16 posts tagged “knitting”
I'm trying to post more since I completely neglected my Vox for a month or so, which meant you missed stories about our second annual open house, the cast of thousands that attended and the crazy fun we had. I'm also going to try to start heading my posts with what they're broadly about, because you usually can't tell with my odd titles. Anyway, on we go.
I saw this post on the Lime & Violet blog and it got me to thinking. I don't consider myself a designer. I consider myself an "adapter". I think there's a big difference, like the difference between being a composer and an arranger in music. When you're a composer you write the music you hear in your head. You create new content. You (hopefully) bring something into the world that no one's heard before. When you're an arranger you take what someone has already written and change it up. You take someone's giant work and turn it into a piano reduction. You turn someone's piano work and fit it for an entire orchestra. You take the works of a rock group and set it for a concert band to slaughter. Yes, you're creating something new, but it's a version of something that was already out there. It's like Windows 3.1 and 95. They weren't doing anything new, they were just adapting what they had. That's what I consider myself. An adapter. I take something like the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and the Vogue Cable Stitchionary and make myself an Irish sweater, or a pair of socks. I take one of the Barbara Walker treasuries and make myself a hat. I don't design, I adapt.
So this is what I'm wondering. Can I call myself a designer if all I do is adapt stitch patterns? When I see things like that post from Lime & Violet, or when I look at the patterns in the new Knitty or MagKnits I think huh, maybe I should submit a pattern. Something I've put together and liked the outcome of. Then I think to myself no, it's not like I really came up with it myself, so I wouldn't feel right trying to pass it of as one of my creations. I didn't create new content, I just took what I had and made it into what I wanted. I didn't invent a new stitch pattern, why should I say I've come up with something new? I think I'd feel like a plagiarist, and since I work in the academic setting that's a bad bad thing. I don't know.
I'm going to put it out there to you, my small readership. Is what I'm doing designing? I certainly don't think so, so don't be afraid to tell me hahahaaaa, no. Because that's what I'm already thinking, and I'd genuinely like to know your thoughts on this matter.
Hey all you knitters and crocheters, I am finally on Ravelry! I'm doublearegee over there, so if you're on too then find me and friend me! I am LOVING it!!! So super awesome! Squee!!!
This reminds me, I finished a sweater a couple weeks ago, a UFO that had been sitting in my basket for a couple months while I figured out how much longer I wanted the sleeves to be. As soon as it cools down enough to put it on- it's been hot this past week!- I will take pictures and do a post.
Here are my May socks. Aren't they pretty?
The way my participation in the Sock a Month kal has gone is as such: February pair- my pink birthday socks. March pair- tan socks with a diagonal rib for my husband. April socks- those nice pumpkin colored socks with the pattern from the Vogue cable stitchionary for me. Given that pattern, one would deduce that the May pair of socks would be for my husband, right?
Wrong.
Originally the May socks were going to be Husband socks, nifty grey ones made from pretty charcoal colored skeins of Wildfoote. I gave him the first Vogue knitting stitchionary and instructed him to pick out some patterns he liked and we'd figure out how to turn them into socks. After some debate, we came up with a neat diamond pattern and I started knitting. And then I ripped out what I'd done because I messed up enough of the pattern. I restarted. Then I ripped it out a third time when I realized that the width looked like it wouldn't even fit around my leg. Third time was indeed the charm and I knit the leg and put a heel on the sock. I started the foot and that's when I realized I'd made the same mistake that I made with my pumpkin colored socks- I forgot to mark the beginning of the pattern repeat so I'd know where to start knitting again. *facepalm
By this point it was May 20th and I knew I'd have to haul ass if I wanted to get my May socks in, so I went to my stash for inspiration. I happened to see the three balls of yarn I'd gotten to knit the Elfine pattern, like a year or so ago when I was in my pink and green phase. I had the yarn, I had a pattern, I was good to go. Only, not so much.
First off, the yarn I had was a three ply cotton yarn (I think, I lost the yarn bands when I wound it) in strands of pink, green and white. It knit up too thick for socks, so I got the bright idea of pulling off the white strand as I knit. Yeah. That led to a lot of tangling. Fortunately, it meant I had to cut the white strand a couple times, so I had plenty of yarn when I hit snag number two, the heel. The heel itself knit up nicely. Let's look at the heel, shall we?
Yeah. The heel's white. Why is that? Like I said, I lost the ball bands, so I didn't know how much yarn I had. When I got to the heel I realized I had about a third of the ball left. I had three balls of this yarn, so I was guessing finishing these socks was a crap shoot. That's why I made the executive decision to do the heels with the white yarn I was discarding- it bought me a little more time. You'll also notice the top of the sock has a white band. That's because it didn't buy me enough time.
I finished sock number one no problem and started sock number two. I did the heel, still fine, and thought yeah, it might be tight but I'll have enough yarn to finish. I worked my way up the leg and started constantly questioning if I really was going to have enough yarn. Tonight I had my answer. To quote the sheriff on the BBC show Robin Hood (who, amazingly enough, is Lily Allen's dad! The Husband and I have fun doing our own imitations of life in the Allen household, but I digress), "A clue: no." I made it all the way through row three, instead of row 8 where I was supposed to end, then decided I should probably bind off and I'd be lucky if I had an inch of yarn left. Ha! I made it halfway around the sock before I ran out of yarn.
Inspiration did strike, though, while I was looking at the socks. I took the white yarn I'd discarded from the skein and finished binding off, then did a single crochet in the stitches at the top of both socks so the top of the socks were both white. So there you go.
All complaining aside, I really liked this pattern. It knit up really fast, which was good, given that time was of the essence. This was the first time I did socks toe up, so that was a new experience. It was supposed to be toe up on two circs, but I didn't want to take the time to figure that out and besides, I don't own two pair of size three circs so there you go. I'm definitely going to try more toe up patterns and who knows? Maybe I'll go out, get two circs and try that too.
Bold the things you've done, italicize the things you plan to do, and leave the rest as is :o)
Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: tip down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns- the freaking socks I'm knitting for the Husband right know use these, and it's killing me
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity Knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles- never in a million years.
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art (Isn’t it all art? :))
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public
A couple weeks ago, my student C came to work in flip flops. This wouldn't be that big of a deal, but it was in the 50s and raining. I took one look at her feet and told her one of these days I was going to knit her some flip flop socks so she didn't freeze. She said she wished I'd knit her a Jayne hat, like the Firefly guy had, instead. Patterns were easily available on the web, so I found one, gave her a list of what yarn she needed to get and sent her off.
Earlier this week, she came in with a big bag of yarn, so I went home with the pattern and, in two days (come on, it's a hat and we weren't home the one evening) I knit her a Jayne hat. Let's check it out.
I will tell you one funny story- I've never made a pompom before. I pulled out my two references- Stitch 'n Bitch and the Vogue knitting reference book and between the two of them I managed to make a pompom. I cut the pompom maker out of two paper plates and then wrapped the heck out of it with the yarn and went to cut it. Yarn fell off. Frick. I did a little more wrapping and then had the Husband put his fingers in the center so the yarn wouldn't go anywhere, then tied it off. Apparently I didn't tie it tight enough, because some yarn fell off. Fortunately, I managed to stuff it in the gap but if she ever washes that hat, the pompom is history. Also, there are scraps of yarn from the pompom floating around my house AND my office. Heh.
I still have plenty of this yarn, so I am making another hat for C's friend M, and I told her to ask her friends if they wanted Jayne hats. I foresee myself being busy in the near future.
These are also the socks I started when we saw the Yarn Harlot. I joked that this month's kal entry was going to be "Dear left sock, You will lead a charmed sock life, for you have been blessed by the Yarn Harlot!" I got most of the leg knitted for the left sock while we were there, because we got there at noon and she spoke at two, plus I knitted in line waiting for her to autograph my book.
It always gets interesting when you try and put a stitch pattern on a basic template. This month's interesting things were that on sock #1, I didn't really think to mark the beginning of the round when I started the heel. I totally forgot that the stitch pattern didn't end neatly at the end of the needle, so when I started the foot, I realized oh crap! The pattern's not lining up! I had to do some figuring to get back on track, and when I tried the sock on for length, that's when I realized I'd really like it if the pattern spread over the sides of my feet a little. Oh well. I figured that all out when I knit the second sock and chalked it up to, "Well, now I'll know which sock the Yarn Harlot held in the picture." Also, about halfway in on the second sock I lost my cable needle in the couch, so I knit all the rest of the cables onto a spare double point. I can cable without the needle, I just prefer not to when it comes to tinier yarn.
Remember how I mentioned that I'd originally picked the swatch to be socks for the Husband? Well, when I tried both socks on after I finished them, the Husband took a look and said, "Those look really nice! Can I have a pair too?" He really liked the stitch pattern and the color, so I'm going to have to get more yarn and make him some later. Speaking of the stitch pattern, let's get a look at that.
Here are the sock particulars.
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential, in Pumpkin, two skeins. I needed almost all two skeins. When I finished sock number one, I had enough yarn left to do almost all the ribbing on sock number two. I'll probably have to get a third skein to do the Husband's but cabling usually takes extra yarn, so there you go.
Pattern: Waves, out of the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary #2, Cables
I knit these on 2s. Normally I knit all my socks on 3s, but I thought the fabric looked too loose on 3s.
Until last week I'd only ever knitted one thing for the Husband, and we've been married/I've known how to knit for three years. Yeah. That's a million sweaters for me, tons of things for other people- mittens and baby blankets, mostly- and one measly pair of socks for him. Let's see how I managed to rectify the situation.
Here are the mechanics of the socks:
Yarn- Knit Picks Palette, color is Twig, two skeins. Yes, I got cheap Palette for my Husband's socks and at the same time bought myself the slightly nicer Essential. I am a horrible wife.
Needle size- 3. I do pretty much all my socks on 3s, but not the pair I'm doing now and using the aforementioned Essential. 3s make the fabric too loose.
Ever since Stitch 'n Bitch Nation came out, D has been pleading with me to knit S the devil pants that were in there. I bought the yarn for the devil pants after S was born, then didn't get to them because my thoughts were along the lines of "Knit these in two pieces, then seam them together? Forget that! Seaming can kiss my ass! I'll just knit them in the round and be done with it." That was going to take some figuring, so I put the project aside and promptly forgot about it.
Two years later, and four days before S's second birthday, I thought, "I need a kick ass gift for S. I know! I'll knit her the devil pants! She's tiny, how hard could it be?" Ha!!! "How hard could it be?" is going to be on my tombstone, I swear. I looked at the pattern and noticed the largest size was 18 months. I knew S was smaller than average, but I also remember D saying that she was wearing 18-24 month pants so I did the math and figured out the numbers for a 24 month pair of pants so that she could wear them maybe next winter too.
Like I said before, S is tiny. How long could it take, really, to knit these pants? Ha! Each half took a week. Yeah. Small pants, but the yarn was sport weight and I knit them on size 3 needles so it took forever. Let's look at the pictures.
When I finished the pants, we wanted to put them on S right away but she wasn't there, so we settled for modeling them on Baby. Hello, Baby! We figured if the drawstring tightened enough to fit Baby, they'd fit S too. Good deal.
The next day as soon as S came home, D put the devil pants on her and then e-mailed me to let me know they were super cute, super big and that S loved them. Yay! Check that out.
How cute is that? Best part is, she'll be able to wear them for a very long time. So adorable. Happy second birthday, S.
And here they are!
I swear, these were the socks of "Wait, what? You mean I have to do this again? Crap!" There were a lot of pattern repeats in these socks. I figured that you did leg pattern 1 for the top band, then moved on to leg pattern 2. Seems like a logical progression, right? Not so much. You knit leg pattern 1, then do a purl band, then leg pattern one twice more before you get to leg pattern 2. Then it's move on to the heel flap, but oh! Do the heel flap pattern twice! Gah. It seemed like every time I'd finished a section I'd think yay! Done! and then I'd read the directions and realize nope, do it again. This was cause for frequent bits of frustration when I knit sock number 1.
I will admit, knitting these socks made me realize just how far I'd come as a knitter. When I first started knitting I was so afraid to pull out mistakes. I'd painstakingly tink out what I'd knitted incorrectly because I was too afraid to rip things out and then restring it on the needles, or else I'd think eh, only I will know it's there. With this project, though, I ripped out entire sections because of the aforementioned "Wait, I was supposed to do this section again?!" Ripping out lace is a scary project, especially without something like a guide line, but I did it and nothing horrible happened, and that really made me feel like a pro knitter.
What did I really like about this project? Well, one of the things that made me pick the pattern is the detail along the heel flap/gusset. Let's have a look.
Also, check out the bad angle from which I shot this picture. It makes me look like I have stumpy feet and fat ankles. Rock!
I swear, these socks are super soft. it's like getting a foot massage with a silk cloth. I almost feel guilty wearing them. I mean, putting something this soft and luxurious on your feet? On your feet where they'll get beat on and rubbed until they get pilly and might wear out? Yeah, I know, but they're pink and pretty and soft- holy crap, so soft!- and silky and I love them. I'm not sure where I'll wear them- not to bed, because I get super warm when I sleep and that would mean sweating in them. Not around the house, because my floors don't stay clean for long and I don't want the bottoms to get skanky. Not in shoes, because I don't want to wear them out. I think I've created the ultimate problem- something too good to live. Or, in this case, socks too nice to wear.
... I just might have to try this. Of course, these days my socks have crazy patterns going on, but who knows?
By the way, I joined the sock a month knit along, so expect to see sock pictures once a month. I've finished the first of my pink birthday socks- siiiiiiiiiiiilk! Oh so niiiiiiiiiiiiice! I might have to buy some cashmere, I saw a cashmere blend on elann for a reasonable price. Mmmmmm. Anyway, socks!
