You were perfectly fine . . .

Etherially lovely

How beautiful is this?

It's the winner of the Best in Show prize at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. Samantha Hayden, who made it, not only knitted it, but also spun the finer-than-cobweb fiber from which it is made. I don't spin and probably never will, but if I did, I would aspire to this. It looks etherially magical to me.

Who knew? I've never knit a shawl. I've been ogling the Charlotte's Webs that have proliferated in knitting blogdom recently, but fear I would never wear the shawl once I finished it--or (worse) that I would wear it and look really stupid. :) Should I chance it?

And now for something completely different.

I needed a fix of interesting stitch pattern-ness, so I pulled out the Mountain Colors Mountain Goat in Ruby River that I had earmarked for my mother's scarf, wound it into a ball, and started through the 365 Knitting Stitches A Year Perpetual Calendar in search of just the right stitch pattern to show off this beautiful yarn.

I won't bore you with the false starts. The winner was the Bee Stitch from December 17. Here it is:

I even like the way the back of it looks:

This yarn is so beautiful--the colors actually glow (I'm not kidding and haven't had any wine, I promise). And this stitch pattern shows off the gradations of color without looking stripey.

A word of caution, however, if you're thinking of following this stitch pattern from the calendar: It's wrong. As written it instructs as follows:
Row 1: Knit.
Row 2 (right side): K1, *K1 in st below, K1; rep from * to end.
Row 3: Knit.
Row 4: K2, K1 in st below, *K1, K1 in st below; rep from * to last 2 sts, K2.

Take a look at the front of this stitch pattern. Do you see any purl stitches there? No, I didn't either. So follow the above instructions only if you are knitting in the round. Otherwise, you'll be wanting to PURL rows 1 and 3.

I would write more, but my Mtn Goat is calling me back . . .

Oh yeah, one more thing! Can I just say that I Ann and Chelsea?? You guys made me feel so much better about my Giotto debacle--and you're right! What was I thinking!?? The Giotto tank has now been gifted to a friend with a much more impressive rack than mine; it fits her perfectly, and she says she loves it. A win all around! Thanks for the paradigm shift.

Killer knitting . . .

OK, am I the only one, or has this happened to anyone else? I finished my Giotto tank. And I'm unhappy. And this unhappiness has "killed" my desire to knit. I know, my desire to knit will eventually return. And I already have a couple of ideas about fixing what bothers me about the tank. So why do I just have this gut feeling that I suck and nothing I knit will ever come out right again? Yargh!!!

No pictures of the tank for two reasons (well, three): (1) DH's camera phone is on charger and unavailable for use; (2) though knit within gauge, the tank when laid flat looks like enormous tube top--not good; (3) I don't do modeling. Somehow, my tank turned out too big/loose. Since the measurements match up, I must have chosen the wrong size to knit. Also, the armholes just sorta bag. Yikes. I can pick up stitches along the bottom half of the armhole and short row for a couple of rows just to tighten that area up (Ahhh, if only it were that easy to tighten up my actual arms!!). I'll try that, and see if I can turn this into something I'd at least wear under a jacket.

Strangely, this seems always to happen to me when I try to knit something trendy at a large gauge. Why is that? I do fine on small needles, but the bulky-ish knits turn to globular disasters in my hands. Grrr.

So how will I combat this I'm-nearly-forty-and-realizing-that-not-only-am-I-not-hip-now-but-likely-never-was malaise?

I have no idea.

I think I'll go visit Ann.

By the way, if you're thinking of reminding me that only a few short days ago I was smugly asserting that "FO's are a great motivator," go ahead . . . I must revise that brave sentiment to reflect this evening's events. Therefore, please insert this in its place:
"FO's are very powerful. If they turn out well, they are great motivators for your next projects. If they turn out very badly, they may poison your soul and drain the lifeforce from your will to knit." That's killer knitting.

Slow and steady win the race.

Yeah, right.

In real life, Slow&Steady gets bored working on one project for any extended period of time and proceeds to flit about, working on other projects that catch her eye. While in my "blue period" with Giotto, I decided to start K's tunic from Phildar's Phil Onde. Dangerous, because this stuff is just lovely to knit with.

(Yes, I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, but having considered changing the sentence to the correct form--"Dangerous, because this stuff is just lovely with which to knit."--made me sound like, well, a moron.)

Here's a scan of the lovely fabric:

It's pretty curly, so tough to get a good picture, but hopefully this suffices. The color hasn't changed noticeably yet, but I'm watching.

The curliness raises a good point here: I'm not at all sure whether I can block this stuff, as I'm pretty sure it is entirely natural-fiber-free. I'll check in with Bonne-Marie and the other Onde-Along participants to see what their experience has been.

In case you're curious, this is what the finished tunic should look like:

Back to the Giotto tank now. Wendy was kind enough to leave me encouragement and assurances that she loves her finished tank, so I'm powering on!

One more thing: Beverly asked about the Jo Sharp sarong (that's apparently the official title). The stitch pattern does indeed look very simple. It's basically garter stitch (knit every row), with some dropped stitches (where you wrap the yarn once or twice around the needle as you knit a stitch, and then drop the extra wraps as you knit that stitch on the next row) every fourth row. If you decide to order the kit and need some assistance on the dropped stitches, let me know. I'll be happy to walk you through.

Have a lovely Saturday.

Split personality.

Ah Giotto. Can I just say that purling with this stuff is akin to periodontal surgery? I knit with the yarn in my left hand.

(I can't remember if that's Continental or English, picking or throwing--there have GOT to be better ways to describe this difference than "picking" and "throwing". I always think those words sound gross, you know, like "picking" one's nose, or "throwing" up. Knitting, by contrast, is not gross. It is lovely and rhythmic and magical and elegant and fine. So I think we need better names. All suggestions are appreciated.)

Anyway, back to the Giotto (do I HAVE to???). I knit with the yarn in my left hand because I learned to crochet years and years before I learned to knit, and that's the only way that feels comfortable to me now. Which is fine. I don't have dominant-knitting-hand envy or anything like that.

However, as you may have read, I do hate to purl. It's a little tricky to purl when you hold the yarn in your left hand. So it's really a flaming bitch on wheels to purl with this splitty ribbon stuff. It takes about two or three times as long for me to purl a row with Giotto as it does with other yarns.

Not a plus.

If this project were any larger than a tank, I would have abandoned it, but I like the colors, so I'll finish. Here's a photo of the fabric so you can judge for yourself if it's worth it:

Beverly asked how easy this pattern is, by the way, and I think it would qualify as easy if not for the frustrating yarn. It is knit flat in two pieces, with a few increases, even fewer decreases, some binding off, and I-cord straps (if you haven't done these, don't worry--they're "sinchy" as we used to say in 5th grade). I would recommend finding a lightweight yarn or ribbon that knits to a similar gauge but doesn't split so readily. No point in getting so frustrated that you give up before you're finished. FO's are a great motivator.

One other piece of advice no matter what yarn you use: remember Elizabeth Zimmerman's tip to avoid having "steps" where you bind off for armholes, necklines, etc. Say you have instructions to decrease 5 stitches at the beginning of every other row. If you cast off 5, knit across, purl back, then cast off 5 and knit across, you'll end up with a visible step instead of a smooth curve.

EZ advised to cast off one of the 5 stitches at the end of the row BEFORE the row on which you're supposed to start the cast offs, and then cast off 4 at the beginning of the next row. So pattern instructions that say this:
Row 9: purl
Row 10: cast off 5 sts, knit across
Row 11: purl
Row 12: cast off 5 sts, knit across

Become like this:
Row 9: purl across to last st, cast off 1 st at end of row
Row 10: cast off 4 sts, knit across
Row 11: purl across to last st, cast off 1 st at end of row
Row 12: cast off 4 sts, knit across

This only works where you're casting off more than one stitch at a time (obviously). It makes for a lovely curved edge. Love that.

I understand from Pubah that the Dale Svale will also be splitty to knit (and purl, dammit), so I think I'll wait a bit to start my Svale tanks. I felt the fabric it makes when I was in Sonora last weekend for my yarn-acquisition-detour from a family trip. And it was lovely, so I decided to brave the splittiness. We'll see.

By the way, no affiliation here, but if you're visiting the Sonora area (near Yosemite, CA), you must must must visit the By Hand Gallery which is on the main street of Sonora (S. Washington). It is a terrific store, which a fantastic selection, comfy couches to sit and knit, and a welcoming-but-not-suffocating atmosphere. Most certainly worth checking out.

Not dead.

I'm still here. Had a little problem with being too depressed to write anything. Very strange.

How did I snap out of it? Oh yeah, I bought yarn. A lot of yarn. A veritable shitload, if I may be so crude. To be more specific:

Dale Svale in a couple of colors to make tanks.

Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran in Sage for the sweater from the Jo Sharp Holiday book that I've been coveting forever (otherwise known as Sommerville version 4)

and in Mariner for the pareau/wrap thing from the new Jo Sharp Family book.

And, of course, the books themselves.

Noro Kochoran in one of the new colors (34, I think?)

to make Wildfell from the Simply Noro book.

Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in Tartan for the Rebecca sweater from Jo Sharp Book 2.

Jo Sharp (are we sensing a trend here?) Rare Comfort Mohair in Blues Infusion

for the Juniper sweater from Jo Sharp Book 2 (lovely loose boxy V-neck sweater).

Jaeger Chamonix in a few colors to make . . . um . . . well, it was on sale at the Knitting Garden and it's really really soft.

Jaeger Mohair Art in white to make another of the bolero sweaters from Erika Knight's book for my daughter.

I'm pretty sure there's more, but I can't remember it just now. I know, I need to get some help. :)

I've finished the Smiling Jacket for K and will post pics soon--you'll be able to see that the collar is knit with a different dyelot. Grrrrrrr. I wrote to Rowan/Louisa Harding to let them know that 6 balls of Handknit DK is not remotely enough yarn to knit the largest size of this pattern. Very upsetting.

And I'm halfway through the Giotto tank from the current Vogue Knitting.

I had a bit of trouble with this at the beginning because this Giotto is quite splitty--you REALLY have to pay attention to keep from sticking the needle into the laddered part of the ribbon. I've adjusted to it now, though, and while I do still have to pay attention, it's not annoying me anymore.

I hope you are all doing well.