"Look Mommy, A Knitter!"

I was knitting away on a sock on a busy streetcar this morning.

As another crowd pushed their way on and jockeyed for seats, I heard a mother remark to her daughter "There's room for you to stand there. And that way you can watch that lady knit."

I didn't realize I was providing entertainment. Perhaps I should charge.

Arts student knits a Ferrari

Genius! Instead of feeling guilty about knitting instead of doing schoolwork, Lauren turns her knitting into her schoolwork.

Original story.

Yarn Review

Rosarios 4 Bio Bamboo: It's 100% bamboo, and comes in some lovely, rich colours. It's a great yarn, it really is. It's soft and silky to work with. It glides through your fingers and over the needles.

The resulting fabric has a beautiful sheen, and the weight and drape is magnificent. It's light, flowing, and somehow still substantial.

So what's the problem?

I'm working on a design for this stuff, and I've been avoiding it like mad. I think I've figured out why: it's boring. I've been working of late with a lot of interesting wools, with lots of texture. This Bamboo stuff is too damn smooth.

(If you're going to give it a try, be warned that it is a bit splitty, too.)

Dear Santa

My birthday is very near to Christmas. Which means that when I decide that I desperately need something in the middle of the summer, I either have to wait or go buy it myself.

Very, very tired of winding balls by hand. I might need to go shopping very soon.

OMG

Ok, so I've been quietly pleased with my progress with lace knitting. I've been getting good, I thought.

I can spot a problem. I can fix a missing yarn over on the next row, no worries. I've even figured out how to fix a missing yarn over on the next right side row. Wahoo!

I'm pretty experienced with cables, and the Yarn Harlot's demonstration of techniques for fixing a cable wasn't news to me. And I'd been applying roughly the same technique to figure out how to fix issues in lace, which has permitted me to fix a couple of mistakes in situ, when the mistake has only been 2 or 3 rows back.

And then, this morning, I read Yarn Harlot's post about S. Kate's lace fixing escapades. I am in awe.

Not only has S. Kate ripped back what looks like 15 rows! 15! rows! but it's in black! I can't even knit lace in black yet, let alone fix it.

It's good to be humbled once in a while.

Stitch Markers: A Treatise

Doing so much lace of late has required me to use a lot of stitch markers.

I've tried a number of different types, and each has its drawbacks. For some types, I'm still trying to identify the merits....

Little rubbery "cheerio" markers: have a tendency to bounce very far away and disappear forever when dropped.

Hard plastic markers: break.

"Split-ring" plastic markers: get tangled in the knitting.

Beautiful hand-crafted metal with beads: at $2+ each more complex lace designs require me to spend more on markers than I do on yarn.

Believe it or not, the markers I'm happiest with at the moment are the spare colour rings from our electric toothbrush. The heads for the toothbrush come with a couple of different coloured little plastic rings that you put around the bottom of the head to make sure you know whose is whose. You sadly can't get them off the head once they've been installed, but there's all those extras. And they make really great stitch markers.

Lace: Theorems, Corollaries and Lemmas

Things I have learnt...

1. More repeats of pattern on a row are easier than fewer as you get a chance to get into the rhythm of a row.
2. Stitch markers up the wazoo.
3. Spend more time that you imagine possible examining your work to make sure you're ok. Particularly before you feed a lifeline.
4. Feed a lifeline every pattern repeat or two.
5. I've said this before, but for the love of god make sure that when you feed a lifeline it's into a row that is in itself correct. And that the rows below the lifeline are also correct.
6. Before you begin a set of pattern stitches -- between two markers, of course -- count the stitches you're about to work. A corollary to that is that a missing YO is easily fixed on the next right side row.

I have to say I think I'm getting the hang of it. I've made more progress in the last few evenings, even watching really exciting television, that I'd made in the first couple of weeks.

But I guess the biggest thing to get used to with lace is that ripping back is not an extraodinary measure. Ripping back is the way of things. You'll do it a lot.

Did You Even Know that Sheep Came in These Colours?

Something I'm working on with yarn from my visit to a sheep shearing party this spring.

I love these colours.

Lace on a Plane

I thought this lace scarf would be a good choice for travel knitting:

I don't need a printed pattern other than a little card on which I've written out the three right side rows of the lace pattern repeat.

And I'm doing it on a short bamboo circular, which is entirely plane-safe.

And it's more intellectually engaging than sock knitting, so it will keep me more entertained.

Not so much, I learnt.

My attention kept getting dragged away -- "anything to drink?", "headphones?", a fidgety seatmate. So I kept making mistakes.

And it's hard to thread (or rethread) a lifeline when you don't have a needle with you. A crochet hook would have worked, if I'd thought of it in advance.

And then those clever little rubber stitch markers bounce very, very far when dropped.

It's very much two steps forward, one step back with this project. I do love the yarn, and when it's working well I like the design. But it is a patience tester...

Toronto is OK

Spent the weekend in New York, on a short vacation.

I did a bunch of research before I left: which knitting shops should I visit? Purl and School Products rose quickly to the top of the list, based on what I'd read about them online, and personal recommendations.

Both are terrific shops -- with welcoming staff and a nice selection and interesting locations. And I bought a book in each. I was hoping to find some hidden treasures, some books that aren't available in Toronto. What I ended up with were two books that have been on my list for a while, Barbara Walker's Treasury of Stitch Patterns Volume 2 and Debbie Bliss's Toy Knits. But both of these are available at home.

What about the yarn, you ask... Yes, there was certainly some stuff on the cone and unlabeled skeins that looked really interesting in School Products. Purl had a lovely selection of Rowan, Noro, Alchemy and similar sorts of products. But again, for the most part, there was nothing I couldn't find here at home.

All in all, I came away from both stores with the feeling that we're pretty well off here in Toronto. We have a variety of stores, each with its own niche, and we have access to some absolutely terrific yarns of all types -- the inexpensive practical stuff, and the luxurious and truly remarkable. We should be proud.

Ignoring My Own Advice

Ask me how many times I've started this damn shawl. Go on, ask me. I dare you.

This is the third attempt.

Never work on a lace project during the season finale of your favourite TV show. In the dark.

And about that lifeline thing...

Sigh.

Sort-of Off Topic

Most people who know me know that I watch TV or movies when I knit.

I therefore feel that it's not entirely off-topic to mention the newly launched blog brought to you by the man making the recommendations on what TV and movies to watch. (Not to mention working the remote.)

Norman's blog. Which may or may not be about movies.

It is hair, after all

I buy a lot of vintage. One of my latest purchases is a lovely red aran cardi. I couldn't resist -- the bargain-basement price was a factor, but I loved it most of all because it was red. You never see red arans.

But damn it, it's itchy. Wow. I can see why it ended up lonely and forlorn in a vintage store on the clearance rack.

But wool is hair. And conditioner is good for hair. So there's no reason why conditioner isn't good for wool, I figured.

I'd read about using hair conditioner to soften itchy sweaters. And it works! A good old simple cream conditioner, and I soaked the sweater for over an hour -- but it is noticeably softer.

Very pleased.

Can't Write, Too Busy Knitting

Lots of stuff cooking right now...

the bee socks are almost done, another pair of rainbow socks, yarn and a pattern for modest-size lace shawl, and a super-secret thing in the bottom left of the pic.

Another clue:

And I have to say that it's Erin's fault, with her Lady Eleanor.

Who Knew?

Wool comes from sheep!

A modicum of fame!

A few people I work with know about my "other life". It came up at work the other day... B. said to me that M., a co-worker, also knits, and I should tell her about my blog.

M. tells me she is making her first sock. It's a sassy little pink number, in Cascade Fixation. Very nicely done, too.

And then she tells me where she's learning from... my piece on Knitty. She didn't know it was me.

I'm so proud -- of M. for knitting a really great sock the first time around -- and of my piece that clearly works so well.

Wow.

Signs that maybe you've knit too many socks

When you can turn the heel on the bee stripe sock on 2mm needles in a dark bar, after a pint of Wellington County Ale, while dancing along to the music, not only without a pattern, but without looking.

If we can knit for the Olympics...

My brother the footie fan has posited the idea of World Cup Knitting.

It's a thought.

Projects would have to be limited to appropriately coloured scarves, though.

It's like I was asking for it

My piece on repairs has been up on Knitty barely a month....

So there I am at lunch, with a member of the Knitty family, and she points out to me that the neckline of the vintage aran cardi I'm wearing is unravelling.

And I realize that this is a situation I didn't cover in my article!

(Note to knitters: keep a safety pin in your purse. Mine is attached to my little Swiss Army knife.)

Real Sheep Scarf

This stuff is lovely.

I'm particularly enjoying the sensual experience of the knitting process. The wool is barely processed, so there's lots of lanolin left in it, and it smells marvellous. It's suprisingly soft, too, for something so close to the sheep.

The striping is fairly evident -- this yarn has no dye lots, needless to say. A colourway is a rough combination of various natural colours.

Mistake stitch ribbing, easy-peasy. This is definitely a yarn that demands a simple stitch -- it needs room to tell its own story.