So, unfortunately I don’t have any lovely pictures to show you, but I have made progress!

For my first return project I chose a simple scarf for Andrew. Actually, he requested a scarf, because he said he knew how much I wanted to get back to knitting and thought that if he asked for something I would allow myself to spend some money to restart a hobby I enjoy. I think this is actually really sweet because it is completely true; if I just wanted to knit because I enjoy it and want to do it I’d never have let myself spend any money on it, but if my poor cold family needs something warm to wear, well, I supposed I can justify a little expenditure.

So I got his preferences and sorted through Ravelry patterns and eventually settled on Eton’s Scarf, which is absolutely the perfect pattern for me right now. It knits up nice and skinny as written which is exactly what Andrew wanted, but could easily be made wider by just casting on more stitches (in a multiple of 4). The repeat is simple enough for the train and it’s very easy to read my work, even with my meager skills, so if I doze off or stop in the middle it’s trivial to find my place again.

For the yarn I chose Knit Picks’ Swish Worsted. I haven’t worked with merino before and I am not disappointed! It’s very soft and workable and feels absolutely lovely in my hands. I don’t blame people who work with acrylics and I’m sure I will do so from time to time, but wool just feels SO good. If I get too drowsy to keep knitting on the train at night, I will just listen to my iPod and stroke the wool, seriously. Andrew requested something neutral for the color, so we settled on a colorway called “Cobblestone Heather,” which I think is a fantastic name and luckily it is also a gorgeous color, a nice dark heathery gray.

This blog went dormant when several massive life changes and the accompanying lack of money meant that knitting wasn’t really an option for me anymore. I was still lusting after patterns on Ravelry, but there was just no way to make them a reality.

Last night I ordered some things to get back in the game, though. So there should be activity here soon.

I no longer live in New York; I have moved back to Pennsylvania where I grew up and am working full time as a vet tech. I also go to the University of Pennsylvania, where I am taking science classes to hopefully go to vet school in a few years. That leaves little time for knitting (mostly on trains in and out of the city) and less for blogging, but while my updates will be short I’m hoping I’ll have time to post at least a little something once a week or so.

As I mentioned before, I am in the midst of a Not Blue project. Like everything else I’ve made, it’s simple, small, and didn’t require any new materials, as there is still no job in sight for me. The yarn is Berroco Comfort, in the Mixed Nuts colorway. The pattern is a nice simple Drawstring Bag that I thought would make a very good dice bag, and the project was intended as a gift. I cast on for the base, and all seemed to be going well.

(Sorry about the dark pictures…)

Anyway, I was pleased. The colors seemed to be breaking up well and playing nicely together. This is just the kind of varied coloration I was hoping to see from this yarn. I thought it would make a delightful, masculine look for the bag.

I finished the bottom and proceeded to pick up stitches around the perimeter, in preparation for knitting in the round to create the sides of the bag. It took a few tries (I slipped each stitch at the beginning of the row, but I didn’t get the nice slipped stitch border I was expecting. There must be a trick to it that I haven’t found yet). There were some mistakes, but I finally got it so that it looked right and had no gaping holes, so away I went!

A few rounds went by, and I realized the colors didn’t seem to be breaking up the same way as they had on the base. Oh well, give it time. Just keep knitting.

A few more rounds, and it didn’t seem to be breaking up yet. Well, maybe it will look all right anyway.

About halfway up the sides of the bag, well…

Not exactly what I’d expected. Now, for myself, I don’t think this is that bad. Looks kind of nice, even. But it’s much more likely to be something you either Like or you Don’t Like, as opposed to a relatively neutral, understated pattern like the bottom. But look at it! Look how far along I am! All that time and work, wasted! Plus, if I can’t use this yarn, what am I going to make this present out of? I don’t have yarn money!

As I was bemoaning my plight to Andrew, though, he came over to have a look at my work. And wouldn’t you know, he loved it! He says it reminds him of the coloring on a pit bull. Which I have to agree with! So I’m going to finish it out, and give it to him instead. It doesn’t solve my problem of what to make the actual gift out of, but at least all the cursing I did while picking up stitches isn’t going to waste.

First things first, let’s get it out of the way: today is Election Day in the United States. Yes, I voted. No, I won’t be saying any more about my positions.

I have started a project that is not blue. I hadn’t realized it until I looked at my profile on Ravelry, but all of my FO’s are blue. (To be fair, my last project was supposed to be blue because it is the giftee’s favorite. But the others are totally my fault.)

Unfortunately, the Not Blue Project is not very interesting yet. I thought it would be interesting enough to photograph by the time I got back from voting, since I expected to spend a decent amount of time waiting in line even though New York isn’t exactly a battleground state. But in a completely unexpected move, Fate decided that there would be no one in line to vote at 1:15 this afternoon. Oh, there were a few people in line for some of the other districts, up to about 5 or 6 in the longest line. But the 49th District was dead empty. Zero people. I’m not kidding. My polling place is just at the end of my block, too. I think I was gone from my apartment for maybe 15 or 20 minutes all told.

In other news, I need a job. I interviewed for one that I haven’t heard back from either way. I keep applying, but no one else calls me back. I know the economy’s bad, but why advertise that you have a position available if you’re not going to respond to those who apply? Grr. My reward to myself if I ever do get a job is going to be a set of DPNs. I want to learn socks and fingerless gloves. Everyone tells me to just use Magic Loop, but 1. I’d need to buy needles to do that too, since I only own 16″ circs, 2. Silver’s Sock Class uses DPNs, and that’s what I’m planning to use to learn socks, so it’ll probably be easier to follow the pictures if I’m using the same equipment, and 3. DPNs are both impressive and scary. If I can master them, even if I don’t end up liking them, it will fill me with a sense of accomplishment and pride.

It’s Hallowe’en! In lieu of a party this evening, Andrew and I holed up in the apartment with candy and movies. And I knit the last repeat on my (slightly belated) lapghan square. It’s now all finished, packed up, and waiting to be mailed tomorrow morning. I forgot to take a finished picture before I packed it all away, but it doesn’t look all that different from the last few posts. It’s 14 x 12 inches instead of the intended 12 x 12, but it’s soft and blue and made with good wishes. I learned a lot on this project, most importantly how to “read” my work. Once I figured that out, I was able to complete the piece without the pattern, but it’s more accurate than the first few repeats where I was completely reliant on reading each stitch from the paper. So overall I count it a success.

My lovely 12×12 Square for my Rav-friend’s lapghan? It was just under 12 inches wide when I cast on last weekend. I swear. Andrew will swear too, I made him double check my measurments. Each of the 3 times I cast on. Really. We both measured 12 inches when I finally decreed I was satisfied, and again after I’d knit the first row.

It’s now 14 inches wide. It is, to its credit, uniformly 14 inches wide. I did not accidentally make more stitches than I should have, or anything. It was 12 inches wide when I started, and now, with the same number of stitches, it’s 14 inches wide. Poof, voila! I was afraid that the cast-on stitches were actually too spread out on the needle and I’d end up with it being too small as I knit! But no, apparently cast-on stitches are good buddies and they don’t spread out until they’ve got a lot of company. Now I know.

Luckily the organizer says not to fret, she’ll make it work. We’re all just slaves to the yarn.

…like I might be getting the hang of all this.

I’m a perfectionist. It takes a lot of effort for me to leave even insignificant errors alone. This can be a good thing, of course. I generally do good work and producing something I’m happy with feels very good. However, when I’m still in the “learning curve” phase like I am now, it gets pretty frustrating. I end up tinking or ripping back every time I make even a tiny mistake. So rather than pushing through and figuring out WHY I keep getting split yarn or WHY I purl when I should knit (or vice versa), I just keep starting over and over and over.

The project that’s beaten that out of me is actually, I’m a little embarrassed to say, going to someone else. A member of one of my Rav groups recently lost everything in a fire. And knitters (and crocheters, of course) like to help each other in times of need, so our group is contributing squares to be sewn together into a lapghan for her. Self-conscious as I am about my still meager skills, this is a great effort that I’d really love to be a part of. So I gamely cast on for a 12×12 square. 

I chose the Seed Blocks Square. While I would have loved to choose a cable design and learn a new skill, the square needs to be sent in by Halloween, and I worried about not being able to finish something presentable by then if I was struggling with a new skill. Seed Blocks is an attractive design, simple without being boring, and something I think I can handle at this level. But it wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

The first three sections have mistakes in the seed stitch blocks. I was trying to follow the pattern stitch by stitch rather than letting the work “tell” me where I was. I didn’t trust myself, not being a visual-spatial kind of person, to recognize just by looking at my knitting what stitch I should be on. This would be great, if I could count. But all it takes is one stitch off, and you don’t get seed stitch anymore. You get this:

Not exactly right, is it? Can’t see it? Look now:

Two knit stitches next to each other vertically, when one should be a purl. It may seem like a small thing, but I couldn’t stand it. Just one stitch off on one row, and all the seed stitch blocks were shot! If I’m not mistaken, this makes it 1×1 ribbing instead of seed stitch. But by the time I realized it wasn’t coming out right, I’d already gone so far after casting on 3 times trying to get something 12 inches wide…I wasn’t about to look back. I determined to figure it out or die trying. Then, halfway through the second pattern repeat, I got totally lost. I forgot to tick off a row I’d done and suddenly didn’t know where I was. And then I thought to myself, “I have to be here, because the stitches look like this, and so if I do that next, I should be back in the pattern.” And this is what I got:

It doesn’t seem all that impressive if you already know what you’re doing, does it? “Well SPLUH! I could have told you that!” But it was a big deal for me. I looked at what I had, and figured out what I needed to do to get it to look a certain way. I can’t do that…or at least I couldn’t until I’d started this project. I feel a lot more optimistic about my ability to get good enough at this to make some of the cool things I’ve seen other knitters make (like free-form cables – that stuff is the shiznit)!

My only regret is that my Rav-friend is going to get an imperfect square. I’m almost halfway through and I’m still thinking of ripping it all out and starting over, but I seriously doubt I’ll have enough time to finish it by the 31st if I do. I can only hope that it’s taken in the spirit in which it is meant, and that she won’t mind that it definitely got better as I went along.

First, another episode of yarn acquisition that should have been included last time:

Before I left on my honeymoon, I had a lucky windfall in the yarn department, courtesy of Lime & Violet. In their Charity archives, you’ll find this post, putting out the call for donations to help a gorgeous pit bull named Roo raise enough money for his expensive knee surgery. Being a big softie for animals in general and pit bulls in particular, I tossed in a donation, and though I would have done it even without a reward, I sent in my information for a shot at the yarn raffle just for the heck of it. And what do you know, my number came up! The result?

Three skeins of L&V Sasquatch yarn in the one-of-a-kind colorway “Roo.” At 425 yards per skein, that’s a lot of pretty pitty yarn! What I’ll make with it I have no idea, but it’s a good motivation to keep learning!

I chickened out of taking any knitting on the plane, but when I got back I was determined to get back into the groove. After all, we’re coming up on the season for wool, which I think will help me remain focused. Knitting in the apartment with the yarn sticking to my sweaty fingers was NOT appealing, let me tell you.

First up, remember my first-ever project? The garter stitch scarf that fell victim to my impatience? I finally went back and finished it. My craving for the purl stitch had been satisfied, and I was facing a potential job that would involve a lot of being outdoors in winter (which has since fallen through), so I resolved to get it done once and for all. I really wasn’t that far from the end, as it turns out. 

It’s very soft and squishy, which I like, and seems to be reasonably warm. It doesn’t have any blatant, glaring mistakes. It’s wide, which I like, although I have discovered that contrary to popular (that is, my) belief, there is a point at which a scarf may become too wide. It’s also short, which I don’t like. I have another skein of this yarn and could theoretically remedy that problem, except I’d already decided that this year I will wear a hat when it’s freakishly cold outside. This means I need a hat to go with this scarf, one that uses the same super-bulky yarn and is not your typical tight-fitting knitted cap that doesn’t fit over a ponytail and gives hideous hat hair. Oh, and if at all possible it should use garter stitch to match the scarf. That particular enough for you?

Luckily for me, the aforementioned Ysolda has apparently been reading my mind, as her Urchin Hat is exactly what the doctor ordered. Of course, it contains new challenges – a provisional cast-on, short rows, and grafting – but I’m beginning to think that Nietzsche must have been knitting when he coined the phrase “That which does not kill us makes us stronger,” as the only way to accomplish anything with this pursuit seems to be to jump in with both feet and press on come hell or high water to the finish line. You can get input, ask friends, scour the ‘net, but in the end, it’s just you and your fingers that have to sort it out.

While I wait for my 7mm needles to come in the mail and scrape up the courage to start my hat, I have two other projects to work on – an acre of purple stockinette that will eventually be something adorable for a dear friend, and part B of the mysterious gift in progress previously mentioned. Not to mention hunting up a job! I find my immediate challenges in knitting are more connected to my lack of funds to procure appropriate needles than any remaining lack of motivation.

I am soooo behind. On everything. I’m going to attempt to catch up on blogging so that as I get back to knitting I can keep up. So here we go!

When last we spoke, dear reader, I was cleaning my apartment, locked in a death struggle with the purl stitch, and working on a mystery gift. I was also approaching my wedding day. To tie up these loose ends: The apartment was cleaned. The purl stitch was more or less bent to my will. The mystery gift part A has been completed and part B will be started soon.

Then I got married!

The wedding was everything I’d hoped, with no major disasters and plenty of fun had by all. Then it was off on our romantic honeymoon in Scotland.

Scotland is full of sheep. Therefore, logically, Scotland is also full of wool. As a budding knitter with an avid knitter for her new mother-in-law, this was rather thrilling to me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get photos of the aran-weight natural Hebridean Black wool I bought for my new mother-in-law as a souvenir, or the awesome purple Rowan Scottish Tweed DK and green Jamieson’s Shetland Heather DK that became her birthday present. But I did get photos of my new goodies!

For myself I brought home two balls of lovely green Rowan Scottish Tweed DK, purchased on the Isle of Skye at a yarn and woolens shop called The Handspinner Having Fun:

This shop was large, and mostly full of finished knit sweaters of various sizes and types. As the name implies, there was also an abundance of handspun yarn made of everything from alpaca to silk to camel(!). The customer before me made off with the Hebridean Black wool I was eyeing for myself (not that I can blame her), and I really wanted something more or less local, so I settled on the Rowan. I was repeatedly amazed by the high level of just plain old friendliness among the shopkeepers in Scotland, and this was no exception. The shop also happens to be dangerously situated immediately adjacent to a used book shop, so be forewarned!

I also came home with eight (yes, eight) balls of Jamieson’s Shetland Heather, aran weight, which I hope to someday be skilled enough to turn into a lovely garment of snuggly cabley goodness, like perhaps Norah Gaughan’s Wandering Aran Fields or some kind of vest.

This yarn came from K1 Yarns in Edinburgh, a store that scored at least a 12 on my scale of 1 to 10 (and, if I’m not mistaken, is the workplace of designer Ysolda Teague, though she was not there when I was). While not huge, the shop had a large selection of yarn – brands, colors, weights, prices, etc – that was accessible to the customer, well-organized and easy to navigate. It also had customer service that was literally second to none. I was greeted by a friendly lady who asked if she could help me. When I told her that I was on vacation and wanted to purchase some local yarn for myself and my mother-in-law, she gave me a guided tour of all the Scottish and Welsh yarns, then let me browse in peace until I was ready with my selections. The shop also endeared itself to me as a total amateur by offering friendly little charts all around the store with tidbits like “How much of what type of yarn do I need to make an average sized (blank)?” It’s located just off the Royal Mile, too, making it easy to fit into your trip – and I *highly* recommend you do!

I’ll end here for now. Look for Part II of my catch-up posting before the end of the week, in which you’ll hear about the knitting I’ve done since I got home, and what’s next!

Ok, not really. My life is pretty interesting now, what with the whole “I just got my Master’s” and “I’m getting married in just over 6 weeks” situation. But my day-to-day existence, and particularly my needles, aren’t really all that thrilling.

There is the ongoing epic apartment cleaning quest. I have vanquished the kitchen and bathroom, and have leveled up to…drumroll please…the BEDROOM. Yes, I know, how exciting for me. I hope it will be over soon.

There is also the knitting, which I have been doing, mainly unsuccessfully. After having necessarily neglected it for several weeks, my meager skills had atrophied appropriately, leading to some highly frustrating mistakes, ripping back, and my realization that while I’d figured out a motion that would create a purl stitch on the needle, it was such an uncomfortable movement that I resolved to teach my hands to move the way the video on KnittingHelp.com shows it, or die trying. That held up actual progress a bit, although I did eventually succeed (more or less).

These obstacles conquered, I went on to complete something! Pictures of the new FO are lacking however, for while I doubt that this blog is being read by the recipient-to-be, it’s possible and therefore I’m taking no chances on spoiling the surprise. Rest assured, though, I have been working! I’m hoping, now that I’ve sorted out my purl issues and got my hands back on track, that I’ll have something more interesting to show you soon. We shall see – it will depend on whether I ever resurface from my spring cleaning!