Red Light Special

I finished my knitting for Bella and have ripped and re-knit the yoke for the Hourglass Sweater. I'm using Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed in color #400 Ambrosia. I'm six rows from the end and then will begin (again) the hemming. But I'm pleased to be finishing it - it's beautiful so far and I already am considering it a favorite in terms of process and end product. I like it and the yarn I'm using so much that I'd like to make a second one right away but this great hat is calling out to me. There are so many great projects that I'd like to begin (or finish):

• Demi (stalled on the needles due to my indecision to knit it flat or in the round)
• Shadow Tam (above from Interweave Knits Fall 2004) - I've completed one beautiful wedge out of 8 total.
  
• Arlette's great reversible brioche beanie.
• Red Light Special by Brooklyn Tweed
  

More later - I'm off to the knit shop and to drive my husband to work (not in that order).

Valentine's Day: Yarn Love

I'm working on Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. It's so beautiful and addictive that I woke up at 7:00AM this morning, knit for 40 minutes and went back to sleep. It's a scarf of all things, and I rarely knit scarves but this I love. I'm using stash Koigu; I'd had two balls each of KPPM P714 and P822. Separately, I was unenchanted. Together in a chevron pattern they're beautiful. Here was my inspiration.

Reading My Stash

I had dinner with Sarah and Jason tonight at a lobster house (is it a house? Delicious sandwiches were served) and the topic of stash reading came up. Being a joiner too and easily talked into knitting things, I agreed to look for patterns between my yarn and my books. I found one while still at the restaurant.

Yarn: I like tweed and have a strong, exclusionary preference for wool (Jamieson's, Rowan 4-ply, Jo Sharp). I also like traditional designs: fair aisle, cables, anything a traditional yet stylish British woman between WWI and II might wear. A lot of Rowan design by way of Elizabeth Zimmermann. But I digress. I collect and appreciate all tweedy yarn.

Books: Excluding the knitting books, I have several books on natural building: cob houses (a traditional building similar to adobe and found originally in those beautiful limewashed, thatched-roof houses in Devon). I have cookbooks on unprocessed, natural foods. A book on soapmaking and woodworking.

One theme is do-it-yourself traditionalism: how to use wool to create a beautiful vintage sweater, and use unprocessed wool as insulation in a cob house. The other theme is making things myself by hand: a house, hand-dyed wool yarn, food.

Stitches West

I slept all weekend. But in more productive news, I just signed up for a class at Stitches West, for the first time in three years. The class is taught by Gwen Bortner, "Flat to Circular and Back Again". The pattern stitch I'm knitting for the homework swatch is the Parachute pattern out of "Charted Knitting Designs" by Barbara Walker. I'm off to start my homework swatch in something pretty, like Elsebeth Lavold "Silky Wool".

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Seaming

Such a good knitting day! Liz taught me the magic and beauty of good finishing. It really is magical when done properly. I'd been introduced to it once many years ago it didn't quite click, I didn't get to see the perfection of all the stitches lined up in a row, like one continuous piece of knitting.

I spent all day finishing a baby sweater out of Noro Iro (bulky and a little more rustic looking than I originally envisioned) and the Hike sweater that my friend Rebecca knit and generously gave me. It's in pale green Calmer, and lovely. Everything is complete except the zipper, which I plan on doing at some later stage. I love it. The generosity of knitters is just a wonderful thing. When I want to think about something uplifting, I think of knitters everywhere. I know I could think about doctors or midwives or refugee relief workers, but for me knitters are what's best about the world.

I also learned from Robin how to do the brilliant and useful Russian join. There are so many wonderful tutorials out there; here's one. I'm test knitting a scarf for Bella Knitting; when I needed to add a new ball Robin effortlessly taught me this technique. Again, I love knitters.

First FO of 2007

I finished the "Bobble" hat from Rowan Magazine #34, in exactly the colors shown here. It was remarkably quick to finish, and satisfying to get a FO out of it. One that I'm keeping, no less. I usually give hats away but this one I like and am wearing it right now as I type. It's chilly here in California.

Demi has begun

I cast on last night for the sleeve swatch. If I like it, it stays a sleeve otherwise it becomes a swatch. I finished the first 34 rows of ribbing, and in the interest of knitting from the chart both sleeves at once, I'm going to cast on for a second sleeve today and catch it up. Tomorrow I have a class with Liz, who has a wonderful ability to grasp complicated charts and patterns instantly and seemingly effortlessly. Nothing in knitting daunts her. I must learn her mojo.

So far I like it. One thing I noticed with the Rowan pattern - it mentions decreasing at each end but doesn't specify which stitch to decrease. The very last stitch for pattern continuity or one stitch in? (I chose one stitch from the end). I don't often knit from patterns, patterns like Rowan patterns, and am eager to explore the wide world of pattern ambiguity, like condensing an entire page of complex pattern to "Reverse for left side". Rowan knits are gorgeous; I love the way they look. Millions of knitters happily work with these patterns every day, with the seaming, ambiguity, the flat knitting and whatnot.