonderful holiday.  Are you still recuperating?  I feel like I am!

We had a blast, ate dinner at my sister's house, and it was my parents first Christmas in Chapel Hill, and my daughter's first Christmas, too.  A couple of very nice firsts. 

Another first?  A knitting first for me? 

I steeked.

Having a moment of cold feet here....

Seriously! 

Those knitting writers weren't kidding when they talked about having a stiff one or lying down after cutting your knitting.  I didn't exactly have a lie down, but I definitely experienced an adrenaline buzz akin to how you feel directly after riding a roller coaster.  I may have terminal dorkiness, since I would get that systemically affected by yarn. 

It was really nice to steek for the first time at Yarns Etc.  There were several knitters sitting there, it felt somewhat like group therapy.  "We're all going to get through this together, Erin."  "Deep breaths, honey, almost there."  But you know what?  The cut knitting behaved exactly as I'd been promised it would.  It didn't ravel, thanks to some hand stitching I'd done around the basting/cutting line.  The whole thing did not frog itself, and I ended up with a really pretty nice sweater (if I do say so myself).



Elizabeth Zimmermann's Ski Pattern Sampler Sweater.  The wool is Lopi.  My husband is a lucky man.

While I was at the yarn store, I noticed many pretty items that weren't necessarily yarn, but were great when used in conjunction with yarn and knitting (or crocheting).  Have you seen the great selection of buttons? 

Or the ribbons?  Ribbon can look so beautiful laced through evenly spaced holes in a knit, along the hem, at the waist, even at the wrists or laced through a set of arm warmers, perhaps, reminiscent of the lacing on old-time clothing?



These gorgeous colors on the silk ribbon look especially fine.

Sometimes a little something extra can just bring out a hand knit, take it to the next level, as it were. 
And sometimes the something extra is just a gorgeous little runner like this:

Or you could try something like this fantastically unique yarn here:



This is made by Prism, and I believe the yarn is called "Stuff". 





And I fell completely in love with these adorable little measuring tapes. 



Lookit!  A ducky!

I saw a few nice husbands walk into the store back on Thursday, asking for yarn for their spouses for Christmas.  If you received such a gift, lucky you (I made sure my present was yarn!  Lucky me!), and you can come on in to get the little extras you need to make your hand knit shine.  


Process Versus Product

Where do you fall?  Are you about the destination, or the journey? 

I have come to the conclusion, slowly, that I am a process knitter.  That is the only sane and logical way I can explain how many dang unfinished objects I have.  I must reeeeealllly like the process.  Yup.  That's why I have so much stuff on the needles and what feels like only 2 finished projects to my name, and I have been knitting for almost four years now. 

I know I've finished more than two things...like, maybe four things.  But still, if I finished everything in my closet and project bag...s....  well, I would have a sizable pile of handknits.  How can you tell which category you fall into?  Here are some probing questions.  A word of caution beforehand, however.  Do not ask yourself these questions if you are A) uncomfortable with facing the truth, B) uncomfortable with the size of your yarn stash, C) operating heavy machinery.  Drowsiness may occur. 

Do you have many unfinished objects in your stash?  More than two? 

Do you find yourself making up reasons why you must cast on another project?

Do you have little or no problem "shelving" a current project for finishing at a later date?

Are you bothered when you cast on for another project when you "should" be finishing your current one?

Are you only working on one thing at a time?

Do you buy yarn with no clear project in mind, but simply because of sheer desire for it? 

Are you running out of places to put your unfinished projects?

I find I am unconcerned with finishing things anymore.  I mean, I might finish a sweater, which would be no small thing, considering, but the risks involved in blocking it and sewing it up!!  I mean, people, it might not fit!!  One sleeve may be two inches longer than the other.  If I don't finish it, and just knit here and there, on into eternity, I have this lovely sense of heading towards a finish line without the bone crushing reality of making something that won't fit a humanoid, but perhaps a giraffe.  My self-esteem just can't handle something awful of that magnitude.  Miles of yarn and months of hard work leading up to...the desire to swear loudly and awfully for a full 48 hours straight. 

I remember (vividly, still) one of my first finished projects.  I knit a nightgown.  No, really.  Guys, please stop laughing.  I know...a nightgown???   Really?  But yeah, a nightgown.  It was very gorgeous; it was in Mason-Dixon Knitting (I love those ladies), and it was knit in Louet Sportweight linen.  At the store, I decided to swap out the yarn for Knit One Crochet Two Ty-Dye.  In worsted weight.  And...being the newbie that I was, I sort of scrapped the basic tenets of gauge.  I set to work with the needles recommended in the pattern, but not the yarn.  I knit.  I knit some more.  I knit for two months, monogamously, on this.  Vine Lace patterned hem....waist shaping...seed stitch top.  Then I knit the front, all the same, but add in bust line shaping, etc. etc. etc.  Finally I was ready to block and sew them up.  I had been dealing with some doubts since I was working with something that was giving me wavy ty-dyed pink and purple horizontal stripes that would make a twig look chunky, but I kept telling myself it was going to be great.  Oh, and it was.  A great disaster, right up there with Krakatoa.  It was sooooo big.  I mean huge.  It was so wide that it looked like a hair scrunchie for an Ent stuck in the 80s.  It would have made a smashing tractor tire cozy.  I would have a picture of it put up here, except the picture, along with the knit, has mysteriously disappeared....  That sucker hit the frog pond with enough velocity that people in France had their hair blown back.  I believe that may have been the moment when I was profoundly, psychologically placed firmly in the process knitter column. 

That being said (boy, wasn't that a lot of rationalization for this next sentence?), here is a new project I have started:

This is Cascade 220 in Denim Heather and Merlot Heather.  I'm playing with fire, trying to design a sweater from a pattern book, like this one:

Doing a swatch (I can be taught), and going for it.  I am not sure what to do with the neck, the sleeves, and whether weeping will be involved, but I'm going to try anyway.  All the Elizabeth Zimmermann I've been reading lately has me puffed up like a Scotsman from "Braveheart" to be a fearless knitter rather than a blind follower. 

Stay tuned....



Field Trip

I thought it would be fun to take a bit of a field trip this week.  A little look-see around the blogosphere to see what is going on in the knitterverse.  I'd like to show you some of my most favoritest blogs out there, and also give shout-outs to our local bloggers, too.  If you blog and would like a shout-out as well, post a comment and we'll get to know all our cyber-neighbors.  Nerd alert...who says "cyber-neighbors"?  What am I?  Running for mayor of the web??

So, that being said, the very first place I run to every day, the blog that has its own button on my tool bar would have to be, no doubt, the Yarn Harlot.  From the first post I ever read, I have been a faithful follower of the Harlot.  If you haven't been, I strongly recommend you visit.  Strongly.  I also recommend that you read her archived posts, as well.  This blog represents to me that a knitter can really find friends, her place in the universe, and a smashing career/life calling if she just keeps knitting.  Not to mention that she is a published author of...knitting humor.  Seriously.  She also invented the word "Kinnear" (as a verb) and Greg Kinnear complimented her right back by calling her the "Michael Jordan of knitting."  She is my superhero. 

Another place I visit frequently would have to be Mason-Dixon Knitting.  I have used the books that Ann Shaye and Kay Gardiner have published (Mason-Dixon Knitting and Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines) and let me tell you that I have purchased so much dishcloth cotton yarn because of them! 

I also have to mention that, even though it is not a blog, Ravelry is also a phenomenal place to visit.  If you haven't been...well, I'd say it's like Facebook for knitters, crocheters, weavers, and crafty folks, but without all that really annoying upgrade junk.

Brooklyn Tweed has patterns that just kill me, they're so beautiful, and so beautifully photographed.

A list of blogs to visit would not be complete without mentioning Wendy Knits.

And now for some local flavor....

My friend Wendy (not the aforementioned Wendy) has her own website:  ChickenStitch Creations.  She is one seriously talented woman!  Let me tell you that she has entered handknits into the State Fair and she WON. 

Another recent comment on the blog led me to a new blog I've been exploring:  Wool Durham.  Sara just finished a gorgeous Acer Cardigan that has me feeling the itch to cable myself one, too.  Check it out!

Also I visited the mysterious PfeifferGrad's website:  House Of Tater.  She's mysterious because I couldn't squeeze her first name out of her blogger profile (d'oh!).  At first glance she mentioned a fiber hangover, so you know she's one of us!

 And a last one (for now) would have to be Connie Chang Chinchio's website. I always fall hard for her designs, even if I don't always finish them (ahem...cardigan..cough cough).

That being said, I have to tell you that the cardigan appears to be getting very irate at me.  It has been two weeks since I've knit a stitch on it, and I think something is going to have to be done, if I want to not be smothered in my sleep.  Look at this craziness:

The dang thing's GOT A SHIV.  It has its nasty little knitted sleeves wrapped around a frackin' weapon!  Send help!

I can't tell if it's aiming for me or the Malabrigo.  Help.

PS:  In an epic blogger fail, I forgot to mention another very cool, local blogger.  Ms. Nik of the comments also has a beautiful blog:  Nik's Knits.  You must go see it, it's very pretty and lots of great projects!



Winter is coming.

Are there any of you out there completely addicted to the "Game of Thrones" series on HBO?  If so, then this title might have made you smile....But truly, winter is coming. (Cue "serious" music)
Did any of you out there enjoy donning some handknits when the weather turned chilly this past weekend?  I was so happy to be cold.  I wore my February Lady sweater, and my daughter was decked out in her Baby Surprise Jacket.  It's times like these that a knitter and his or her handknits are appreciated properly!

I've been lucky to get some pictures of what the knitters of Great Yarns have been working on.  I don't have names to go with the faces, so give a shout out in the comments, will you, if you see your mug on here!



This is the mitered squares blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. 




No clue what this is, but I want it desperately.



Look at the edging on this, just stunning.



I have a friend who is going through a feather-and-fan phase.  I bet she's delirious right now.

These accomplished knitters look like they have been very busy all summer long, with gorgeous knits to wear and use once the heat is long gone.  And, on a different note, I have to tell you about my friend.  Let me change her name first...um...Miz.  My friend Liz Miz learned to knit from me, and knitted happily all winter long.  She went to the yarn store quite a bit, and even chewed me out in a friendly way when she had a bit of a shopping splurge at the yarn store.  Somehow she thought I was "enabling"...whatever that means.  But Miz doesn't knit in the summer.  Not a stitch.  She just stopped cold turkey.  Hey, Miz!!  See what you could have in time for fall and winter if you weren't off the wool, eh?!?!?  Anyone else remember that story about the grasshopper that sang all summer?  Uh huh, Miz, I'm talkin' to you!

Lesson learned:  winter is coming.

This knitter has been working at the Cardigan-That-Will-Never-End.  I know a lot of projects get to a point where it's like a marriage.  There were fun times, there will be fun times ahead, but right now we're trudging along together.  No fireworks, no fire, just blah.  And there is an excess of blah going on with my Farmer's Market Cardigan.  You would think that, after you knit the body and both sleeves, you would be on the homestretch.  It all seems rather final.  But not with this puppy.  Then I am supposed to hem the sleeves and then pick up the provisional stitches on the body to knit pockets.  Then add a shawl collar, mow the lawn, feed the pigs, dust the furniture, and finally, FINALLY, I can block it and sew it up.  Lesson learned:  read the pattern all the way through before you look at the picture for too long and are hooked.  So help me, this sweater better fit like a dream.  I could have knit a house by now.  Here are some pictures of it:




Is it just me or do these sleeves look about a mile long?



This is Cascade 220, called "Eggplant". 

This yarn is so dark that I think my vision has gone from 20/20 to 20/2000.  It sucks all the light out of the room like a black hole.  In fact, knitting on it is rather black hole-like, too.  I'm resisting the urge to stick it back in the closet. 

Since that sweater is SO dark and I have been knitting on it for SO long, I had to get some little projects out to take the edge off.  They had to be small, easy, and brightly colored. 

These are "Picky Pants", made of Malabrigo (am I the only one who constantly mispronounces it?).  It is my first time with the Malabrigo, and I'm resisting the urge to sell all my furniture to buy a large amount of it.  It's so soft I almost think it's cotton candy and I should taste it to see if it tastes as good as it looks.  Is it just me that feels like that?   Ooookay...awkward moment.

I am also working on another small, colorful project.  But it is a secret, for someone for their special day.  And they read this blog, so...


                                                     

I promise you, it's not this.  What are you knitting?

Six (Or More) Degrees of Separation

I call my mother every day, pretty much, just to keep up with all the exciting things that aren't really happening for either of us.  We're not dashing people, constantly on the go, having parties on a whim, and  up until today, I felt pretty reassured that I knew everything there was to know about my mom.  But yesterday, I was in for quite a shock.

I found out that my mom had knit once.  One project.  And finished it.  Shocker #1.  I had not known my mother had knit anything.  She said it was a scarf, and her tension was so tight that it was almost impossible to move the stitches on the needles.  I totally sympathized with her on that one.  When I first learned to knit, I made stockinette stitch resemble Kevlar.  She carried it to the movies to knit on it before the show would begin, and finished it in time for Valentine's Day, or their anniversary, she couldn't recall which.  She never picked up needles again, but I was impressed.  She knit a scarf.  Just one.  Did not feel the wooly fingers of addiction grab her in the least.  But...she did finish it.  She has a waaaay better track record (percentage-wise) at finishing stuff than I do.  She bats .1000 on that one. 

I had to laugh to myself when I asked her whatever became of it.  I presumed that it must have been lost or abandoned or thrown out years ago.  "Oh, it's still around here somewhere," she said.  My parents just moved to North Carolina from out of state this past June, and have moved six times since I was born, and this scarf was knit over a decade beforehand.  Even a non-habitual knitter, having knit ONE OBJECT (and finished it--dang!), has the presence of mind to know that a handknit is something to hold on to.  Hey, are you still a non-knitter if you have actually knit something?  Discuss....

Then she casually mentions how she had learned to knit whilst watching a "show on PBS" and, I swear, my skin prickled.  My ears perked up.  My hair stood at attention.  "Um, mom," I said, "was it 'The Knitting Workshop'?" 

"It was so long ago, honey," she said, "before we had Lynda [my oldest sister], and--"

"Did she have long gray hair pulled back in a bun?"  I blurted out.  I was rooted there, just gripped.

"Well, yes, and she had an English accent and was very funny about how people didn't have to knit so tightly, unless they wanted to," my mom said.

"HOLY COW THAT WAS ELIZABETH ZIMMERMANN, MOM!!!!!  YOU SAW ELIZABETH ZIMMERMANN ON 'THE KNITTING WORKSHOP' WHEN IT ORIGINALLY AIRED!!!!"

Enter big fat SHOCKER #2.

You may be sitting there, reading this (hey, how're you doin', by the way?), and going, "yeah, so?" or something like that.  But, I swear, this was the equivalent of finding out your mom hung out with...oh, I dunno...Mick Jagger.  It's like that time my sister Lauren sat down in the food court at the mall and realized she was sitting across the aisle from Andrew Dice Clay.  Well, that's not exactly a moment you would want to brag about, perhaps.  It's that buzz you get from realizing you know someone who knows someone who actually rode in an elevator with Benecio Del Toro.  I do know someone who...um, yeah, the Benecio thing.  Cool, huh?

I told my husband last night, and I got all wild-eyed and overly excited all over again.  His counter-story included someone he knew who rode in an elevator with Elvis Costello AND Joan Jett.  But neither of them are knitters.  Are they?  I googled it, just to see.  Can't say I'm not doing research here, folks. 

Perhaps this conversation seemed such a bombshell because Elizabeth Zimmermann has been on my mind lately.  Her newest book,

Knit One Knit All,

published posthumously, recently arrived at my house, and I've been devouring the beautiful designs in it.  I wanted to write about EZ, but what in the world could I say that hasn't already been said, and said much better than I ever could put it?  My mother holds Julia Child in the same esteem that I hold Elizabeth Zimmermann. 

I still qualify as a "blind follower", as she would put it, but I have high hopes that one day, thanks entirely to her "unventing" things, and her EPS percentages for making your own custom-fitted knits, I will be a fearless knitter. 

Whoa.

This past week has been rather interesting, hasn't it?  I mean, for one, we have the horrible, devastating earthquake that shook up the entire eastern seaboard.  Did you see some of the pictures of the aftermath?  It's pretty gruesome stuff.  Please, let's have a moment of silence.

...shudders...

Ok, moving on now. Oh yeah, then there was the hurricane.  Hurricane?!?!  I'm from St. Louis, my friends, and I have lived here seven years and have never had to do "hurricane grocery shopping" before.  I bought water, I bought flashlights, I bought batteries, I filled up the cars with gas, I considered buying tarps, and on and on.  I was thisclose to buying a freakin' generator!    I haven't seen that much of The Weather Channel since that time I went to the periodontist, and novocaine was involved in that one.  Oy....

It's times like this that make me very glad to be a knitter.  When I am stressed out, overwhelmed, fearful, worried, am being bugged out of my mind by my children and/or husband, I turn to knitting.  I don't gamble, smoke, drive fast, drink, and my coffee intake is starting to moderate after all these years, so knitting is my one and only obsession.  Well, that and yarn.

See this?

This is some of the yarn I bought when visiting my in-laws in Cincinnati.  This crazazy yarn called Frivola, and it is my first foray into the world of novelty yarns.  It is this very soft yarn, with little cocoon-like nubs in shades of green (with sparkles in it!).  When I was out on Saturday with it, several friends remarked that it looked like I was knitting with broccoli.  Hmmmm....

Broccoli:

Frivola:

Ummmmm...ok, they have a point. 

One skein of this knitted up faster than you can say "choppin' broccoli" .  I finished the skein in 15 minutes, to my surprise, and I have another to add to this scarf.  I hope it will make one of my nieces happy this holiday season.  Oh yes, I am knitting already for Christmas, but even thinking about it makes me twitchy.

I am also knitting for the upcoming fall weather.  I had this epiphany, really, that if I took something out of my stash that I had cast on for months (ahem...years....ahem) ago and, like, knit it,  then I would have--get this--a FINISHED PROJECT!  So I delved into my stash and considered many pretty, neglected balls of yarn, and found this little number:

This is the Farmer's Market Cardigan, by Connie Chang Chinchio.  I always find myself gravitating towards her knitting designs.  They look so chic and pretty, yet comfortable.  I am knitting this one up in Cascade 220, in a color called "eggplant", but doesn't exactly resemble that.  It's black and deep slate blue plied together (eggplant?  really?), and I may be sorry at the end that I chose such a dark yarn, that it may not show off the gorgeous cabling in the collar, but 12 inches of it was already knitted up when I got it out of the closet, and I'm goin' for it!

That Dang Duck

Below is the pattern I have been tweaking for knitting my son a duckling from a children’s book that he loves.

1. Cast on 30 stitches. Knit four rows. On fifth row, knit into front and back of each stitch, 60 stitches.

2. Knit 1, slip 1 all the way across. Continue until you realize that this doesn’t seem to look like double knitting as it was explained to you by Elizabeth Zimmermann’s books. Also realize that this seems a little big for a duckling. Frog, and tell yourself that it was a good thing you did it sooner rather than engage in Knitting Denial (a real syndrome) and keep going.

3. Cast on 20 stitches. Knit four rows. On the fifth row, knit into the front and back of each stitch, ending up with 40 stitches. Again (because you’re on autopilot) knit 1, slip 1 across each row. Realize that you have now knit something that you will have to turn inside out, so the smooth knit stitches will be on the outside of the duckling rather than in its innards. Frog again.

4. Cast on 20 stitches, again knit four rows, again increase to 40 stitches as in previous directions. Think long and hard about what is confusing you about double knitting and why you’re not getting the result you want, and decide (inexplicably) to do. the. same. thing. again. Knit 1, slip 1. Have at it, go to town. Now you tell yourself you WANT to flip the bird—inside out, that is. Tell yourself that you meant to do that, what with those two garter ridges at the bottom and all. Tell yourself it’s for stability or something…anything. Knit on. Remember the syndrome mentioned in Step 2, but shrug it off.

5. Get to about 3-4 inches in length, gloating to yourself about how cute this little alpaca/wool yarn is, and how it looks just like the ducky in the book. Set duck body aside and prepare to figure out how to knit its feet.

6. Cast on nine stitches in the softest, sweetest, carrot-y colored alpaca yarn ever. Melt internally when you picture how it will go so well with the gray duck body. Imagine that your son will, for once, fawn nonstop over the knitted duck, as opposed to the other knits you have made him. Cunningly shape the feet, using SSKs and k2togs like a champ. When down to three stitches, work I-cord, smirking to yourself about how these look SO much like duck feet that you feel like your IQ just went up three points. Repeat with second foot, and add additional five points to IQ.

7. Return to duck body, and prepare to sew/graft duck feet to garter ridges, but properly, so it will look ridiculously cute when the body is turned right side out. Cut gray yarn with enough tail to easily thread (on a yarn needle) through every other stitch on one side, turn work and thread the needle through every other stitch on the way back. Remove work from knitting needle and feel a little nervous. Luckily enough, the

knitting opens up in the middle, just like it ought to, like a pocket. Feel free to say “Squee” in a high-pitched voice now, like a pre-teen at a Justin Bieber concert. Turn duck inside out.

8. Realize that duck isn’t properly turning inside out.  Make this face: 

9. Realize that there is one. single. stitch. that you mis-knit/slipped and now, you have made a duckling with one heck of a belly button.

10. Spend too much time trying to come up with some kind of knitterly work around, to no avail. Console yourself by realizing you knit the cutest duckling feet ever. The first ever knitted duckling feet?  Decide to go back to the drawing board....

I'm sure there's a yarn store closer....

The time has come for our annual visit to Cincinnati to visit my husband’s family. We drove. The two kids with their car seats, their toys, and me in the backseat, and Steve up in front. Do you know that you can drive fast on the highway, only stop three times, get snarled in traffic twice, get a flat tire once, and have a nine hour drive take 12 (TWELVE!) hours???!! Please hold your applause, but I will take my Purple Heart medallion now. Both children were great and very excited for the first hundred miles, and then it was just that grit-your-teeth-and-drive experience every parent knows about and shudders to remember.

I did a little knitting on the drive up, when both the children were asleep for approximately four minutes. I’ve been having a little love affair with simple knits for the kitchen, namely scrubbers. I get some good old cotton yarn, cast on 33 stitches, and knit in seed stitch until it is approximately square, and then bind off in pattern. It makes for a wonderful dishcloth, and something about the type of stitch makes the yarn long lasting.

For me, one of the fun things about travelling is visiting funky and cool places you can’t find at home. Granted, I live in Chapel Hill and with Carrboro nearby, it is near impossible to have a shortage of funky and cool. But, when it comes to yarn stores, I find that, the more I see, the more I want to see. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of visiting the yarn store, and the fact that they’re all over the globe, not just in my neighborhood, means that (thank god) I am never in danger of running out of yarn. I don’t think that will happen, but I want to be prepared, you know, just in case.

I visited a yarn store I’ve never been to before.

Fiberlicious (http://www.fiberlicious.com/) is located in Madeira, Ohio, and owned by the slightly flushed Cindy, whose air conditioning had conked out the morning I had visited (I’m sure it’s functioning wonderfully right now).

She has a wealth of novelty yarns, eye-catching and beautifully dyed, and she was very friendly and lovely herself. She told me how they were ordered from all over, but all dyed in the USA. She will sit with you and help you design your own knits as well. There were also button and carved rosewood hooks, skeins with wooden beads and cloth-cut leaves strung on them, and clothing for sale as well as purses and knick knacks. A very interesting and eclectic collection, and I left with some interesting cocoon-shaped bobbly yarn to make into a scarf, and some lacy yarn that ruffles when you knit it, and a wee gorgeous skein of (gulp) cashmere, my first. It was a single skein, all by its lonesome, and I felt like it really needed a friend. So, it was more of a philanthropic venture than an impulse buy. And it was “souvenir yarn”, so I think I’ve done well at rationalizing that purchase. I’m hoping I have enough to make a lacy, airy cowl. The other yarn purchases are going to be knit into Christmas presents.

I am also attempting to knit a duckling.

That may be the weirdest sentence I’ve typed in recent memory, but it’s true. My son is in love with a children’s book: Duck, Duck, Goose (by Tad Hills), and there is a little, gray, know-it-all duckling named Thistle. My son loves Thistle, and has been begging me to make one. I selected an alpaca/wool blend yarn...

(Valley Yarn Stockbridge from our very own Yarns etc, to be exact), and so far I had juuuuust enough time to cast on 30 stitches, knit three rows, and then knit in the front and back of each stitch to bring me to a total of 60 stitches. I have a theory that some double knitting might be the way I want to go on the body and head of this duck. But of course, I’m hardly an expert knitter, and I might find (shortly) that that isn’t going to work out. Stay tuned….

An Introduction

How did I get here? Well. My name is Erin, and I used to be a regular, non-knitting individual. But all that changed about four years ago. Before then, I thought yarn was vaguely interesting…sort of. Somehow, mysteriously, I got sucked in.

I started knitting when my son was eight months old. I learned from a book, and while I wanted to throw the yarn across the room and use the book as kindling for a fire (I was a leedle frustrated at first), I kept at it. When I had a strip of something that looked like knitting, I felt almost as I did when I first became a mother. “See that? I made that! Isn’t it cute?”

At first I could take it or leave it. I didn’t need to knit all the time, and I didn’t miss it when I had a few minutes’ time and nothing to do. It took me seven attempts to knit a purse. Seven agonizing cast-ons, hours and hours of grinding concentration to make the simple in-wrap-out-off motions of knitting, and seven fraught bind-offs, including my personal favorite, when I figured I could cut the yarn an inch in length after I’d finished, and I watched the entire thing frog itself in .087 seconds. That was attempt #6, by the way. Weirdly enough, I kept at it.

Sometime after that, I don’t know when, I morphed into a knitter. I started visiting the local yarn store, Yarns Etc, more often. I started planning ahead, buying yarn for those “future projects” I had planned (the slippery slope of yarn addiction is very subtle), and sometimes I just bought yarn because it felt too good to go home without it. I started new and daring things like…hats, socks, sweaters. Things meant to fit a human body, and sometimes the results were tragically comic. What better way to underscore the importance of gauge than to spend two months knitting a nightgown that would work better as a cozy for a tractor tire? That little label on the yarn is trying to tell you something, chica!

My son is four now, and I have an almost four-month old daughter, too. My knitting time is scarce, but now I would say I am a Knitter. It is a rare day that I don’t knit for at least a few minutes (I knit while I waited in the hospital to have my daughter—the nurses were very amused, and I think some of them wanted me to get a psych consult). I buy knitting magazines, I’m on a knitting and crocheting social network (Ravelry holla! If you haven’t been there, you must go), and one of my most favorite moments in life right now is the second I walk in the door at Yarns Etc, and just look from wall to wall at all the cubbies full of fuzzy skeins that scream, “take me home!”



When did you become a knitter, Knitter, or knit enthusiast? Or even...a crocheter???

I don’t get to come to Yarns etc as much as I’d like to lately, but I am always greeted like an old friend when I show up with my wee people. My son loves Mary’s thoughtful assortment of toys (and I appreciate them, too), and has even knit a little bit. My daughter is becoming alert enough to see all those beautiful colors on the shelves…perhaps she will become addicted to the art of knitting and crochet, too?

A few days ago, Mary had asked me if I would be interested in writing for the store’s blog, and I leapt at the chance. Hmmm, let me think…talking about yarn, knitting, my favorite store, and do it weekly. Gee…um…YEAH!

So that's how I got here. I want to talk about yarn, fiber, cool stitches, beautiful projects, and all the fun things that are arriving at Great Yarns and Yarns etc. I want to make your mouths water and your fingers twitch with lots of beautiful pictures of projects and yarns.

WEEKEND KNITTING

I have to admit that I don't knit as much on the weekends as I would like. Weekends are actually "workends" for me and I am very busy or very sleepy in a fairly predictable pattern. However, I found this cute little cardigan, knit all in one piece and fell in love. I cast on Friday evening after work, and (almost) finished by Sunday night.

I would have completely finished, but I needed to come by the shop to pick out these perfect wooden buttons. That and it still needs a little steam, blocking will have to be for another day.  My favorite thing about this precious sweater is that it will be a fantastic wardrobe for a little one's teddy bear when they have grown out of it!

Both of these projects are knit with the great Mission Falls 1824 wool, superwash, wonderful colors and fast to knit!

This is just a taste of my next project... more to come! I hope to be finished by Sunday! STAY TUNED!

SEWING, DONE!

I am so happy to have sewn this beautiful blankie together...

I can hardly wait to see an adorable baby right in the middle!

too bad I have 84 MORE ends to weave in!

We'll see how I feel after weaving in all of those ends, but I'm fairly certain that every single step of this lovely blankie has been worth it.

See you next Friday when I'm sure to be finished, and on to the next adventure!