How to drive someone crazy from 1100 miles away

28 August 2007

There have been worse rashes in the world

A rash of startitis has overtaken me. I am about to go off into the deep end.

Still haven't gotten around to mailing off my nephew's cardigan, but my excuse is that I have so much other knitting on my plate, as well as, for some unknown reason, a small bit of clothing repair I have graciously taken in for some of the girls I work with. Seems I have become the restaurant mommy, and whenever someone loses a button or walks the hem out of the bottom of their pants, it's Lisa to the rescue. How did I become this person, to whom college girls beg a quick sewing fix? I am a knitter, not a sewer, and to be honest, even thought I can sew a button back to a shirt fairly well, I simply do not understand how it transcended to one of the girls I work with asking me for advice about hand-tailoring her wedding dress. Yes, I said wedding dress. My sewing machine gathers dust, as it was originally purchased to make simple linings for knitted handbags and I have not actually knit a handbag in some time. In fact, the handbag I originally meant to line has as yet to be lined. Explain, please, how this assumption was reached. Anyhow...

I started a whole gigantic pile of knitting.

There was the "I must learn two-circular sock knitting" project, which is now in a state of having two toes of potential socks for Yoshi sitting idly on two circular needles. The going is slow, as I have not yet grabbed the knack. I think I may have figured out that life goes along quicker if one pushes both socks to the edge of the left hand needle at once, therefore eliminating the giant pain in the ass of untangling the circulars after every 36 stitches. Now I do it after every 72, then flip. There is hope for these socks, I have to say. They will both be done at the same time (no second sock syndrome!), and I am working from two ends of a ball of Austermann Step, which has aloe and jojoba built right in, so it feels really nice to work with. Yoshi likes that the self-striping will be reversed on either sock, so that's all well and good, and I came up with a little slip-stitch herringbone pattern to keep it interesting.

There is still Yoshi's sweater to contend with. I worked the neck according to pattern, with firm resolve that if it needed ripping, I would rip happily. But Yoshi tried it on, and it looks, well, pretty nice. The neck is just loose enough to be comfortable, and there are only sleeves to deal with now. Sleeves, I think, should go pretty fast, since there is a little intarsia to hold my attention, and they are just straight rectangles. I am a bit concerned at how the rectangular shaping is going to fit into the stair-step looking underarm, but I am also fearless after the success of that neckline. I may do both at once.

Then, there is the latest stash-dive. In my early stash-amassing career, I was foolish and bought a few balls of something pretty, not giving any consideration to yardage or having anything resembling a plan. So, there are five balls of Noro Silk Garden taking up space in the stash. Until now. I devised a handbag pattern that shows off the striping to best advantage (it does kind of a concentric circle thing using a graduated mitering technique) and I plan to felt it. Two balls down. The other three will probably be a pattern from Knitty I have my eye on. I will already have gauge form the handbag, so away we go. I have one side of the bag (it looks like a colorful fortune cookie) finished, awaiting the second side. Then I sew the two together, work the handles I am on the fence about (can't settle on a method, I-cord or wide and flat) and wash. I am going to attach a magnetic snap to keep it all secure, and there you have it, handbag a la Noro.

I have been giving quite a bit of thought to another bag I dreamed up some time ago, as well. It will incorporate some large-gauge Fair Isle, a few beads, and hopefully some kind of Asian-inspired motif. The inspiration comes from the beads, which are white and blue porcelain with cranes and flowers on them. I have the white yarn and two shades of blue, I just need to finish charting out the Fair Isle and get it knitted. Still contemplating Far Eastern repeats.

I keep seeing shawls all over the internet, as well. I have a good bit of laceweight that I think would be a lovely shawl, acquired at Rhinebeck last year, and I am thinking about trying my hand at lace design. Perhaps I am looking for an excuse to buy more books and an entire compliment of lace-blocking tools, but hey, man, I need those books. Not more yarn, just books to help me use the yarn I already have. Yeah. That's it. Books.

Deep end, here I come.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Welcome to the deep end of the pool. I think you'll find it roomy. ;)

PS Sharon Miller, Heirloom Knitting

10:05 PM

 
Blogger CygKnit said...

They make a cream for that, you know.

10:55 PM

 

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