2010 Goals

Long time, no blog! I've been lazy with Ravelry too, as about half of the hats and a few scarves that I knit in 2009 have not been photographed or put on my project page. Someday, maybe...

With socks I've been much more efficient and all but one pair (finished on New Year's Eve) are up on Ravelry, and nearly all of them have pictures as well. I was rather surprised to realize that I knit 11 pairs of socks last year. I had been thinking of making it my goal to knit 12 pairs in 2010, but now that hardly feels like a challenge. Maybe if I throw in a more difficult pattern every now and then?

Cranford

Catching a cold seriously affeted my knitting last weekend, as I lacked the energy for anything too demanding. My eyes also seemed to protest at my continuous small-gauge knitting, so my wollmeise socks were in hibernation for a few days.

So no socks to present yet. Instead of FOs, I can offer a book recommendation: Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. I read it in print but I imagine that it would be the most suitable book to listen to while knitting. It is a novel, but very episodic: therefore it is, in a word, perfect for reading on the bus or listening to while knitting. I read it mostly one chapter at a time, one there and another here, as each chapter is very much like a short story by itself.

Elizabeth Gaskell was a contemporary of Dickens, and is a fine example of those authors who are "found" by modern media in search of something that would be as popular as Jane Austen. I first heard of her novel North and South in a comparison to Pride and Prejudice. Actually Gaskell's style of writing differs greatly from that of Austen's, but apparently that marketing trick has nevertheless worked. In recent years I've seen many new editions of her books as well as heard of some BBC tv-adaptations.

The title of Cranford comes from the name of the small village the novel tells about. It concerns the lives of a group of elderly spinsters living in the village, reported by a visiting friend (the narrator, who remains anonymous for most of the book). The events range from highly comical to most tragic, with some very humorous sequences being interrupted by genuine sadness. As an added bonus, there's quite a bit of knitting and crochet, with one character being even rather obsessed with the latter.

Cranford is available at Librivox as well as in many editions through Amazon.

The Upside Down Sweater

I admit that this sweater most probably is not a very interesting subject to photograph, but as it's my first sweater I'm quite proud of it and wanted a real photoshoot for once.

To compensate for lack of photogenicity, the birth of the sweater is rather interesting. For the whole thing actually started upside down.

I had four skeins of Novita Isoveli (bulky wool), and was trying to decide what to make with it. As the Green Day vest could be made with less than four skeins, I thought that a basic vest of the same size surely could be managed as well.

I decided to do it bottom-up, with ribbing up to my bust. I swatched, calculated stitches, and cast on. After finishing the ribbing I tried the thing on and it seemed okay. Now on with the bust.

At this point I developed a some sort of a mental block regarding my size, and started increasing. As I also started knitting in stockinette, the seeming smallness of the rib portion suddenly changed into the hugeness of stockinette that did not draw in like the rib did. Needless to say, the next time I tried the thing on, it was much too big.

I felt hugely disappointed. I didn't want to rip it, and kept trying it on again and again. I hoped that it would fit some part of by body.

And then, finally, after looking at it in front of me on the bed, I pulled it over my head and went to look in the mirror.

Insanely enough, it fit.

After turning the work upside down, of course four skeins weren't enough. I used 6 and still have one left (it was intended for the sleeves but I realized quite fast that I hate knitting top-down sleeves). So because I didn't want to rip out a little stockinette, I ended up with a much bigger job, one I doubt I would have had the courage to start otherwise.

After having worn the sweater twice, I can say that it's not itchy and not too hot, at least at chilly libraries or in draughty apartments. The collar doesn't stay nicely put, but still, overall, I am quite proud of myself.

More pictures at Ravelry

More Simple Things

FO: Clapotis

Yarn: Artesano Hummingbird, 300g

Needles: 4mm

For pictures of me wearing it, see the project page

In knitting this Clapotis I also realised something about what guides me in choosing projects. Although knitting is supposedly for my own entertainment only, I still find myself considering expectations and norms.

We all fall for this sometimes -or I at least would like to think that I am not the only one who might borrow the latest prize winner from the library just because it's a prize winner. Or attempt to read a classic because it's a classic. Even though I'm actually in the mood for a re-read of Harry Potter, wouldn't it be so much better if I could say I had read James Joyce and liked it?  A good read with the added bonus of feeling smart! 

Of course I hardly ever manage to find a classic I can honestly say I like and am forced to read what I really want. Which lately has not been very much. Instead I have carried this way of thinking into knitting. One might think the two actions aren't very similar, but in this way at least they certainly are. 

In both knitting and reading much is categorized in terms of difficulty, or the mental strain of the task. "Tv-knitting" is pretty much the equivalent of a "beach read", brainless and easy. An overview of such a project or a review of such a book is usually shorter or more offhand than one of, say, a difficult lace scarf or a Nobel prize winner. 

Because of the lack of difficulty, these tv-projects and easy reads are obviously the most popular ones as well. They are recognised as fulfilling certain functions, using that lonely skein or passing the time, often in-between or after more demanding projects or books.

Just like I sometimes pay too much attention to what highbrow critics say of a novel, I have lately been too conscious of the prestige of certain pattern designers or project types. When doing a four-stitch repeat on a sock, I kept browsing the elaborate designs by Cookie A, even attempted one of the easier ones. I so hoped to be able to say that I had mastered it and liked doing it. But no luck. I also have a beginning of a lace scarf, my pride of which was somewhat lessened once I realised that what I thought of as difficult was tv-knitting to others.

I started Clapotis as a calm-me-down project, on a morning when I was extremely annoyed and angry with the world. I justified it like I would justify a hamburger: a treat I was badly in need for.

And I really did not knit anything else for nearly two weeks. The yarn was soft, the colours pretty, the rhythm right.  As much as I would have wanted to like something more difficult, this simplicity was what I truly did like. I felt somewhat self-conscious when I brought it out in public, but knew that pretending to work on something else simply would result in me doing nothing.

Although nearly running out of yarn and having some trouble dropping the stitches (in sticky alpaca), the finished product was also a success and I wore it at my cousin's wedding this past weekend. 

Perhaps a lace shawl might have made me more proud, but Clapotis had made me happy. 

And warm.

Forays Into Lace

I've been on the road and at various places during the last few weeks, and somehow have managed to develop a backlog of projects and yarns to photograph and report. I'll start from the project completed after the scarf in the last post: Ishbel.

Yarn: Handmaiden Casbah sock yarn, 115g/325m 

Needles: 4mm Addi Lace

Size: small (wingspan about 120cm)

After the small scarf shown in the last entry I wanted to try more lace without having to buy yarn for it. I had bought two skeins of Casbah at the end of May, having dreamed about it since Christmas. The yarn seemed almost too luxurious to be made into socks, and Ishbel seemed like the perfect pattern. It was my first pattern purchase online and definitely worth the few euros that it cost. I'll most likely make the scarf again in larger size. This time I was forced to leave two rows out from the last repeat as I was (rightly) afraid of running out of yarn.

Ishbel is a great first lace project as it has a large section of stockinette and can be made of sock yarn (a few skeins of which nearly everyone is certain to have in their stash). I am now attempting my first full size, all-lace scarf, we'll see how that goes :)

KIP

Olen kohtuu tohkeissani huomisesta KIP-päivästä. Koska en ole aikisemmin sitä mitenkään viettänyt, innostukseni perustuu tietenkin vain mielikuviin, ja saatan hyvinkin suurennella tapahtumaa. Mutta sille nyt ei mitään mahda, innostun hyvin helposti asioista etukäteen.

 In some weird manner I have always liked to publicly display my interests. Mostly that has meant wearing fan t-shirts (ranging from Rufus Wainwright to Wicked) or publicly reading Bookcrossing books. It shouldn't be difficult to guess that yes, I also knit in public, all the time.

I'm not quite sure whether I can quite pin down the reasons for this inclination. To express individualism; to pretend I'm important by thinking that people pay attention to what I do; to get comments from someone interested in the same thing. I know that I at least would love it if someone spotted that I was wearing a Clapotis or Sylvi. Of course I also want to knit when I can, even in public, but that's not the only reason.

When I think about tomorrow, I feel very energetic, almost defiant. Knitting and Ravelry are, in the end, still rather invisible to the general public, and I look forward to KIP Day as a small attempt to make us more visible. And, hopefully, to get some bystanders interested.

Stuck in the Middle

I don't consider myself a victim of the SS-syndrome (the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome), but I tend to have problems with the second cast on. This goes for mittens as well as socks, and probably has more to do with DPNs than anything else: I just don't like knitting the first few rounds with them. What with the needles persistently dangling instead of staying put, and the rib looking wonky, I just want to get to the part where the pattern has already started to emerge and things are going nice and smooth.

This moment between one of the pair having been cast off but before the other one has been cast on is when I'm most tempted to start another project -one that isn't knitted on DPNs. This is how I've started multiple scarves, although only one of them has survived so far. Usually the moment passes, and I go on to knit the pair.

The scarf (it's considerably longer now than in the picture) that has survived is Old Shale Scarf (rav-link), a pattern which I received in a Ravelry exchange. It's easy enough for a lace noob like me, but gets rather tedious after a while. I've been knitting it every now and then, mostly when other projects bore me.

The best thing about the scarf-to-be is the yarn: my first Manos (silk blend), and so soft and squishy that I could make a bed of it.

A Lost Fight

It has been the kind of a day when I'm afraid to so much as attempt knitting, because if everything else goes awry, what can  you expect from something that tends to go a bit awry even on the best of days?

It hasn't gone quite as badly as I expected, but the bottom of my sock still is developing a very visible line between the 4th and 1st needle. I won't post a picture, at least not now, it's nearly 11 pm and much too dark (and yes, I do knit -and read- with too little light), but it appeared out of nowhere a little after the heel. I'm tempted to blame the yarn (cherry tree hill sock) for being too soft and slippery, but it's more likely just me. It's still annoying, though. Fighting against the Knitting Gods is really the last thing I need tonight.

The colour of the day (season?)

Shouldn't be difficult to guess what have been my colours of choice lately. Yellow, yellow-pink (it looks white-ish pink in the picture but is not really), green-brown-yellow, orange-yellow...See the pattern?

The solid yellow is Vuorelma Veto, bought from Sypressi, Helsinki; The pink-yellow is Naurava lammas, colourway "queen amber", bought from Lankabaari, Turku; The green-brown-yellow is from Ripples Yarns, colourway "easter surprise"; and the Tofutsies just arrived today as an exchange with Tui.

Love of the short row heel

Pattern: Go with the Flow by Evelyn A. Clark from Favorite Socks

Yarn: Araucania Ranco Solid

Needles: 2mm DPNs

Size: mine, shoe size eur 40/41. CO 60 sts.*

After my first Araucania socks, I did intend to use some other yarn for my next project. I did even  cast on a pair of charades in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, but the colour pooled in the worst possibly way (the yarn did, however, feel soft as heaven, so I will probably give it another try with a more appropriate pattern). So I wound up my second skein of Araucania and started my first pattern from the Favorite Socks (which I keep spelling as Favourite, and then can't find it from Ravelry...)

I didn't even look at the directions in the pattern for making the heel, as I had already decided to try a short-row one. I hate having a sock on a hiatus just because I need time and good lighting to pick up the gusset stitches, so this was really inevitable.

I followed cosmicpluto's tutorial found here. Considering that it was my first attempt, I found this heel much easier and faster to do than the heel flap, and a bit more successful too. Obviously there are some mistakes, but the lace conveniently hides the holes ;)

I'm now knitting socks for the BF, also with a short row heel that I was able to knit on the train. A lot of my knitting is done in transit, so this is a big advantage compared to the heel flap.

*Please ignore my very white-looking calves in the picture, it's the lighting. And we have a long, sunless winter behind us.

For starters

There are some things that I probably won't be able to keep out of this blog. Like language issues, for starters. For some time I debated with myself about whether I should start a Finnish-language-only or an English-language-only blog, but couldn't decide. We'll see whether one of the languages will become dominant eventually, but for now I'll go with whichever I feel like using.

Verbosity is another thing. My camera is barely second rate and my picture taking skills are practically nonexistent, and I am, in any case, more used to communicating by writing. I do, after all, spend nine months of the year writing essays (or actually mostly procrastinating when I should be writing, but we all know how that goes). As a lifelong reader I also enjoy all kinds of knitting stories and often it is how the yarn turned into a cardigan that interests me more than the finished project. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's (a.k.a. Yarn Harlot) books really struck a chord with me, as they are just that, stories about knitting (or knitters).

I like my knitting projects to also have stories, or more accurately, I tend to give them the shape of a story. The first story that I want to write here concerns a pair of socks as well as the apartment that is my -our- new home.

On Monday March 2nd, I went to see an apartment for rent. It was during the day and my boyfriend couldn't come, so I basically had to decide whether the apartment was something we could be interested in. I thought we could, and after having filled in various forms, the estate agent promised to call either that or the following day. After leaving the apartment I was so excited and nervous that I needed something to do and so I started a pair of socks while eating lunch in a small café. Knitting them had a tremendously calming effect. The yarn (Araucania Ranco) was a beautiful, semisolid turquoise that seemed to glow and I knew that I really, really, wanted to get this pair finished (my sock knitting history being two finished pairs and one unfinished one, plus one very unsuccesful attempt).

Although I started them for stress-relieval, once the estate agent called to say that we got the place, I decided that they would be my home socks. As it was an old house, I thought I probably would need something warm and woolly. I knit them rather monogamously, hoping to be finished by the time we moved in, but didn't quite make it (because we got to move in surprisingly fast). We had lived in the new place for a week when I finished the pair.

Pattern: Spring Cable (ravelry link)

Yarn: Araucania Ranco Solid, turquoise

Needles: 2.5 mm

Not only are the socks special because of their connection with our new home, they are also my first socks knit with such a skinny yarn and small needle size, and taught me to cable without a cable needle. All of this makes me very proud of them, even though the gauge is a bit too loose, especially with the first sock. But they are definitely wearable and so soft and comfortable that I wear them as sleep socks. I usually kick all socks off during the night, but not these!

The story so far

I like forms and patterns. I like to organize events as stories. So it seemed fitting to start a new blog at the same time as I moved to a new apartment. I have been planning this for a while now, more or less since I started getting passionate about knitting.

I often joke about how converts tend to be the most enthusiastic followers of any movement, and I am a very good example of that. In school when we had to knit mittens, mine got finished only with the help of my mother and a family friend. Although friends have talked about sock knitting in school, I can't recall having knit any other item -perhaps my teacher saw that I was rather hopeless and allowed me to do other things.

I cannot say exactly why

 I suddenly wanted to knit something for my boyfriend in Christmas 2007. It might be that in spite of the difficulties I had had (or perhaps because of them), I knew the value of handmade gifts, and wanted to make a gift that would have that value. The product of my efforts was a simple garter stitch scarf, knit very loosely like beginner projects tend to be and with a monotony that killed my knitting instinct for almost a year. Yet a sense of accomplishment remained: the scarf was, and is, used.

Christmas 2008 I started early. This time I made mittens as a gift, and a scarf for myself. And after that a hat, and armwarmers, and a bag...I discovered Ravelry and read more and more blogs. There really was no turning back from the road once taken.

I now knit nearly every day and have a respectable stash. I still think of myself as a novice with more enthusiasm than skills but feel that I am nevertheless progressing somewhere.