Foreign Language

Knitting has a particular language. To read patterns and converse with other knitters you need to know the language. People often ask to look at a pattern I am using. I enjoy watching their faces when I show it to them.
When you first start to knit you typically learn how to do two stitches. Knit. Purl.
Putting these two stitches together can give you a tone of pretty stitch patterns. But at some point you want to make something more than dish clothes and scarves.
At first knit and purl combinations seem hard, then you see something like this...

Row 31: ssk, k2, yo, k2, yo, k, yo, k2, yo, k2, k2tog, ssk, k, k2tog, ssk, k2, yo, k2, yo, k, yo, k2, yo, k2, k2tog, Repeat
Row 33: yo, ssk, k2, yo, k3, yo, k, yo, k3, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, s2kp, yo, ssk, k2, yo, k3, yo, k, yo, k3, yo, k2, k2tog, yo, Repeat

Wait... WTF? What is yo, or ssk, or sk2p and k2tog???...tog???
This is a pattern. It will make something really cool if you following the instructions, but they are all in code (secret knitting code, for knitters only).

So you learn the code!!

K1- Knit one
ssk- slip, slip, knit
s2kp -slip two, knit one, pass slipped stitch over
k2tog-knit two together
yo-yarn over

However, now you encounter yet another language problem. You know that yo means you should do a yarn over. But what the hell is a yarn over?

So you learn the lingo.

Yarn over=put the yarn in front of the needle and make a knit stitch. This makes a little hole in your knitting, which is basically what lace is made of, lots of little holes in your knitting.

So now you are ready to make all sorts of things. You have a good "dictionary" that tells you how to acomplish all those little codes. Then you get a pattern of something you REALLY want to knit that has no written directions, but has one of these instead...


This is a chart!! Each of those little symbols represents one of those little code things we talked about before. You read from right to left. Once you get the hang of them charts makes life fabulous, especially for lace (which has lots of funky stitches, aranged in funky way, with funky increases and decreases).
By the way, this chart is from the wonderful lace shawl pattern Gail by Jane Araujo. It can be found for free at Ravelry, here.

Eventually you learn the grammar. You can look at a line (or a bunch of lines) of a pattern or a chart and "see" what it will look like when it is knitted up. This is super cool the first time this happens!! Cause now you get it, it means you understand knitting language. You are a real knitter!!

7

Haha!!

Seven

Waiting (impatiently)

I caved.
I knew that I would eventually cave, so it is ok that I did cave.
I ordered a lot of yarn (and a fair heft of books) off the Internet. And now I am waiting for it to arrive...
My Nana gives me a nice chunk of money for Christmas every year. Usually it gets spent on the enormous Solstice dinner I make every year. This year however I contemplated spending it just on meself. Which of course means yarn these days.
I discovered KnitPicks awhile ago but never seriously considered anything there because I wasn't knitting very much at the time (and didn't have queue of over 400 items). Then I bought a skein of KnitPicks Pallet and made this. It was beautiful yarn to work with, and knit up very very soft. I vaguely remembered that it was super cheap on the KnitPicks website, so I wandered over there and took a look. My gosh, such fabulous yarn and such great prices. I can make an entire blanket for like $20!!!
Then I started looking at their book selection. I compared their prices to Amazon.ca and found KnitPicks to be a little bit cheaper (even with the exchange rate) and had ALMOST convinced myself to buy some stuff...but I'll wait till the new year.
I waited and then went to wander again last Monday. Oh, and look, ALL their books are 40% this month. Well then...
So, I caved (big time) and now I am waiting for the goodies to arrive, which of course will take forever (see why here)...
But there will be pictures when it all arrives...(so so so excited)

How I feel about yarn...

I could tell you all about it, but I think the Yarn Harlot says it better.

This is how I feel about yarn...(the 3rd paragraph)

Resurrection

I started this blog and then promptly left it fluttering in the wind.
In the interest of creativity (see here) I am starting it up again.

I spent the holiday doing nothing but watching television (thank you Space for your 12 days of Spacemas marathons) and knitting up a storm.
A few things that came off the needles this last month.



I had my wisdom teeth out in mid December (long story involving crazy pain, crazy pain killers, and lots of soup) and during my recovery I made a cowl every day. My wisdom cowls!! One for each tooth lost. The three above were made with stash yarns and I gave them all away as Christmas gifts. The one below was made with a fabulous sale yarn from Fleece Artist and I kept it for myself!


I made this shawl for my Nana for Christmas. I cast on Christmas day and blocked it on the 29th. Very fast knit!! Beautifully soft yarn too. She loved it. (this is Traveling Woman pattern by Liz Abinante for those who are interested)



There are a few other things that came off the needles in December, but I either don't have the perfect picture of them yet or their final owner has not received them yet!! I will put them up when all is squared away.

Yarn today, garment tomorrow...

A few skeins of yarn and what I have recently decided they are destined to be...




This picture really doesn't do the colour of this yarn justice...(and of course you can't feel the fantastic texture either). Trust me, it's gorgeous.
I visited the newest yarn store in town for the first time last week...and as always I couldn't resist the purchase of yarn (yarn stores are inherently dangerous for people like me). Usually I just buy stash yarn, and then later despair that I only bought one skein and can't really do anything with it except ogle to colour and fondle the texture (the combination of these two factors is usually what makes a yarn irresistible to me). This time however, I found a lovely yarn (Malabrigo lace merino) and determined that I would actually buy enough to make something with it. So, after much hemming and hawing I think this yarn is destined for this lovely shawl. Ambitious for me, as I am new to lace knitting, but I like trial by fire knitting projects!!!




I bought this single skein of gorgeous JitterBug yarn in Toronto two years ago. It has been languishing in my stash for want of a loverly pattern. Since it is only one skein I have finally decided that I am going to knit a pair of socks with it. I love knitting socks, mainly because I love to knit in the round. I am torn between two patterns at the moment however; Azure or Interlocking Leaves. I love the idea of knitting whales tails into a sock, especially one that is this colour. It also might be nice to knit something that is not lace (I am a little worried about being laced-out). However, I think the Interlocking Leaves is a much prettier pattern. I am worried about the variegated colour washing out the delicate lace pattern. There is nothing worse than a beautiful lace pattern that you can only see with a microscope because of the excessively variegated colour of the yarn (terrible!!)


I have been drooling over this yarn since I bought it (at the same time/place as the JitterBug). It is a fabulous colour of Handmaiden's SeaSilk blend. This yarn is partially made out of seaweed, and it even faintly smells like the sea (to me anyway). Again, I only bought one skein because this yarn is very expensive, and have despaired of finding a pattern worthy of it's loveliness (no socks for this yarn!!!!) When looking for shawl patterns for the Malabrigo, I stumbled across this peacock lace pattern shawl that is made with one skein of Handmaiden's SeaSilk!! Perfect!!
I may actually start this one before the Malabrigo shawl, because to be honest, I have absolutely no idea how a shawl is constructed. Instructions just don't make sense to me. I am sure I will figure it out, but since this peacock shawl is simply repeats of the same lace pattern and the Malabrigo is repeats of a whole bunch of different lace patterns, I think I will start with this one and see how it goes. Like I said...trial by fire!!

...the emergence of the knitting blog....

It has finally happened. I have succumb to blogging about my knitting addiction...
I've wanted to do this for a long time. I even secured this blog name more than two years ago, in the eventuality of wanting to share the knitting fever with others.
I have know how to knit badly since I was eight years old. I think it was a stint of babysitting or after school care, or something...but all I remember is this big house, lots of girls, and a funny smell. The woman who looked after us was perhaps 50 or so and thought that we all needed "civilizing" and that the way to do this was to teach us all how to knit. Being who I am I hated it (if you were a "children should do what I say" kind of person, I was your personal nightmare as a child). All I remember knitting was endless squares. I think my mom attempted to teach me how to purl once not long after, but it didn't really stick. I didn't knit again for 17 years.
When my mom passed away she left me with a trunks worth of stash. All sorts of strange and wonderful (and some not so wonderful) fibers. Lots of needles too. She also left behind a fabulous book called Needle Craft, that I remember being one of the "adult" books I poured over as a kid. As I have since decided with her wondrous guitar, I decided that I couldn't just leave all this yarn sitting in a trunk doing nothing, that I better learn to knit!!! And so I did...and I became addicted.
I don't knit all the time. I go through spurts, like PMS or something. I knit obsessively for weeks on end. I drool over patterns on-line, I haunt yarn stores fondling all the expensive fibers (I have very expensive taste in yarn), and I am always with a pair of needles within arms reach. And then I burn out. For months I will ignore knitting all together. Until I discover it again, through a irresistible pattern, or a yarn I must have...
Currently I am in a knitting frenzy (probably in order to ignore impending school related deadlines). So, here goes, the odyssey that is my knitting experience...