Miscellany

I seem to be totally incapable of project monogamy, fortunately that's considered completely acceptable among knitters. No one seems to find it too inappropriate that I bounce from project to project, although they might just be too polite to mention it.

The Big Purple Shawl, also known as what I'll be wearing to Northwestern Football Game Tailgates the instant it gets finished, is coming along nicely.  I have just over a skein left to go. If I actually gave it some serious knitting time, it would, of course, get done much faster. I'm doubtful that this will occur before October and the first homegame is Saturday, but there will certainly be other opportunities.



I have made some progress on the Philosopher's Belt. The challenge with that is needing to crochet yarn, then knit, then wonder if I've made any progress, then crochet yarn, then knit... Even though it's only 9 stitches per row, it seems to be taking forever. AudioGirl suggested running a quick single crochet along the edge once I'm done to keep it from stretching--which was a great idea. I just have to get it done and blocked.





And finally, I introduce to you the first of the Bunny Nuggets.  When the Philosopher had said he wanted to learn to knit, it was with the intention of making amigurumi for friends having offspring. As I don't crochet, this meant we were knitting and that meant Rebecca Danger. I liked the idea of a Bunny Nugget to start things off.

Now, Rebecca's a fan of Magic Loop. This is all well and good if you know how to do it. For those of us who taught ourselves via video about 30 seconds before teaching the Philosopher, it was just a touch of spontaneous learning.  I'm still not convinced to give up my beloved DPNs (even after they stabbed me) but I can at least get through the technique as needed.



My nugget is the smaller red one. That's just a smidge of leftover sock yarn from the socks that I knit during the last winter olympics.  We were going through my leftovers hatbox and I kept pulling out skeins and saying "Oh, this is from this event, this I was knitting during that, this is from another trip...."  I think it might have been a little intimidating for someone who was trying to pick out yarn to knit into a small stuffed animal.

The Philosopher made the larger nugget. That's Filatura Lanarota Chaco that I bought at Smiley's in New York. AudioGirl knit me a cowl out of it at one point.  I've still got a few skeins of the purple around here.

I opted for I-cord ears rather than the DPN ears I think she recommended?  The pattern is well written and we made it through in one afternoon/evening.

About the Belt

I gave you a quick and dirty shot of the belt that I'm working on for the Philosopher. It's only progressed slightly, mostly because after I put up that post, I found a different stitch pattern that I wanted to use and ripped it all out AGAIN.

Anyway, I'm finally finally finally happy with the density that I'm getting for the belt, it has been Philosopher approved, and I'm making progress. Snail-slow progress but still it's something.

The belt is being knit out of hemp.  Here's the pound of hemp that I got in the mail.

This is a single ply of light laceweight, which, while very flexible, is not quite dense enough for a man's belt. After some trial and error, I decided on chaining the yarn first with my trusty crochet hook and then knitting the crocheted hemp.  That seems to be working out pretty well.

Ultimately I decided upon using the linen stitch. It's wrapping in on itself just smidge but once I washed a section of it, it lay out flat. So I think as long as I aggressively soak and block it before I give it to him, and give it with a) clear instructions and b) the offer that I'll reblock it if need be, I should be okay. 

I've got about 14" done. I need about 50"  And I can only do a little bit at a time or my hands absolutely start screaming--this is not an easy knit. 

My Hands Hurt....

The Philosopher asked for a belt. I, apparently not being of sound mind, thought this would be a relatively easy undertaking.

I'm not going to learn anytime soon am I?

This 8 inches of knitting is all I've accomplished in three hours yesterday evening. What you don't see is the 5 ripped out attempts and the sad realization that I have to crochet the hemp thread into something approaching a sport weight before I can knit it on size 0 needles to get any kind of density close to what I'm looking for in seed stitch.

My hands ache and the skin on my index fingers feels sore and abused.  But it's started and hopefully it won't be deemed too girly.  I'm not sure I have the strength to rip it out again. 

There Will be Bunny Nuggets

When the Philosopher and I first started hanging out, he indicated an interest in learning amigurumi in efforts to make children's gifts for friends who are starting to have children. I was blunt in that my talents with the crochet hook are rather limited and that I much prefer the pointy sticks. He was amenable (especially after watching me knit and eat, knit and walk, knit and talk, knit and sleep--wait, that's just a hopeful wish) to learning to knit.

I set out to find something small and stuffed animal like that he could learn some shaping on and remembered that I'd seen Laura L talk about making Monster Chunks for her student workers. I didn't want to make Chunks but I found another Rebecca Danger pattern that I did like: Bunny Nuggets.

And, if a girl is going to be knitting Bunny Nuggets, why not just go down the path of knitting monsters and inflicting them upon unsuspecting friends.

Gypsy approves (and the Incredibly-Patient-Mother has already picked out her favorite monster).



I wish I'd known about these when I was knitting with my kids in La Crosse. It simply teaches techniques, gives you rapid gratification, and can be altered a million ways to use up scraps!

Windy Knitty: New Chicago Wool Shop.

I hauled the Philosopher yarn shopping recently. Windy Knitty just recently opened on the north side of Chicago, far enough away that it's is probably best combined with other North on the Red Line errands or destinations but still, very accessible by train or car.

There's not even a speck of dust, it's so new--the grand opening was only right at the end of March. It's a lovely large storefront on Clark street, with huge front windows and plenty of natural light. We walked in, said hello, and I started pointing out brands that I saw.


New to me local Chicago dyer. Very nice vibrant colors. Good base. Could definitely see myself getting more of this.


How does one resist Three Irish Girls IN PERSON!

After leaving, and somehow restraining myself to only two new skeins of sock wool, we discussed the experience. He likened yarn collecting to wine collection. We have our different vineyards (dyers) with small local suppliers and large companies, we have different vintages (dyelots) some of which are good and some of which are less so, we have different types of grapes (sheep) which are carefully mixed or not mixed, we mix grapes (or fibers).  There are people who are incredibly brand loyal, we tend to buy a lot and save for special occasions, it's perfectly normal to wait a couple of years before using or decanting. And for $20, you can get a pretty decent item be it sock yarn or a bottle of red wine.

It's a little far to go for knit night, but I'll give it a shot. Certainly I'll go back in search of some stash enhancement.