The thneed is dead, long live the ?............

At first the joke was funny...........

I had to start a sock because the thneed had had to become a shut-in and while we don't like to use the word chubby in this house, if the shoe fits.......

Then other people started making their "funny, ha-ha" comments - "good lord what are you making there? A new cover for the camper!"......

Remember how I mentioned I may run out of yarn because I am one ball short well unless someone is stealing in in the middle of night and running off an extra ball or 7 well then..... I am much more short than that let me tell ya.

Then I slipped into my state of denial that creativity can overcome all, think how great it will look with different colour sleeves! Gorgeous! Except as a more experienced knitter I had a niggly feeling that all may not be right.

Then I pulled the damn thing over my head and it fit like a sleeping bag.

Oh damn. My knitting mojo is off at the moment.

Remember those bright days of the cable down raglan. Headed for the frog pond as we speak -again. It turns out the yarn was so unbelievably wrong and not just because it isn't gray. A total beginners mistake. And yes I swatched like mad, just maybe I was a little blind with the swatches. Because it is like right in front my nose wrong. Like drive everyone at knit night crazy with the is it wrong kind of questions, wanting deep down for someone to confirm what it is I know but don't want to admit.

Jo Sharp Mohair Tank - frog pond. You haven't even seen this one. This one has been sitting in the dryer (oh yeah I keep my WIP's in an antique dryer that we use as a side table in the study, it is funny no one seems to think it strange we have a dryer as a side table but all have been taken back by the knitting and yarn inside it; muggles). Anyway it is sitting in the dryer waiting for me to wake up and smell the coffee. The yarn is great, it was a gift from the Yarns in the Farms Knit Night when I left (they are all so nice, seriously, go there) but the pattern just turned out all wrong. I kinda look like a sausage in it. I don't look good as a sausage.

And now the thneed..............

So last night as I got into bed totally despondent I said to Ted "all my knitting sucks, how can I still make all these silly mistakes, what's the point, I suck, maybe I should take a break.........."

To which he answered "maybe you should".

"No I mean really take a break, like no knitting kind of break, like NONE"

"Yeah maybe you should"

"No really, like put away the knitting, I am not joking, NO knitting"

"Yep I know"

And then sadly "but what would I do with myself? How would I stay busy?"

And I guess that is the crunch isn't it. I love to knit. I love the busyness of the act. I love how at all times I am a useful, creative being. But what if I am no longer useful? What if what I make has become so inconsistent that most of the time I am just wasting time? Should I stop? I wanted Ted to tell me not to be mad and of course I should keep knitting but maybe he said the truth. Maybe I do need a break. What do you think? Do I really want you to tell me the truth or do I just want you to talk me into carrying on? I don't know.

What do you do when/if you get to this place?

Damn stash busting.........

So how is the thneed, why thanks for asking, it's going great. I especially love the colour, such a pretty soft grey. What your computer shows maybe, is it, red? No it is definitely grey because grey is all I want to knit at the moment, yep definitely grey. So anyway I am so happy knitting my gorgeous grey sweater........ Shut up it is too........... Look mate it is not my fault you need to get your eyes tested......... Its grey, grey, grey, grey, grey, GREY!

It's red.

Another red.

Damn stash busting. I am only knitting from my stash and in all my wisdom when I accumulated a majority of my stash I guess I figured that only knitting red was a good idea. I don't want red anymore I want grey, what was I thinking? I have at least another 2 sweaters worth of red, and lets not mention the "I am so bloody cheery orange". Be warned, another reason to keep the stash under control so you don't have to knit red when you want to knit grey.

It would be so pretty as grey though wouldn't it?.....................

A thneed.........

Have my goose for garters I think I am knitting a thneed and a thneed is something everyone, everyone, EVERYONE needs.

Sweater update

Now even though it may make me seem a little sad, this sweater is the most fun I have had in ages! Of course coupled with the fact that since Ted had to work last night, my idea of even more fun (after the kids were put to bed of course) was to pull out Anne of Green Gables and do a marathon viewing. In Ted's words apparently "I watch dorky stuff". Maybe next time he works I will download some porn so that at least I will seem complex and "hard to read"! I dunno is porn dorky? Yeah I know it is boring but dorky, that is the question?

Before the cross:

After:

So in between my cries of " you go Anne girl, you show that Josie Pye what for" and "ooh Gilbert is too little boy icky, stay away" there was giggles over the sheer joy of this sweater. Because it is weird, it is weird to knit, so so weird and that makes it all the more fun. And boy does it race. So I did the first cross (36 stitches total!) and as promised it was tight, down a needle size or 2 and I whizzed past that. I have separated the neck and am racing over the shoulder. The really cool thing is you can cast on for this and figure out the sizing after. I didn't need to do anything about the sizing until I hit the the length of the neck. One little problem (that in light of my recent sock shortage may prove a little embarrassing) I don't think I have enough yarn. I know, I know but just feel, like right down in my gut, that it is going to be okay. I have 1199 yards and the medium calls for 1337 yards. But you know they always allow for extra right? It's only 138 yards difference. And this yarn was voted "most likely to succeed" in my stash. I can't ignore that can I? I think it is going to be just fine, just fine. Yep just fine.

For the record I am using Valley Yarns Stockbridge (from Webs). It is 50% alpaca, 50% wool, #5 needles (my addis although I think my options would have been better, not sure why I made that decision.) And yes Kathleen, it is quite luscious.

It's a Norah Gaughan Love Fest around here.............

Okay this is mostly a post of why you should purchase The Natural Knitter but I feel I have to start with an ode to the genius that is Norah Gaughan. It seems that lately every time I am struck with the cleverness of a pattern it is Norah. Her pattern in The Natural Knitter continues that trend.

First off, what a gorgeous book. This was my sleeper hit. I don't know what I expected from this book but I far underestimated it. It is a tasteful, well designed, well photographed book with some lovely patterns from some talented designers. But it is so much more than that, it also feels like a natural fibre textbook. It completely addresses natural fibres; the animals/plants that produce them, how to knit them, and how to care for them. There are wonderful snippets of small producers and their yarns. It is inspiring and beautiful and a wonderful tribute to Barbara Albright (I feel so sad writing that).

So to the projects. This is only a few as I don't want to overload this post with so many photos. I really would only consider knitting a few to be truthful but I feel inspired by many different parts of all of them.

Little Sit-sters: what a great way to add a quirky touch to a gift and to sample a new yarn


Back home in Vermont Sweater: finally a sweater that a man would actually be interested in wearing and that I wouldn't have to die of boredom making.



Shetland Fern: look at that colourwork, impressive. No I'm not going to make it but I would love to see someone else's version of it.



Memories of Ukraine



Mod Socks



See what I mean; tasteful.


Finally Norah with her Architectural Rib Pullover. Fabulous.



Let me explain its brilliance. I'll take it slow, as it took me a couple of times to click.
So you start at the bottom and you decrease up to the cable crossover then you cross your cables and start to increase towards the shoulders, you at this point have an hourglass kinda of thing. Separate for the neck and over the shoulder we go and start to decrease to the cable cross again. Then we increase until we hit the bottom. Now we go back and pick up all the stitches on one side; the front and back and start knitting outwards including the sleeve. Do the same on the other side. Pick up the stitches around the neck and do the turtleneck, cast off, block, done.


Damn even I am a little confused over my directions. Better yet just follow along in person. For you people this is what I will do-

I will take this


and turn it into a Norah Masterpiece.

No thanks are necessary. God I'm selfless.