Posted on 03/25/2008 by Andrea
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Knitting, Show-Off Ruffle Skirt
Internet, meet my Show-Off Ruffle Skirt:
, originally uploaded by AMK.
I've finished a few more rows than this picture shows, which means I've arrived at the point where I'll be knitting the next bobble row. The bobble rows each take a minimum of an hour - closer to an hour and a half, as my knitting gets slower and slower throughout the row. I'm hovering on the edge of a blister on my pinkie finger, though I'm hoping I'm taking enough breaks from knitting this that I'll just develop a lovely little callous instead.
I can't say I'm loving knitting this. Cotton yarn, metal needles, almost 400 stitches, and an interminable number of bobbles. It all starts to get pretty hard on the hands. But I keep going because I just know I'm going to love the finished product. And despite the long, long bobble rows, this thing really is knitting up more quickly than I would have thought.
Things I have watched while knitting this project, mostly while I was home sick yesterday:
- Matlock. Oh, Matlock. How many times have I been home sick throughout my life and been strangely sucked into this show? It's shameful, really. I never intend to watch it, and then it comes on and I am riveted despite all my instincts to turn away.
- How I Met Your Mother. Yes, I'm afraid to say I watched this online because Britney Spears was in the episode. Not a great actress, that Britney. But I was reminded of how much I like this show. It's clever. I like clever.
- Every available episode of Quarterlife on NBC. Eh. I wouldn't have watched this if I hadn't been home sick and bored out of my mind. My impression was that it tried a bit too hard. Also, I really wanted to identify with the main character Dylan, but in the end I thought I probably was more like the sort of pathetic Debra, which was kind of depressing.
Good thing I'm starting to get over this cold. I'm running out of stuff to watch.
Posted on 03/12/2008 by Andrea
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Knitting, Show-Off Ruffle Skirt, Tips
Last night, Mom and I got together for a bit of coffee and knitting. We both had new projects we were attempting to get started.
Mom was trying out the magic loop technique on a toe-up sock. At various points, I observed the needle in her mouth, flipping through the air, and almost poking her eye out. Magic, indeed.
I was wrangling something a bit different: casting on 307 stitches using a grabby cotton yarn and a not-at-all slippery Denise circular needle (I see some Addi Turbos in my future). At one point the stitches were so bunched up and stuck on my needle that when I went to tug on them to move them, I ended up yanking a whole gaggle of stitches off the ends of my needles by accident.
This is what I was casting on for:
The Show-Off Ruffle Skirt by Kat Coyle, published in the book Lace Style (my current favorite knitting book). I'm making it in a red cotton/nylon blend (Cascade Yarns Cotton Rich DK). I hear that the bobble rows take eons to knit, but I'm so motivated to have this skirt and wear it, that I can endure the pain. I know I can.
My mom gave me a good piece of advice before I started casting on for this. Because there were so many stitches to cast on, she suggested using two balls of yarn instead of one. I just tied the ends together and cast on as though it was a regular long-tail cast on, but I never had to worry about running out of my yarn. It took a lot of the anxiety out of casting on that many stitches.
And after an evening's work, I'm only four rows into the thing (and that doesn't include one of the infamous bobble rows). This is going to take a while! I'm leaving for a business trip tomorrow and I usually only take sock projects with me on planes, but this one is definitely coming with me.
