she's just saying...

Knitting countdown starts now

Starting tomorrow, I'm putting aside all personal knitting (sob!) and working on Christmas presents. Once again, with no money and lots of yarn, I'm setting the goal of knitting all presents for family and friends. So, no talking about what's on the needles or showing works in progress on the blog sidebar til January, assuming I hit my target dates...

So, the perennial question: would you rather ask for and receive exactly the gifts you want or would you rather be surprised by the imaginative choice of the giver? For me, this becomes the dilemma of whether to choose a pattern/yarn/color I think the recipient would like or whether to ask them beforehand, which isn't as much fun. I've thought of choosing a few options I want to knit and having them pick from those, but that's a lot of work, frankly.

It's not so hard with my sisters as I know their tastes, but for nieces/nephews, it gets tricky. Those twenty-somethings can be very choosy. Of course, I know what they really want and probably need more than any knitted item: cold hard cash.

 

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what's on the needles late summer

I was doing so well. Practicing knitting monogamy. Focusing solely on the Summer Solstice cardigan. Well, there was that little fling with the market bag, but I needed a travel project over the fourth. And I did return to Solstice when it was over.

Unfortunately, it's now become clear that the honeymoon is over. I've hit the really boring part: straight stockinette stitch for long rows forever. But I still have to keep track of the rows because every 4, 8, or 12 I have to increase or decrease a few times. This means it's boring knitting, but not mindless knitting. A crucial difference. Mindless knitting means totally zoning out, not paying any attention, finding a zen state where you just form the stitches, over and over. This is not that. I have to count every row, which just emphasizes the slowness of my knitting progress. So the sweater has become one of those works-in-progress that I'll pick up now and then, rather than one I'm enamored of.

So the itch to cast on was not to be denied. I have an excuse - Doctor Sister is having a big birthday in September, and it calls for a lovingly-hand-knitted gift. Plus I'm broke, and one thing I have is yarn. So I had to start a mystery project that can't be discussed here until it's done and wrapped and mailed and received on time by September 17. Or as soon thereafter as is possible. (OK, now she knows kind of what she's getting. But the anticipation of what it actually is should be thrilling.)

Then there's the next project. Due to the shopping frenzy and subsequent swapping action from the Goth Socks sale, I'm now the proud owner of some new yarn. Sadly for my stash, the newest skeins are always the most attractive. So I'm back to endless perusal of patterns on Ravelry, planning and scheming, pulling out needles, swatching samples and itching for the day when I cast on again.

Not Dr. Sister's yarn.

Urban renewal

I flew up to Seattle and back yesterday. For an eye doctor appointment -- gone are the days when I would fly a one-day r/t for business. It was fun to be back on city sidewalks.

There's nothing like a city for energy and buzz. Bend, on the other hand, does not have buzz. It has mellow. Pleasant, but definitely laid-back, even if you're working just as hard. I used to be hooked on that buzz, but I don't know if I could handle it now on a daily basis. But it sure is good to experience it now and then, and there's a lot about cities I miss.

You can now take a sparkly bright new train from the airport right to downtown for $5 round-trip. I put on my city commuter face and it was very easy. Sometimes cities do things right for a change. After my 4-hour appointment (seriously!) I had time to experience the city and so of course headed for the nearest yarn store for an absolutely necessary purchase.

This is what I love about cities - here are the other stores on that block:

• Alchemy, a bookstore with "magical" books and supplies. It looked intriguing but I didn't explore.
• The Honey Hole, a neighborhood cafe. Ditto the above.
• Babeland, a sex toys shop. Um, ditto?
• Stitches, the yarn store, my destination.

That's as far as I could go, as I had to stumble my way back to the airport. Stumble because (irony alert!) I broke a contact lens at the eye doctor's. My eyes had been dilated and because I didn't bring my prescription sunglasses I had to wear one contact under my regular sunglasses. Blurry and half-blind, I wasn't in the mood for more shopping or sightseeing. I needed to sit down near the flight gate, have a beer and peer at a magazine.

All in all, another novel day. For those who are wondering, this new eye doctor does recommend the still-somewhat-experimental surgery for my right eye. For those who are now really wondering, I have glaucoma and underwent a long and annoying surgery experience on my left eye that no one wants to repeat. Though the drugs were good while they lasted. Until they weren't.

Marketing genius a la Goth

This is a post about yarn, but don't turn away! It's really about marketing, and a case study in creating a frenzied demand for a commodity product.

In the yarn world, there's an overwhelming movement toward hand-dyed and handspun yarn produced primarily by a lot of 20 and 30 somethings who (seriously) are very counter-culture. It's the whole etsy, handmade, back to nature neo-hippie thing.

So, the marketing genius part. There's a woman in Washington named Stephanie who dyes her own yarn for sale and has a cult following. She's very goth, and her yarn lines are goth-inspired. There's a lot of black plus color striping yarn designed primarily for striped socks, often worn with clunky round-toed shoes.

© RedScathach

(At this point, if you're not a knitter, you probably think I'm making this up. I'm not.)

She has lovely and weird color mixes and soft yarns, but frankly, there are a lot of other yarn designers out there who have similar product. (Don't jump on me, gothsocks people!) But she sells out every run, at a price of $28 per skein. That's one hank of yarn, enough for two socks. And people are lined up begging for any yarn they can get, at prices up to $40.

So she ran a mystery yarn sale last month via etsy. You were limited to two skeins for $25 each, they were seconds, and you had no say in what type or color of yarn you got. The yarn was available for sale at 10 am that day, and so many people logged in to etsy that it couldn't handle the traffic. And she sold out in minutes.

Of course, since I'm writing about it, you can assume I was part of the frenzy. I got my two skeins, one a beautiful, subtle mix of grays and one a pretty garish striping yarn of black, brown, orange and red, and I have a list of people wanting to buy them from me. These are yarns I would not have looked at in a yarn store, but, trend-wagon person that I am, I had to have them. I'm not what you'd call goth, and I don't even like stripey yarn!

This is cool stuff. Stephanie does what she does for love. She makes beautiful yarn, with a clear positioning and attitude, and has an adoring fan base because of it. All power to her. And boy, she knows how to drive demand:  keep the product exclusive, make it an event, let your evangelists spread the word.

(Here's her booth at a yarn show - photo by her)

Five words knitters fear most

"...while at the same time..."

Most sweater patterns involve a lot of shaping of each piece to achieve the most flattering fit (as most of us are not square cubes, hopefully). To shape a piece, you have to get rid of or add on stitches to a row to make it curve in or jut out etc. to form a v-neck, shape an underarm or taper down a sleeve.

(Bored yet? Hang on.)

So, one side of a sweater (say the left side of a cardigan front) has to accommodate waist shaping, an underarm and sleeve hole; while the other side of that piece has to make a rounded neck and maybe a flared waist. In order to do this on one piece, you have to be shaping the beginning of each row WHILE AT THE SAME TIME shaping the other end. And rarely symmetrically. Not to mention that if there's a pattern in the sweater, say, cabling, there are three different things going on in every row that don't repeat regularly. Like rubbing your stomach and patting your head with pointy sticks and string. And whistling "Ode to Joy."

So the instructions may say, "decrease two stitches every fifth row six times then one stitch every third row five times while at the same time increase [at the other end] every seven rows four times, then every six rows three times, then increase two stitches the next four rows," etc. And do all this while watching "Law and Order," letting the dog and cats in and out and putting Henry to bed.

This either involves several stitch counters, pencil and paper notations, counting and re-counting, swearing and ripping out repeatedly; or you can take on the initially laborious task of writing out every row by hand and following each one. (A few patterns do this for you, but most don't.) For me it's worth the three hours designing an excel chart at the beginning of the project for the sake of my sanity and the finished object.

Anyway, that's how I spent my morning. Good thing it's cool and rainy out or I'd never get going on this thing.

Here's someone else's diagram of the sweater I'm starting, from another Ravelry knitter, MoniqueQc. Her blog post is very helpful if you speak French. As she puts it: "Bon, une photo vaut mille mots qui, je l'espère, vous enlèvera mille maux. ;-)"

Oh, I'm sorry, you don't speak French? Quel dommage.

Multi-tasking while doing nothing

Our school year was just cut by two days as of immediately, and it just hit me that I need to produce year-end gifts for Henry's wonderful teachers by Tuesday a.m. The great Mr. G. will probably get a giftcard with a personal note. Miss T., who's been Henry's advocate, cheerleader, biggest fan and confidante, needs something extra-special. So of course I picked up the needles and cast on. Goal: finish a market string bag in the next two days.

I picked pattern, yarn and needles already on hand and am knitting furiously while watching the World Cup.  That background whining horn sound during the game is driving me crazy though, so I'm watching the game on mute and listening to the Phillies/Red Sox game on the computer while knitting a lace pattern at the same time. I can't attest to the final result.

(It's a vuvuzela and according to Wikopedia is "associated with permanent noise-induced hearing loss, cited as a possible safety risk when spectators can't hear evacuation announcements, and potentially spreads colds and flu germs on a greater scale than coughing or shouting.") Not the pleasant summer murmur of baseball, for sure. More like an approaching swarm of killer bees.

Anyway, everything's on hold while I finish this project. Parents out there, weigh in on year-end teacher gifts: pro or con?  Suggestions?  Favorites? Discuss, while I knit on.

 

In which I prepare to get ready to start

To paraphrase an old boating saying: "The two best moments of a knitting project are when you cast on and when you cast off."

The steps to planning the next major sweater undertaking:

1. Which comes first, the pattern or the yarn?
2. Endless hours on Ravelry clicking through search parameters, individual projects, pattern comments, yarns, yardage, weight, modifications, blog posts, forum discussions, etc.
3. Debating choices: back and forth, dreams of fit and drape, maybe even buying a few patterns or skeins...
4. Enough! a decision is made.
5. Gauge wars: fitting yarn to pattern to needle by "swatching," an incredibly boring process of trying needle sizes, washing and drying little swatch squares, counting stitches, fudging a bit, then, finally:
6. Casting on! Oops. Casting on again! Oh, hell. One more time!  And we're off...

So, I've now picked a pattern and yarn, bought yet another needle (because I clearly don't have enough) and am preparing to start.

Summer Solstice pattern

However, I first have to finish the last damn Skew sock, which has inexplicably taken me two more months after finishing the first one in two weeks. If I cast on the new project without finishing it, I'll never pick it up again and will have forgotten the whole pattern and rhythm of it. Ask me how I know. For an ADD multitasking pro like myself, this is where discipline really counts.

Skew you, sock!

Stash

It's an old joke with knitters that we collect much more yarn than we have projects for. We refer to those bins, bags and piles of fiber as our stash. The Yarn Harlot (a knitting-humor celebrity) has written hilarious bits about stash management, including how to hide it around the house and what happens if your stash outlives you.(Gratuitous celebrity photo here).  

Like any obsessed collector, I like to spend some quality time with my stash. It's a pleasant way to spend an early weekend morning, sorting it, reviewing amounts, thinking about potential projects, and just kind of playing with it.

I've talked about Ravelry a bunch - it's an online community of knitters (and crocheters, though I don't fraternize with them much) with a hyperlinked inventory system of yarn, patterns, people and ongoing projects. We photograph our stash and projects and post them in our notebooks for others to search and explore. (This is where hours of my life have been whiled away, and no, it's not a waste of time.) One of the best uses of stash listings is to find that last critical skein needed to finish a project, then swap or purchase.

It's a thrill to track down the needed yarn and make a trade. It's also satisfying to fulfill another knitter's desperate search with some odd skein in my stash.

For example, here is a pic of a happy transaction. I had one skein of this sock yarn, not enough to make a pair of socks. 

I found the one person in the world who still had this yarn and was willing to part with it. Now my skein has a twin and everyone is happy.

Keep your balls cozy

Look! I knitted a softball cozy!

It's supposed to be an apple cozy but it came out a little big.  Kathi D, do you have any baseballs needing sweaters?

And the lucky winners are...

Before I announce the winners, I have to explain the selection process.

 First I had to disqualify family due to obscure but specific state rules governing sweepstakes. You want me to go to jail? Plus, if I give you stuff now, I'll have nothing left for Christmas. 

Next, I decided to eliminate all previous contest winners, with the aim of spreading the wealth. Sorry guys, but if I told you that first, you wouldn't have commented. Call it bait and switch. So sue me.

Then, I had to take out Kathi D (not literally) as she was already a weiner, er, winner.

That left three people, of whom two were new commenters who both get two entries. So, five little slips of paper were carefully made and tossed into my coffee cup from which to pull the winning names. Unfortunately, I neglected to empty the cup of its old coffee first, so all the entries got soggy and illegible. Rather than start over, I decided to award a little knitty bit to each. So, without further excuses:

The Winners!!

• Lonnie, you lucky dog (KG, tell him what he wins)
• Jen, a faithful supporter who can be blamed for this whole blog thing to begin with
• Carrie, a brand new commenter whose location is still a mystery

Further, you get your choice of knitty bit:

1. Apple cozy
2. Cup cozy
3. Catnip mouse

And family will just have to stand in line. Christmas is only eight months away...

Totally skewed (sock post)

This is not my foot, sock or photo.

Wow, a knitting post. I'm averaging about one a month these days so I can still call this a knitting blog in certain circles and get away with it.

I'm fascinated with the intricacies and hierarchies of obscure niche interests. Perusing hobby magazines and online forums allows a peek* into the levels of controversy among weird interest groups. (MyBigBro is maybe a little too into this stuff, but I admire his enthusiasms.)

The knitting world contains these quirky stratifications as well. As I've noted before, right now socks are the hip thing. There's a bit of controversy, archness and even snobbery around sock knitting. There are endless discussions about heels, toes, gussets, sizing, yarn and even basic sock design on Ravelry, the facebook for knitters. (The site is so much more than that, but I've covered that before.)

There is a whole subset of sockists, led by a designer named Cat Bordhi, who play with sockitecture,  the basic structure of the sock. (Stay with me here.) We're talking unusual directions, higher geometry and re-imagining the sock as we know it. Grabbing conventional sock knitting by the heel, really.

Being the trend-slave that I am, I've dipped my toe into the sock swirl as well. (I'm trying hard not to use a lot of foot puns in this post, but a few tip-toe in.) The latest craze is a sock pattern called Skew. As the designer writes, "Skew takes the concept of the bias design element to a new extreme by turning the entire architecture of the sock, including the heel, on the diagonal."

If you're interested in learning more, and I know you are, check out the description and pattern. It will blow your tiny sock mind.

*peek, as opposed to pique and peak. That's a grammar-rant post for another day.

Two years down. Only 37 more to go!

I decided when I hit 90, I'm going to stop blogging. I'm sure by then we won't be typing anymore, just dictating or mind-melding or whatever new technology the future brings.

I blew past my blogiversary 11 days ago (April 8, a day that will live in infamy). I guess as Monkey said, it's not quite as exciting anymore. Or, to put a more upbeat spin on it, it's now such a part of my daily life that I don't think about it as a milestone to celebrate.

I want to thank y'all for reading, commenting, linking, reposting, lurking and all the other things you do to show your interest in my effort. I always write with you guys in mind, challenging me to keep it funny, light, thoughtful, goofy, ridiculous and always ENTERTAINING. You're insatiable, really. The pressure! Anyway, thanks.

So, in the long tradition of blogiversaries, I'm offering another contest to the faithful. All you have to do is comment on this post, be that lucky slip of paper in the hat and wait for your prize. Every comment gets a chance and FIRST TIME commenters get two chances each. And Kathi D wins a prize for most prolific commenter, just because.

And the prize? 

An absolutely adorable apple jacket! Keep those Cortlands cozy in their very own snuggly sweater.

I'm giving away two of these babies so ping me back with a cogent comment and cross your fingers.

Drawing will take place Friday night after a round of gimlets. As the lama says, you must be present to win.

PS: Facebook comments don't count toward a prize...

needle junkie

Around here, people like to talk about their "quiver" of skis and snowboards.

I have a quiver of knitting needles.

There are at least four different needle attributes: kinds, materials, sizes and lengths. The most usual choices are:

• straight
• circular
• double-pointed

• aluminum
• steel
• wood
• bamboo
• plastic
• casein

• diameter sizes 0000 to 50

• lengths from 4" to 60"

Since I'm only working at a fifth-grade math, I won't do the calculations to come up with the number of permutations. (Next year: sixth grade.) Also, not all parameters are available in all needles, but you get the point, or double-point. (knitting joke!)

Anyway, right now I'm knitting socks on size 1's. (Or actually 1.5's, due to some confusion between metric and non-). They're pretty skinny. I feel quite dainty and pretty using the little needles - much more refined. The downside to these is that you knit and knit and knit and you've maybe gone an inch over an hour. In contrast to the fat boys, (35's in the shot below) two rows is an inch. 

Ah well, it's the process, not the product, right? So I keep telling myself, while I wield these little toothpicks with fine thread-like yarn.

An artiste needs her tools, oui?

So maybe I'm obsessed, but I'm not alone.

Ravelympics stats:

• total # projects tagged with ravelympics2010: 24,284
• total # projects tagged with ravelympics2010 and finished: 12,878
• total # Ravelers that finished: 6,296 (out of 9,538 participating)
• total # countries participating: 65
• total # of people posting into a Finish Line: 5,186
• total yardage used: 8,068,000 (yes…this is 8+ million!)
• total yardarge spun/dyed: 448,000

OK, I'll stop talking about this now, because I'm beginning to annoy my readers.

Socks-o-matic

(with apologies to the Pointer Sisters)

When the apocalypse comes and we have to start knitting our own socks, there are a few things you should know.

First, there is nothing more comfy than a homemade sock.

Just like a side of beef, there are distinct sections to a sock, each of which is handled differently. (See chart at right)

Socks are normally knitted starting at the cuff and down through the toe.

Some people knit them the other way around for a variety of obscure reasons. I did it this time because I like a challenge. And sock-knitting can get really boring otherwise.

(I didn't knit this and I don't know who did)

Here's my first toe-up sock. It was touch-and-go there during the heel gusset, but I powered through with only a few mistakes that I won't point out.

Once they're washed and dried they'll fit perfectly and I'll re-post a shot of them then, because you all share my fascination with hand-knitted socks, right?

Yes! I medaled...

(When did that become a verb again?) For finishing a few projects during the knitting Olympics, from Ravelry.com:

WIP DANCING (finishing old Work In Progress)

"Please accept this lovely bouquet of snowdrops from the knit-clad Bobettes and crochet-covered Bobdudes:

And bow your head for your medal -- what an honor!

Now will Ravthletes and spectators alike bow your heads for the stately yet intoxicating Ravelympic anthem … dum de dum dum … dummmmmm .. DA DUMMM!

and the crowd goes wild as the competitors proudly sport finally-finished objects of all shapes, sizes and ages, walking off the podium showered with cake and hot chocolate "

MITTEN MOGULS (for the fingerless mitts)

"drums rollin Please accept this Ravatar bouquet for the lovely hand-warming pieces you’ve finished! crowds cheerin

and this wonderful medal is from our very own head of the International Ravelympic Committee, Adonis Dionysius Bobicus Maximus because he knows how much training went into this year’s Ravelympics.

badges waving Please salute our hard working raveletes as our Ravelympics National Anthem takes us to our next commercial break."

Knitting humor. Ya' gotta love it.

She can ski, shoot and knit. All at the same time!

Just when I was bemoaning my fall from scuba diver to knitter, here comes a true athlete. Biathlete AND knitter, Magdalena Neuner. She even has her own pattern and yarn line.

Here's her blog banner:

Hmm. Maybe I need to get a rifle.

Sock fetish

This guy should be in the Guinness World Book of Records, if they cover knitting events.

He's knitting 14 socks on one needle. Seriously. And, each pair is in a different (and intricate) pattern.

Why? Because, um, I have no idea. But it's pretty impressive.

fibery goodness 2010

Warning: this blog is being highjacked by knitting topics for the next few days. If that isn't your thing, come back on Monday, when it will be released into randomness again.

Here I am in a swanky moderne hotel in Tacoma, Wa. I'm here for my annual pilgrimage to the center of fiber madness in the Pacific NW, the Madrona Fiber Retreat. (I say fiber because there are a lot of spinners here as well. Funny to see these quaint wooden wheels being lugged around by funky young women. And a guy here and there as well.)

Knitters are everywhere: in the elevator, lounging in the lobby, at the bar, in the cafe. It's a bit bizarre, but you just have to let go and get into it. I got here this morning and hit the yarn market. The real finds here are the handspun, individually dyed yarns - the creators are here selling their handmade wares. Incredible subtle shifting colors, odd combinations that work, yarn from the owners' own alpacas or sheep. I've decided I never want to buy commercially-made yarn again (must stay out of yarn stores).

Of course it means a sweater will cost well over $100, so I'll be limited to making shawls, scarves, socks and such. I'm taking a few classes, mostly in colorwork (I'll post the swatches). Here's a shot of the marketplace.

Ravelympics 2010 - get your needles started...

Alright. We've established that I have no life, correct? This is what it's come to: I'm getting overexcited about the start of RAVELYMPICS 2010!

From the Ravelry website:

Time for the next round of madness that is the Ravelympics. This time we’re “gathering” in Vancouver, Canada during Feb 12-28, 2010. Goal: 2 weeks of focused, intense personal & team challenges to tackle while watching the actual Olympics unfold before our eyes.

Tonight, mass quantities of knitters, spinners and crocheters are going to start projects all at the same time when the opening ceremonies begin. Right now the count of participants is 8,729, with 33 events like Beading Biathlon, Felting Freestyle and Hat Halfpipe. There are hundreds of teams and it all unfolds live via the website with forum chats, countdowns, music and general silliness.

Oh, those wacky crafters! 

I have a few UFOs to tackle and am going to challenge myself with toe-up socks on two circulars. Whoa. Hope I don't break a finger.

So who's with me? Anybody??  Polly?

Bob, the Boston Terrier, the official mascot of Ravelry and Ravelympics.

Update:Just finished my first unfinished object! Medalled! On to the next...