January 2013 – Knitting Up North

Life Skills

I tried to cater to everyone who wanted more ZE, I really did. However, Zac blog-jacked another post. I’m over you Zac. My entire post with 4 photos and multiple links – gone. I am quitting that man. To top things off, I have a child who is melting down because I checked review of Rise of the Guardians and decided it would be too scary to watch tonight at the discount theater.

Where does one even start when recreating a blog post? ~~Mary Poppins~~ Alice in Wonderland would say that the beginning is a very fine place to start. Random note, I just found a lot of really fun Mary Poppins quotes here.

So…. back to knitting. I’ve been doing some organizing off and on over the past week. Mostly I’m taking the patterns, books and knitting magazines that I own and entering them into my Ravelry library. That way I can do a search selecting just the patterns I own. I find that I tend to overlook the patterns that I have for something new and shiny. Hopefully this helps.

In the last week I’ve finished the 1970’s socks from Socks that Rock in A Very Scummy Christmas colorway. I need to redo the bind off on the first sock and then do the second sock bind off. I used a regular bind off and while they fit, I think I want something stretchier. So I’m going to use the sewn bind off instead. Here’s a picture of how I do it for extra stretch.

Pictures of the socks will be coming once they are blocked and dry. I’m anxious for a new pair of socks as it’s been brutally cold here. They actually cancelled school today and tomorrow because of the sub zero temps. It’s a good day for hand knit wool items. Also, a good day to remember that your stash actually acts as insulation for our houses (that’s my stance and I’m sticking to it!).

The other items that I haven yet blogged are 2 scarves that ~~I knitted~~ Santa brought for a friend. The first (and unphotographed) is a Staggered Rib Scarf similar to the one I knit for my boss last year. I knit this one out of some Lion Brand chunky that had been in my stash for years upon years. The skein was a little short on yardage so I made 2 button holes three rows before I bound off. The girls and I found some cool grey buttons to sew on. I guess the recipient has gotten a lot of compliments on his unusual scarf.

The second scarf is the Autobahn Scarf. I’m a little frustrated with this pattern. Maybe I’m missing the boat here, but I bought the pattern from Twist Collective. It didn’t sync to my Ravelry Library and there doesn’t seem to be a way to access the errata without buying the pattern all over again. The problem I found was that I could get the cables to go one direction, but when they switched direction the cables on the back side didn’t work out right. I finally just gave up, ripped it back a bit and decided to let the ribbing continue up the rest of the scarf instead of cabling it all.

The yarn I used, Socks that Rock in Heavyweight was awesome as usual. Since the recipient claims that he is not very “metro,” I used a nice manly brown. The cables are classic enough that I think anyone could wear this scarf.

Blog-Jacked

I feel like I’ve been blog-jacked. My perfectly nice resolutions post was hijacked by a Zac Efron photo. I’d blame my husband but he rarely reads the blog. I’d blame the blog and put it in time out, but it’s an inanimate object and well, that would just make me look silly. I suppose I could blame myself, but that’s really no fun.

Let’s talk resolutions instead. Here’s the short version of what I’d like to accomplish in the next year.

1. I want to knit 12 big things. Not all sweaters, I want to leave some room for a fun shawl or a random KAL that might pop up. I know I want to knit a sweater out of lace weight yarn, and it might take me longer than one month.

2. I’m not giving up buying yarn. I can’t handle the responsibility of putting the yarn economy into that kind of slump. I will, however, make a concerted effort to search the stash first. I now have several sweaters worth of really yummy yarn. I’m not going to save any of my yummy yarn for when the Pope visits. Or for when Zac Efron visits. Because let’s face it, these aren’t going to happen. I’ll love that cashmere and quiviet even more when it’s knitted into something amazing.

3. I might make myself some socks. Probably not out of cashmere though.

4. I’m going to make a good faith effort to blog more and take pictures of my knits. I know this year is going to be a busy one. I’m hoping to not come screeching into every month with my hair on fire. I want to take the time to plan and even dream a little. Which applies to the blog as well as to life in general. Taking time to plan blog posts and photos makes for an less hectic me.

And for no particular reason, I’m sharing something I came across. A Downton Abbey Knit Along. Or just view the Pinterest page of Downton Abbey inspiration. I’m not personally taking part in the Knit Along, or the one from Jimmy Beans Wool, but it is fun to see the projects. I’m queuing projects as we speak.

Resolutions

Edited to add: WordPress just ate my blog post. It was long, it was clever. I waxed poetic about the Pope visiting and the fact that Zac Efron never will. I even made resolutions. This is all that is left.

I’ve spent a lot of time the last week or so thinking about what I would like my New Year’s Resolutions to be. Specifically, what was I going to put on the blog about Knitting Resolutions. For a while I thought I’d skip the whole resolution thing and just do a Top 10 of Knitting Things to Do this year. I thought about a recap of ~~all~~ most of the sweaters I knit in my 12 in 2012 challenge to myself. And then I got kind of down on myself. See, I didn’t knit 12 sweaters in 12 months. By my book, that should be a FAIL. But wait, I’ve got a couple of cool sweaters out of the deal. I made sweaters for gifts. I have 3 almost done sweaters on the needles. So… that’s not really an epic failure. I have even caught sight of 2 sweaters I made for our new nephew being worn. That’s more like a pretty cool year. I think I will do a recap of the Year of Sweaters, but not today. Today, it’s about resolutions.

Besides, there are stores that could possibly be dependant upon my yarn budget. I couldn’t possibly put them out of business! 🙂 Plus, for the first time I signed up for the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin Sock Club. I cancelled another club that I was in so that I could justify this one. I’ve looked at the Rockin Sock Club for a long time. The thing that strikes me with their yarn is that often the color combinations are not what I would choose. However, once knitted up, they are amazing. I have been really impressed with their yarn and I’m looking forward to this one.