knitting is a hereditary disease

My weekend in pictures

Posted on 12/03/2007 by Andrea | Comments (0)
Filed under : Knitting

We had our first big snow of the year and I'd say it couldn't have come at a better time. On a Saturday, the first day of December. No commuting to worry about and, really, how can you be too upset at snow in December? All my neighbors have put out their Christmas lights and suddenly I can't get too bummed out about winter arriving. I actually feel - dare I say it? - festive.

It helps that I discovered the walking path in my neighborhood is still accessible during winter. This is my third winter living here and I just now figured this out. The snow has been cleared off the boardwalk and as for the path through the woods, lots of people and dog feet (and deer hooves) have tramped down the snow enough that it's definitely walkable.

(That's the boardwalk behind me. And my cotton candy hat)

Of course, the best thing about a snowy weekend with lots of time on my hands is the KNITTING. Holing up in the house with cats, cocoa and yarn.

It also helps when you have a husband who's really good at making pancakes.

I had every intention of knitting multiple projects this week and finally spinning some of the Dusk roving I dyed recently. But that was wishful thinking. Even if you are hunkered down at home during a snowy weekend, there are only so many knitting hours in the day.

What I did accomplish was to almost finish the Yarni Cardigan (a.k.a., M.L. Egan's Lace Baby Sweater #33), a gift for a coworker's baby.

This is such a pleasure to knit. The Aran openwork pattern is just exactly the kind of stitch pattern I like to knit. A lace that's got enough going on to be interesting, but not overly complicated. There are only four different rows in this stitch pattern repeat, and one of them is the purl back row. Plus, the entire cardigan is constructed without sewing. The button band is knitted along with the garment, instead of picking up all those stitches and knitting it on, or sewing on a separate piece. The sleeves are knitted right on, after picking up stitches at the armholes.

I learned two things as part of this project which will serve me well in my knitting future.

1. Three-needle bind off. Oh, three-needle bind off! I can't believe I hadn't met you until now! I saw you in passing lots of times, but for some reason, you never caught my eye. I never stopped to talk to you, to see what you were all about. Now I feel like such a fool. All those good times we could have had together. I can see already that you and I will be together for a long, long time. (Thanks to Knittinghelp.com for providing videos of things like this!)

See how nice this looks? And so, so much easier than sewing two pieces together.

2. Picking up stitches. Okay, I've picked up lots of stitches in my time. Thousands of stitches. My very first knitting projects were socks. Lots and lots of socks knitted top-down. That means picking up lots of gusset stitches. I should know how to pick up stitches, but honestly, I was always really bad at it and it always caused me lots of angst. My picked up stitches were ugly, uneven, and full of holes.

As you can see from this photo, picking up stitches has finally clicked with me. Probably because I watched yet another informative video from Knittinghelp.com.

What I used to do was just grab one little strand of yarn and try to knit into it. That looked like poop. It's much better to do it the way she shows in that video. I would try to explain it, but it's just the sort of thing you need to see in order to understand.

I imagine I'm the only person in the knitting world who has gone so many years knitting without realizing how to pick up a stitch. But I don't have too much pride to share this with you. In fact, it embodies exactly what I love so much about knitting. There's always so much more to learn.