Panda’s Blog

Okay, I have posted in quite awhile. This was meant to be a knitting blog, and I suppose I will keep that all in the same vein...

Since my last post, I have knit:
1 Donkey
1 Corncob
1 Hat
1 Elephant
... I feel like there is more, but that is all I am coming up with at the moment.  To be fair, though, those were all knit during classes, too.  And there's only so much knitting I can do while being in lecture. :)

The donkey was great - I knit it for a knit nativity scene from my last job in Wales.  It is huge.  I am looking forward to giving it to them this year, since I didn't send it off soon enough for the last season.  The yarn for the mane was fantastic - I used some Fun Fur that my friend had.  It really did make all the difference to the hair as it was all furry. :)

The corncob was a great inside joke.  I was impressed I could whip it up so quickly and that it looked so good.  Very fun quick present.  And I had all the yarn which meant it was a lot quicker to knit and I didn't have heaps of extra yarn about.

The hat was a holiday gift for one of my best friends.  She said I never knit her anything just for her, so I made her a hat this year.  :) Very cute, and totally fit her. A Plus. :)

And, the elephant was a wee little thing, but fit in the palm of my hand.  I knit it for my friend Stephanie as a 'Thank You' for letting me and my friend stay at her house for a conference in the area.  Although, I have been really wanting to knit her something for forever, and I was glad to find such a fitting gift for her. :)

I have recently joined a knitting group.  We meet just once a month on Fridays.  It seems as though no one wants to meet more often, but at least we get together at all... It is frustrating, though. I am trying to adjust to a new place, and it seems as though meeting friends is an up hill battle.  Though finding young knitters is definitely tough, too.  The group is made up of women in their mid-late thirties and beyond.  To quote my friend, 'maybe it is time for some intergenerational friendships'.  And yes, it is.  But, it would still be nice to have other young knitters about.

I am currently knitting a pair of socks using some fun yarn.  It's springy.  And I got the yarn (and needles) in Kalamazoo at a cute little knitting shop there.  I am now doing socks on 2 circs.  It's an interesting challenge.  I am also working on a second pair of socks, Monkey Bar Socks, from Wildhorse Farm Designs.  It is a pretty simple pattern.  I do like that it changes the texture of the design a bit.  That's always nice. I am knitting it in grey/black alpaca.  I'm hoping it will be cozy and warm and fantastic.  We'll see. :)

It is cold today and icey.  I heard it would be snowing, but we will just see about that.  I am skeptical.  However, it is so cold that being outdoors is not quite feasible.  And, being indoors gives me cabin fever.  However, I did have a rough week and am hoping to avoid people for a bit - which is easy when you don't know that many people to begin with...

More to come...

I finally finished my green cardigan.  Only thing left is to sew on the buttons.  All in all, I am impressed that I finished it at all.  It doesn't quite fit as well as I had hoped, but it is cozy and will be just fine come time to wear it around.  It just isn't the nicest of cardis.

I finally cast-on a new project.  I am working on the pattern "Jenny" from Rowan Magazine 37.  I felt like it would be a challenge in a lot of ways - could I do it in under 2.5 years?  Also, the yarn is more fine than I have used for something before, so that should be interesting.  And I am curious about the actual stitch pattern.  So, we shall see how it goes.

I didn't do a gauge swatch yet - mainly I didn't have the correct needles.  I did cast on a wee-bit for just the ribbing.  I mainly couldn't resist the urge!  I ordered new needles from getknitted.com. I am looking forward to those arriving soon.  I love Addi Turbo needles and can't imagine knitting with anything else.  The straight needles in the picture are borrowed from my friend.  They work for a small bit of knitting, but for much more they will just be too much.  As soon as the Addis come, I will be doing my swatch and figuring out how the stitch works.  Then, it is all cardi! :)

I figure I have a few months to really commit to this project.  Hopefully it will be mostly complete by the time I leave.

I stumbled across this link today about knitting as therapy.  I thought it was really interesting.

One portion I really loved was a poem by Gwyneth Lewis (a Welsh poet, no less!).  It is reproduced here:

Hypnosis Knitting

A day of wordless misery,
thorns in the heart
that refuse to budge.

No matter, I'm keeping company
with myself, though hurting,
redeeming time that was torturing me.

My grandmother's craftwork,
I suddenly see,
was self-medication,

her fanciest knitwear
anti-depressant hosiery:
a stance against her melancholy.

This pattern wants only rhythm from me:
no judging, no knowing,
just moving on

into a future. I'm working three
axels. First a new personality
made from my patience.

Second, a scarf
composed in calm,
a respite from my usual self-harm.

The third is my finest.
Look! I've unpicked
myself from my worry, a delicate stitch

into the present. No one can see
this last. Mindfulness charges the air,
arrays me in intricate gossamer.

~~~

That really resonates with me today. I had a really challenging day (to say the least) and found myself retreating to my knitting to help soothe myself and gain focus and perspective. It felt good to centre myself and put my attention upon one project - that which I could control directly in front of myself.

The cardigan is coming along. I am just sewing it up now, and then I need to finish the collar.  I completed the shoulder seams and almost sewed on one of the sleeves.

Before I left to come to Wales, I sought out a knitting group in the area.  You would think that a country so proud of their sheep would have a million knitters just churning out woolly items.  Aparently, not so.  Not even in the capital city.  So, here I am, hunting on the net, and I found a group - Yarn 'n Yarn.  So excited, I figured out when/where they meet, and marked my calendar to go today.  My flatmates gave me a ride (it is quite a walk away), and even though I wasn't going to go, I knew being around people (especially knitters) would be good for me this evening.  The mates dropped me off, and I wandered in looking for other knitters around.  I wandered - it was super busy - but they were nowhere to be seen.  I ended up gettin' cozy in my own corner and knitting all alone.  It was fine, I suppose, but I could have easily been knitting at home rather than be out in a coffee shope/theatre sans other knitters.  The table was really large and quite lovely for the project of sewing up shoulders and sleeves, but, again, the dinner table could have worked, too.  I am annoyed that I spent so much time getting excited about going just to have nothing happen.  Grr.  I will email and figure out what happened, so hopefully I can at least make one meeting.  I do think, however, that I might try and get some people together on this end of town.  It would be nice to not have to walk 30 minutes through town to the otherside in order to knit with people.

I am really looking forward to more knitting time tomorrow.  Hopefully I can get the sleeves tackled.  I do believe I may have harmed my shoulder with all the pulling through of yarn when I was sewing.  Oops.  Between knitting and gardening, my poor body will be a wreck soon!

Okay, I am off to bed.  I will update with pictures soon, I hope.

On 9 and 10 May I had the wonderful opportunity to go with Jason to Cincinnati to my very first Major League baseball game!  And, were we in for a treat!  The first game the Reds lost, but I was so excited to be there, it didn’t really matter.  We had the same seats each day, and they were fabulous!  Right behind home plate!  This was the best place to be where Jason could walk me through all the action and help me really grasp the game.  We got an excellent view of all the action, plus our tickets got us not only into the exclusive 4192 Club, but also our very own bathrooms! (I am assured this is a huge perk at such a large sporting event!)

Posting pictures just isn't working right now... I'll be sure to fix that soon.  :)

After 2.5 years, I finally have the almost finished cardigan!  This sweater was started when I moved to Michigan years ago, and I have been determined to finish the silly thing ever since.

I completed the left front panel and the back after about 2 months.  I took a knitting class, and this was our project.  I never finished it before the end of class (hey, I started graduate school!), so I have been slowly working on it ever since.  I knocked back sleeves last summer, and finally decided to only bring this project with me to Wales.

Here is what it looked like when I just started the next panel, a little bit farther into it, and a close up of the double seed edging. -

It has been a bit since my last post, but I have been busy workin' on my newest sock pair.

I sought out a new pattern, yarn, and needles the other day.  It was decided I would try a pattern with cables down the back of the sock - to be worn with open backed shoes (i.e. sandals!).  The yarn is cotton and has a lovely stripping pattern.

I cast on no less than 5 times.  **5**!!!  It was not good at all.  I fought the urge ever moment to just give up.  To simply toss the cotton aside and go back to the scarves of my knitting youth.  To shed the self-stripping chaos and go back to creating stripes on my own.

I persevered.  And I even knit during graduation last week.  :)  Having stuffed my knitting bag in my sleeve pocket (on a Master's gown it is a lot like a huge pocket hanging down on each sleeve), I had the whole ceremony to knit away at my cabled sock. :)

Having arrived safely in KY yesterday, I spent part of the 5 hour car trip working on the rest of my sock.  It helped move the whole project forward.

I am trying to not give up on this poor sock.  And I am learning to forgive myself when I am off a bit off in the pattern.  Ah, I am learning so much from these socks...

Here are some photos from my first ever pair of socks!  WHEE!  I first cast them on 1 April 2007, and finished them just yesterday, 22 April 2007.  Just 3 weeks!  So exciting!

My other fun activity today was to get a new sock pattern and some fun new yarn.  My LYS didn't have a good selection of sock yarn (so sad), at least, nothing that wasn't $25 for a skein to make one sock.  So, I settled on a ball that promises two socks, for $16.  I thought I would get creative and do a little bit of 2 circ Magic Loop to get the fun new Skillz started.

I found a wonderful looking guide on the net.  When asked by the LYS employee if I wanted the Magic Loop book, I said, "I have the Magic Internet!" so confident in my ability to follow written directions with pictures...

I followed this guide to try knitting on two circs.  When I finished the first round, and was all set to cry with joy, I kept going.  The first stitch fell off - no worries!  I picked it right back up.  And then all the 7 fell off after I was just getting started on round one.  :(  So, I frogged it and started over.

I followed the guide to knitting on  one circ.  Now, I should mention that I got 2 circs - 24" & 32".  Both Addi Turbos (the Cadillac of knitting needles), and both sexy new.  However, the directions both call for longer needles.  One circ is supposed to be about 24" + (she recommends 40").  Ah, how I kept truckin' with the 32".  I got through round 1 of cast on, then 1/2 through round 1 of pattern and just gave up.  It wasn't working. I can admit that...

*sigh*

So, back to the yarn store tomorow.  I feel like DPNs are the only way to go.  I just am not ready yet for the Magic Loop.  It just gave me a Magic Headache.

Meh.

I have completed my first pair of socks!  WHEE!

Pictures will come as soon as my batteries have charged.

I wore them today with shoes (no sandals... *tear*), and so far, they are cozy.  And every time I look down and see crazy patterned socks, I giggle.  I laughed really hard today when I first saw them when I got off the bus.  Too cute!

I will have a wee bit of free time today and am thinking about searching through my 9 million knitting books for another pattern for socks.  Does anyone have a good toe-up pattern they prefer?  I think I will master socks in general before moving on to socks on 2 circs.  Though, maybe either way would be just fine.

Today I am starting to really get crackin' on the packin'.  That means sorting through piles of yarn under my bed and prioritizing which will go with me to Wales, and which will stay in storage (eeeep!).  A tough sell.  Though, I just brainstormed a good use of a few balls I bought while in London last year.  So I will frog what I made before and work up something new and fun. :)

I can't wait to be done with school this semester.  I can finally catch up on all the knitting things I have been missing.  I just caught up with the Yarn Harlot's Ann Arbor show/extravaganza/etc. and it is so hilarious!  Fabulous! I can't wait to keep up with more of her stuff while I am on break.

Yeah to school being out! Yeah to time to knit!  Neah to it being so warm that socks just aren't practical!  And neah to the threat of rain which rendered my socks+sandals formula from being well executed today!

I am almost done with my first pair of socks. The first sock took a week. The second was completed in a just under 3 weeks (hey, it's finals, I am allowed to be slow with socks!).  It is actually more amazing that I have knit two socks than I can describe.  It is something about the Rule of 2.

Rule of 2: I love to knit. I love the process, figuring things out and making something new.  I hate having to do something twice, however.  I can frog something a few times, that seems to be okay, but having to actually recreate something following the same pattern just kills me. It is so much more tedious somehow. I have made many mittens, but few matching ones.  I can do one slipper in a few days, but the matching one took me a few months.  It is something about having to make a second item that just gets me.  And yet, these socks were okay.  they held my interest.  They turned out funky and neat.  Sure, I can see every single K2Tog that went awry, or see where my PU stitches got wonky, but, they are mine and they fit.  And they inspire me to break the Rule of 2.

Next I am hoping to move forward to learning to knit on either one long circ or 2 circs. I think I would like to knit them at the same time and twart any Rule of 2 that might occur again.

I am at the point now where I am sewing the toe of the sock up with Kitchener Stitch. I did it once, but realized it was all wonky.  I normally enjoy this book for all of my knitting needs:

However, the description in there, and the photos, got me all confused.  I have since moved on to trying the stitch from:

The diagrams look a lot clearer.  We'll see.

I think the only part of the sock that I have had issues with has been sewing the toe, in fact.  The heel turn was fine (though I am still mentally working through the actually mechanics of it...), and it wasn't too bad to keep up with a pattern (simple 3x1 rib).

Next goals:

1. Take photos of finished socks!
   
2. Learn to knit socks on 2 circs (or 1 long one)
3. Consider how to knit socks which will be a bit more appropriate for summer wear
4. Finish off that cardigan....
5. Commit to schmoozing with the knitting group in Cardiff. :)
   

At this moment, this will serve as a knitting blog - a way to connect with other knitters and have a space to be geeky about knitting.  Eventually, it will serve also as a way to connect with people while I am gone this summer - as a way to keep people up to date on what I am doing while I am gone.

The banner is a photo of a pair of mittens I knit. I had not yet fulled them, so you can still see the sitch definition. They turned out quite nicely, a little plain, but it was a good quick pattern. I will soon post a picture of the final mittnes. They are cozy, though I did manage to knit them so late in the season that they didn't get much winter wear (though they were quite nice during the chilly spring, and, in fact, are in my bag now).

Welcome to my blog. :)