Knitting Inspirations

Not only did I actually go to a genuine LYS the Friday before New Year's, but I also got some other new yarn in the past week, one as a gift. I have been trying to knit from my very copious stash this past year or so, since I have been in the throes of my "knitting identity crisis," but like the ones I mentioned yesterday, these "spoke" to me (or showed up!).

I have been wondering if I'd ever get to write this blog post, though--ever had one of those days when technology hates you? Well, all of my various technologies for getting photos onto blog posts broke this morning, and I got a bit frustrated. Finally I found a cable, dealt with some issues on the phone and the computer, and was able to copy all my recent photos onto my computer. WHEW! Still not sure why I can't upload photos to Facebook today, but I will live. I can at least blog now!

First I wanted to show you this very interesting yarn that I found when Jody and I were shopping. I know it looks like a bit of a mess, but I saw it knitted up and woven (that was lovely!) and I really liked the tweedy effect it made. The yarn is called Mericash Thousand Colors and it is from Punta Yarns in Uruguay. Of course, it is no longer being made, sigh. It's a merino cashmere blend with 3 strands that each change colors. My plans for this are to knit it tightly and make myself a pair of warm gloves. I LOVE my very old cashmere fingerless gloves, so I predict I will like these.

Mericash Thousand Colors

And look, I found PhotoShop so I could crop pictures.

Next is yarn I ordered from the blog's old friend Ray Whiting at Knitivity. I was really intrigued by both of these. The one on top I am totally in love with. The colors are so subtle and muted. I realize I am on a real tear with hand coverings, but I really, really want to make another pair of mitts in this. I have a simple pattern with cute edgings in mind. I may have enough left over to make a matching hat and/or headband, too. The bottom skein reminds me of blue and white china, even though it has pale orange or cream color in it. It will probably be socks, if I ever get back to those. I am suddenly getting holes in my socks, some newer ones. No moth signs, but it makes me hesitant to make more.

Sock Yarn from Knitivity

And next is yarn I received as a Yule gift from my friend Diana, who went to Ireland and thought of me when she saw this yarn there. As you can see, it's a boucle yarn, in a lovely reddish purple-y color. It feels oh so soft. I wish I knew what the yardage was, because there is a pattern in Vogue Knitting this month for a very simple sweater with a twisted front that would look cool in this knitted very loosely--it would be more of an overlay than a sweater. I may have to get one of those things that measures how much yarn you have! I think this is a goodly amount, since it is thin yarn and tightly wound. it's surely enough to make a very simple shawl that would showcase the yarn.

Lovely Irish Mohair

Diana also sent me a really lovely mohair scarf or wrap that was hand knit in County Clare near the Burren, one of my favorite spots on earth. I love the very simple pattern used.On larger needles, this could be done in the boucle.

Scarf I got as a gift.

So, these are all the things that are inspiring my knitting these days. Now I need to write one more blog post and I can knit! It is SO nice to finally have a relaxing weekend.

One Very Nice Mitten

First, thank you for all the nice comments on Jodie's immense shawl! MMario is indeed, as John-Francis pointed out, a dude who knits, and we should support them whenever possible. And I do, believe me--I read plenty o' men's blogs from the "famous" ones like Brooklyn Tweed and Franklin Habit (who I even met once) to people I consider personal friends like Colin Andersson and Ray Whiting. I guess I should write a post about my favorite knitting dudes and their products and projects some time!

But wait, I was gonna blog about this:

The first of my Orange Ethnic Mittens is done. It took longer than I expected, because I keep doing other things, like tarot bags and cooking for the family (I am sure you will be jealous of the delicious organic liver and onions, baked sweet potatoes and steamed cauliflower we had last night--weird combo but good). But I digress, again...

The pattern is lots of fun to make, and I have a feeling these mittens will be like Cookie A socks for me--once you make one, you want to make the rest of the patterns in the book! I keep thinking of different color combinations and trying to decide which of the patterns I like the best. Then I thought of making matching socks. I should have enough yarn left over to make socks. But, before that, perhaps I should finish the other mitten, huh? Stop with the incessant blogging and go knit!

But wait, I did want to give a hint for anyone who wants to knit patterns from Mostly Mittens, by Charlene Schurch. On her charts, decreases are shown by the pattern rows getting smaller. I had a bit of trouble remembering where to decrease, so I drew symbols for SSK and K2tog on the edge stitches, where the decreases go, to remind me what to do. The other hint I have is to not forget to go back to the general guidelines for each section of the mitten when you start doing something different--there are useful guidelines in there! But don't worry, other than mis-counting every so often, I didn't find this pattern difficult at all. I encourage you to give these a try--they make great gifts if you live in Texas (I plan to wear mine at high school football games--I have needed some for the last 5 years--my gloves get chilly).

If you are so inclined, please think of me today, as I have a first interview for a REAL job, and those are very, very rare for technical writers/instructional designers in Austin. Having work to do will cut me back to my more normal blogging schedule again, but I promise to not do a big drought like I went through early in the year.

PS: I added the tarot bag to Ravelry, so if you make one, please link to this!

Trudging...

If you are a celebrator, I hope you had a good Christmas weekend. If not, I hope you have been happily knitting away at something!

I had a freelance indexing thing last week that made me not want to look at the screen much, hence no blogging. Besides, who wants to read about how worried I am that my work hasn't picked up again yet. No clue how the bills will get paid, but something always works out.

I am actually almost finished knitting the Belleza vest, and I have to block it before putting it together. Should have a finished photo of that soon! I hope it stretches out when blocked. Otherwise, it's beautiful.

The navy Angee socks are going slowly, since I can only work on them when I can concentrate. But they are pretty. I started a pair for my sister, who wanted black and white socks. I found some Knitivity sock yarn that is mostly black and white--I think it was a "mistake" version of his Doberman colorway with much less brown, but I am not sure because for some reason it's not in my Ravelry listing. I am doing a simple toe up ribbed sock, though I may make one rib travel, for fun, when I get to the leg. I got a lot of that done last week waiting at the driver's license place to get my son's permit.

I got no yarn for Christmas, so nothing to show after the bounty of my last post. That was plenty, though! Maybe things will perk up and I will have something to show you next post, or more interesting commentary. I am not at my creative peak right now.

Clearly Koi!

I have two fine and fun things to show you today, both of which I am quite excited about. So excited that I am blogging even though I am really tired of typing today!

First, you see some very pretty yarn. This is my special, made just for me, yarn that Ray at Knitivity made for me. It's two skeins of his DuraLace yarn, and one skein of his Down Home Socks yarn. They were dyed at the same time, so they match perfectly. Do click on the close-up to see what it looks like. These are a weird combo of colors, but I just love them together!


Here is what inspired the colorway, a t-shirt that my husband got me from Threadless, our favorite shirt source. Isn't it a cool image? The colors are very saturated and smooshy. I love fish, especially Koi. Ray did a great job on this yarn, and I am not just saying it because he has become my friend over the past couple of years--this is very pretty yarn, not too intense, not too pastel. Delicious.

I know I am going to make some wonderful socks out of the sock yarn, but I am thinking hard about what lace project to make with the laceweight. I saw a fairly simple rectangular stole in Victorian Lace Today that someone made, that has a fancy edge. Maybe that will not get overwhelmed by all the colors...we'll see. Mostly I am just carrying the yarn around with me and swooning. Thanks, Ray!

Next you see where I currently am on the Dianna2 shawl. Check out those needles! I got some of the new KnitPicks clear ones! They are called Zephyr and the name fits. I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I like them. Why, you ask?

1. They are not too slippery, not too grippy. They will be great for lace, I predict.
2. They bend a little. It makes doing difficult stitches easier, somehow.
3. They are very pointy. I like pointy needles. Again, makes lace stuff easy.
4. I love this: they are SILENT. It makes NO noise to knit with them. It's eerie!
5. They are INVISIBLE. Clear, even. I love how the other side of the yarn looks through the needle, and how yarn looks through it. Just plain fun.

These don't go smaller than size 4, but that's fine. I really like the wooden ones for socks. If you can do it, get yourself a pair of these in your favorite size, and give them a try. You might like them, too. I honestly didn't think I'd be as fond of these needles as I am. Usually I don't like plastic much, but this is pretty and feels good.

I need to get a bit of knitting in this evening, so I will sign off. But, I just had to show you my new toys!

Beading Fun and A New Sock

Just so you will know that I always have my knitting with me, here's a photo of me and my husband, Lee, sitting on a couch waiting for a meeting at church. Note that I have Dianna2 in my lap. I've gotten a lot of it done today, thanks to a very long meeting!



I told you that I took a beading class yesterday, and here's the bracelet I made. I felt compelled to finish it last night, so I had to find decent light in the kitchen, and beaded away while listening to Beccano, Tuba Boy and friends playing Dungeons and Dragons. They were gracious about my parental presence.

The bracelet is a simple peyote stitch, using two beads at a time, except that the blue beads in the main part are larger triangular beads. They add a really neat sparkle. The border are silver-lined blue beads (size 15) and it was fun putting them on. I think I did a pretty good job for my first project. I learned how to start a new thread, how to put on the clasp, and how to securely end the beading project, so I think I can do another one. Maybe on Tuesday I will have time to start the yellow and black one for Southwestern University.

I got a bunch of beads and supplies, but not any more clasps, so hopefully I will be able to pick some up some one evening, though it's a busy week coming up. I have patterns for a couple of variants on these bracelets, so I can have fun with them. And now maybe I can move on and try more projects, when I am not knitting, which of course is MUCH more important.

Speaking of which, here's my newest sock:

The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah, which has some cashmere in it, and is a sort of thick fingering weight. The colorway is Loopiefied, which is a tribute to, I think, last year's Loopy Ewe anniversary (I didn't get this year's package, but happy third anniversary to them!). The pattern is one I used in a sock quite a few years ago. I have not put that one on Ravelry, but I do like it. It's 3 purls then a knit, which is slipped every other row. I like how it breaks up the patterning. There are only 375 yards in this yarn, so I will make the socks fairly short. and since they are toe up, it won't be too hard to adjust the ending if I have to.

I'm concentrating my knitting on the Dianna2 shawl, though. I am on row 15, and plan to make it 17 rows long, which should take me partially into my third skein. Then I will figure out whether I want to do the i-cord edging or the small pointed edging I found. I may try both.

There, two posts in two days! If you don't hear from me for a while, remember my work is busy and I have a bunch of other meetings this week, plus getting ready for Tuba Boy to go to college!

PS: I forgot to add that pretty soon my custom yarn from Ray at Knitivity will be arriving. So I will have to blog to show you that! It's sock and laceweight in colors to match my cool Koi t-shirt, and from the preview I saw before it was skeined up, it's going to be beautiful!

Answered Prayers

Prayer Shawl
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I didn't think I'd have anything blog-worthy today, but lo and behold, I remembered that the finished Prayer Shawl for Chuck was in Lee's truck. So I got it out and took its picture. It's nice and stripey, and really doesn't look like it is a bunch of different colors, does it? I do realize that choosing to photograph lovely handknits while one is wearing a fairly garish tie-dye t-shirt is not the ideal fashion choice. But, it did get to be a reasonable length, and I am happy to say the knitting is fairly consistent, given that 7 people of varying ages and gauges worked on it.

Of course, it didn't get finished quickly enough to actually get it to our minister before he went far off, so it will have to be a "welcome back" shawl. That's good, because that leaves me plenty of time to wash it more than once and get all the dog and cat dander out of it. After sniffing the shawl, I realized everyone who had worked on it had multiple pets, and the recipient has allergies! So, I'll get it all clean and put it in a plastic bag, away from my animals.

How do you get one of these? Again, you go out and buy as many skeins of Noro Kureyon, Silk Garden or other self-striping yarn as you can find and parcel them out to people who want to help. Then knit up the standard broken garter stitch prayer shawl in whatever width you want. Each person knits up their ball of yarn! If you don't have enough people, some can knit more than one skein (on this one I knit three).

I thought the prayer shawl was a good item to post today, since, if I were a praying type, I'd say my prayers were answered today when Lee got a job lined up, after a lot of delays. He is going on as a contractor where he'd hoped to get a full time job with benefits, but the contract can extend, and they hope it will eventually become the "real" job that got put on hold. This means a lot more breathing room for us. Thanks to all who were sending out vibes, prayers or thoughts for this.

Now I invite you to turn your energies toward one of my favorite yarn vendors, Ray from Knitivity. He has already been through Hurricane Katrina, and now is having to deal with the aftermath of Ike. He actually makes his living dyeing yarn, which means if he can't dye, he can't earn money. Who knows how long he will be without electricity, or how much damage his mobile home received in the hurricane?

What I did to help a little was to go over and order some yarn, so that when he CAN do it, he will have work to do, and money to cover repairs and living expenses. And it's not like it's torture. The yarn is lovely! I ordered a "surprise" skein of sock yarn, and look forward to seeing what this month's surprise is. My kids' high school gym is full of refugees, and I have done little things to help people in general, but it is nice to know I helped someone specific, too. If you were wondering how you could help some of the people whose lives were precarious to start out with, and who can really be devastated by the aftermath of a random piece of weather, think about Ray or someone else you know of who could use a boost. All I know is that, with all our job issues, we haven't been that far from crossing the line where it would be hard to recover from ourselves.

Happy knitting--I'll be working on my socks during a meeting tonight but hope to get back to Maelstrom when I get home, and more tomorrow!

PS: I ordered yarn to make OpArt from the new Knitty for a baby who will be here in March. I got black and white KnitPicks Swoosh. Oops, Ray really doesn't like KnitPicks, but hey, I want to use the yarn called for in the pattern so it will be vaguely right. And I had to replace my needle gauge that I lent out at Chicks with Sticks and have not seen since. So I patronize LOTS of yarn sources, I am keeping the yarn economy happy!

Make Someone's Holiday Happy

Some of you may know that I once was a professional do-gooder. I spent well over a decade of my life working for a nonprofit organization that helped mothers and babies. I did their very large website (with help), and I always felt very good that I was contributing to the health and well-being of millions of people around the world. I want to do things that increase peace, increase kindness, and increase well-being in the world. Someone just wrote me an email re-iterating that I helped sooo many people back then, in response to me posting regrets that staying home with my kids when they were small then working in a non-traditional job in a non-traditional field has hampered my ability to do the kind of work I want to do. I do appreciate that I helped so many. It eases a lot of the pain.

Since I have had to take whatever job will pay enough to cover the household expenses, which has meant working as a faceless drone in corporate America, I have been trying to keep helping others. I do a lot of knitting help--having a hobby that can calm and soothe you while creating useful products does increase peace, kindness (giving away what you make) and well-being. That's good.

Giving to Real People

Yet, being a middle class parent on the brink of not having enough to get by for the past few years has made me realize that I am by no means the worst off. I am willing to sacrifice my principles and employment wants, and do whatever I have to so that the kids are fed and housed. Some people, and these are people I really admire, feel they just can't sacrifice their souls to multi-national corporations and try to earn a living doing what they are good at and what they love.

So, at this holiday season, when we are often asked to give money to nameless people via charities, I'd like to highlight two people I know who stick by their guns and do what they love, even when the money doesn't quite follow immediately. Maybe, just maybe, one or two of you will find that they deserve your support, even if it isn't tax deductible. Your bonus will be knowing you helped a hard-working, strong-minded person, and you get to enjoy the fruits of their labor!

Jeff

Jeff is a close friend (lived with us for four years, even) who has been a musician his whole life. He is an amazing guitarist, has an incredible voice (he can sing Roy Orbison songs in the original keys), and has written some lovely songs. He has always lived for music and is one of the few people in Austin trying to make a living as a full-time musician. He's one of those people who fame and fortune kept just missing, which was always frustrating. Right now he is living with a chronic condition that makes getting most jobs difficult--his vision is bad and he can't stand for long periods of time. But he can make music and share his knowledge of it! And to top it all off, his step-father died, while his mom was in the hospital. Jeff is now trying to take care of her, in Florida, which makes working here in Austin a challenge!

Jeff has created a couple of projects recently that I think deserve more attention. One is his CD of "chill" music, called Lake Effect. I had to listen to this over and over while he was working on it, and never got tired of it. This is music that can take you to another world if you listen to it with headphones on, or that makes a great background for concentrating on other things, like knitting or writing. There are samples on Jeff's website, so check them out. And if you like it, please consider ordering a copy. They make good gifts, too--no offensive lyrics! And the cover photo, by Jeff, is really cool.

His other laudable project is one that really gives back to the folk music community. It's his podcast website, The Austin Connection. There are now 60 different podcasts here, all showcasing a different musician or group who wither lives around here or has passed through Austin in the past couple of years. I am totally blown away by the quality of the recordings and the fun it is to listen to the stories these musicians tell. Jeff has a great radio voice, so these podcasts are very, very easy to listen to. Another great thing to do while you knit if you run out of knitting podcasts! The Austin Connection project is completely funded by donations. And it is sad how few donate compared to how many download the podcasts, read them on their RSS feed or get them on iTunes. A donation to this worthy cause would really help someone trying to make a living doing what they love AND giving back to the local community. Please consider it.

Ray

I haven't known Ray as long as I have known Jeff, but I've gotten to know him pretty well through his blogs and email postings. Like Jeff, he's a real individualist who wants to earn his living doing what he loves, not sacrificing his principles. Ray had to leave Louisiana after the hurricane and set up shop in Houston, where he dyes yarn, designs patterns, and knits up a storm, all in a very small space. He also thinks a lot. I really enjoy his thoughts, whether I agree or disagree. Nothing's better than having a friend who makes you think.

Long-time readers have seen me knit with some of his Knitivity yarns, which I enjoy because the color combinations are not the standard ones you see everywhere. He also has some patterns and holiday stockings, hats and bags for sale that would make great holiday gifts. But the best thing he has is a deal where you buy someone a voucher for sock yarn (first item listed on the sock page), and then they get to pick the color, which Ray will dye right up for them and send right off! What a great gift for any knitter.

Also great for knitters are the shirts and other products Ray has on his CafePress site. He just designed a pretty amusing knitting-themed shirt that is brand new--no one on your gift list will have it yet! Or maybe YOU need one!

And anything you buy will keep a very small business afloat--that has to fill you with holiday spirit, whatever that is. I know it makes me feel good to buy things right from the maker, and knowing the kind of person Ray is makes me feel even better. A real American entrepreneur.

What I Think (as if you asked)

I'd much rather buy something from someone who is honestly trying to make a living than to just give people hand-outs. I think most of us would rather earn our livings. I know Jeff and Ray feel that way. And having some holiday income will certainly bring them cheer, while their music and yarnish things will bring YOU cheer!

Now if you can't bring yourself to do any holiday shopping via my personal favorites, don't forget the many indie dyers, local yarn shops, and other small craft-related businesses out there. Your purchases of items made locally or marketed via people in our local communities helps them feed their families. When we give straight to "real" people, it doesn't hurt those big businesses much, but really, really helps the small ones. Let's do it!

PS: Neither of these guys asked me to do this. I was just thinking of them and realized that, since I don't have anything monetary to give them right now, I could at least share their talents with my little bloggy audience. And this is my last infomercial for the season. I need to go concentrate on getting my own funding now!

Knitting Ups and Downs

Pagoda Lace and Bus Dashboard
Originally uploaded by sunasak

It was a very long weekend. And much knitting was done, though not all that much to show for it. Sigh. Took a major dip in the scummy old frog pond...

But, in good news, here is the Redwood Pagoda Lace sock #1 in Knitivity Redwood colored sock yarn, fresh off the needles in a rather scuzzy tour bus. I spent over 24 hours with the high school band on a trip to Arlington, Texas for a competition. I would have gotten a lot more knitting done if both the trip up and the trip back hadn't been during normal sleeping hours. I finished the sock while the rest of the folks were out procuring dinner in a locale full of preferred vendors: fast food, pizza and Starbucks. I stayed in and breathed diesel fumes and finished the sock.

I worked and worked on Mr. Greenjeans in red during the many hours we spent in a church rec hall between the preliminaries and finals of the competition. I made almost an entire sleeve but then realized that, sigh, I was making the size XL sleeve, not the L, and I would never hit 60 stitches before my arm length was reached at the rate I was decreasing. So, yesterday in my sleep deprived fog, I frogged the entire sleeve and redid it. Perhaps this time I decreased too briskly but it looks OK and I got down to where I want to start the ribbed border for the cuff. But it sure felt bad to re-do the same knitting twice. I did enjoy crafting with other band mothers, though, so I had good camaraderie with the crocheters and beaders who were also chaperoning.

I have nifty new yarn to post, perhaps tomorrow, thanks to the latest Loopy Ewe sneak-up. A couple of very interesting ones! And KnitPicks sent me a replacement #4 pair of tips for my Harmony set (you may recall, one original didn't screw in properly), so I now have one bonus 4. Good, I like that size. So, all is not lost--I just feel like I lost some productivity (yes, knitting is a process, and I should REJOICE that I get to knit twice with that nice Cascade 220, yup). But I have new things I want to knit!

Not much knitting time today, but tomorrow I hope to get on to sleeve #2 and more done on sock #2.

I hope you all had better knitting weekends than I did!

I Had Blog Ennui

I haven't written anything in a couple of days, because nothing knitting-wise has really gotten me all excited. And I recently read about this very useful concept of blogging without obligation. The fellow who thought it up has a great point--it's a good idea to leave my blog right NOW and click that link. His main point is that you should blog because you have something to say, not just to make sure you get hits, inspire new subscribers or whatnot. I agree with that, so even though my hits have taken a tumble, I didn't write for a couple of days when I didn't get much knitting done and what I did was on the same old projects.


My projects are just fine, thank you. None of them are moving along very briskly, due to that pesky old "real life" getting in the way, but Mr. Greenjeans is over halfway through the cable section, and Pagoda Lace Sock #1 has at least grown a bit. The Knitivity sock yarn is coming out very soft--feels great--but it's a bit "splitty" and that makes it hard to re-do when I make a mistake in the lace. I ordered some ShibuiKnits semi-solid yarn from the good ole Loopy Ewe that I may try this pattern on again.


Speaking of yarn, I will have to photograph my two newest preciouses. One's a skein of 700 yards of fingering weight yarn from Knitivity in a collection of denim shades. I was going to make my stepmom her holiday gift from it, but then I saw this Schaeffer Anne in shades of turquoise that will look better in the pattern I chose (one of the rectangular shawls in Victorian Lace Today). I am going to make that really simple triangle shawl from VLT out of the denim for my own use.


I also got my first knittable sample from Color My Yarn Crazy, my friend Jody's soon-to-launch yarn biz (no, there's nothing much about it on the blog). It is an almost-indescribable color in sock yarn of my favorite highly twisted type. Both Lee and Beccano declared the color looks like a chocolate cherry cake, so I hope that helps. It is really a very dark mottled orange. My friend Saranda labeled it Rust. Someone nameless called it "poop brown" but if that is the case, it is VERY pretty poop! I will use it to make the frogged Diamond Waffle pattern. It will look good in this semi-solid.




At the LYS yesterday I purchased some Calmer in a coral color to make the Shedir (warning, PDF link) hat (photo is from a nice site with lots of chemo caps on it) for an acquaintance with breast cancer. I'll make that on the bus for the endlessly long band trip this weekend (where I have some crazed idea that I will finish ALL my WIPs). When I got the Calmer yarn and said I was making a cabled hat, Jody said, "Oh, you're making Shedir." My-o-my that woman has an encyclopedic memory for knitting pattern names! I was sure glad she made it to the shop, because talking to her and a couple other nice and friendly knitters really made a crummy day better.

I guess I have written enough that I don't have to go on and on about the weird patterns in the Holiday Vogue Knitting. At least there were 2-3 a person could wear in public without being laughed at or looking like a sausage. I must be too, too, old.

Progress Report B: Redwood Pagoda Lace Socks

Redwood Pagoda Lace Sock, in progress
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I did get some progress made on my socks, though not much, thanks to concentrating on the cardigan. Here you see the Redwood Pagoda Lace Sock, in progress, along with some cute li'l flowers in the grass. I managed to finish the heel last night, without having to re-do it endless times or anything! And I am impressed that I managed to end on a complete repeat, with the foot fitting just fine!

It's hard to see the lace in this view, but there's another picture on Flickr, if you want to see the top view. I wanted to show my odd little gusset, that I put two stitches inward, just to be different..

Other knitting news...I didn't get to go on the Hill Country Yarn Crawl over the weekend, due to so many other things going on, but I did show up at the LYS at my usual time, and help out people who came in with questions, so the other staff could sell yarn. I felt good that I helped a lady who misunderstood how YOs worked, so her lovely afghan can grow up nice and pretty. I felt bad that I forgot to bring in the damaged afghan I was going to return to its owner, but felt better once we all decided to try to fix it if she could find the original yarn (she might be able to). Later I felt bad that I left the shop just before one of my students who needed my help showed up and ended up very confused, but I stayed later than I'd originally intended to, anyway--really had to go tend to the family (they are supposed to be my priority ya know!). I hope to help that lady today, since we missed each other yesterday, too.

I also would have sold a scarf pattern, but the LYS had sold all of them and I didn't know. So, I will print more of those and email the lady a copy for herself. I need to decide whether I want to sell that pattern in the future or offer it for free from the blog. Thinking.

Another thing is that I am thinking hard about a pair of thematic socks I have designed in my head, chosen yarn for, and want to make next, so maybe I better knit harder on these socks. I will do better if my old friend who works in the same building I do doesn't ask me to join him at lunch too many times this week--I end up talking to him and not knitting (hmph, actually paying attention to the person I am talking to...what's with that?). Perhaps I will also get to those over the weekend of bus knitting.

What Cast -On to Teach, and New Yarn

New Knitivity Yarn
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Today we'll start to talk about teaching new knitters to cast on. But first, enjoy my new sock yarn. Perhaps they aren't the most splashy, but they have much subtle beauty. Both are from Knitivity.com, hand dyed in Houston, Texas (which meant I paid sales tax, which I would only do if I really liked something).

The one onf the right is "Hiding" and is supposed to be desert camoflage coloring, but I see the river rocks where the river meets the sea in Ireland, with the tans, grays whites and bits of black. The other is "Redwood," and is supposed to look like, well, redwood. It does, but when I saw it, it was much more "red" than I thought it would be from the website. And there is more gold than brown. This is all most excellent to me. The colors remind me of the warmth of the media room we just decorated in our house--the walls are a deep red and a dark gold.

I'd love to see either of these in worsted weight (I will tell Ray, I promise). An afghan with the Redwood and a denim color would perfectly coordinate with my media room, and I can see that Greenjeans cardigan I want to make so badly in the Hiding colorway--it would go with any neutral.

So, Which Cast-On to Teach?

Hey, you! Your feedback is most welcome here--I'd love more ideas to incorporate, so do not hesitate to suggest additions in the comments, or give me your opinions. I'd love them!

Some people don't teach new knitters to cast on. They cast on for them, and often they knit the first row for them.

If I were using the backward loop cast-on I'd probably do the same. It is so hard to knit the first row after backward-loop, and I usually knit into the back of the stitches on that row, too, so that would confuse a new knitter.

But, I don't use the backward loop cast-on. Why?

1. It's hard to knit the first row.
2. It is very hard to cast on loosely enough to not affect the finished product.
3. I don't like the way the edge looks very much.
4. it doesn't build the new knitter's confidence.

Some people like to teach one of the long-tailed cast-ons. Now, this is the one I use most for myself, but I don't teach it first. Why?

1. Guessing how much yarn to reserve intimidates new knitters.
2. It LOOKS so complicated (though later I will share my "easier" way of doing it).
3. It is also pretty easy to do tightly, though easier to get a good gauge than backwards loop.

I like to teach a knitted cast-on (that's what I call it, anyway). Why?

1. It starts them right off using the needles.
2. It is fairly easy to get a loose gauge.
3. Most important: it's a lot like actual knitting! Once they get how to do this, they are almost knitting already--it builds success.

Next: teaching the knitted cast on (I am out of time today, sorry).