Restless Knitter

Or at least get a feeling.  The shawl is near completion.  I felt like the shawl was going to be on the small side so I knit a few extra repeats.  When I got to the end, I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to have enough yarn so I tinked the latest row I did and stopped knitting with 4 rows to go.  Then I sat it aside for a couple of weeks, hoping the yarn would grow with time.  Unfortunately, that didn’t work.

I have 2 choices; I can either undo the bind off I’ve already completed and do a regular bind off instead of picot (omg I will never do a picot bind off on a shawl again!), or I can order more yarn. Being as I’m 2/3 of the way through, I chose Order More Yarn. Why is it that you can’t place an order with KnitPicks and just get what you need? I mean, you just have to buy enough to get that free shipping. It has to be cheaper than one hank of yarn and shipping for said hank, right? The good news is that KP is having 40% books right now, which I hadn’t even gotten the email notification yet, so I bought a couple of books, one which was sold out at their last sale.

Yep, I did have a birthday a couple of weeks ago. (Thanks for the shoutout La!) I have to share a few things I got.

All of this is from Donna, with the exception of the stitch markers.  Bella thought that the Koala was for her.  Sorry pup, it’s mine!  The card is adorable, the yarn is gorgeous, the socks are to die for.  I’ll confess, at first glance I thought the soap (below the socks) was candy and I couldn’t wait to eat it.  I didn’t.  The stitch markers (so pretty) are from a contest I won at SpinKnitUp .  They weren’t for my birthday but since they arrived the day after, I’m considering them a birthday gift anyway.

I’ll most likely have most of a skein of KP Gloss Lace (color Bluebird) up for grabs soon.

I don’t care if you hate cats,  this is just too funny.  There’s a sideways version here that you can see more of the stool the cat is on but the one with the subtitles is the best.  Stolen from Demonic Progress

Another yarn store is closing, which means there is a sale.  Being as everything is marked down to 50% off, I drove down to check out what sock yarn they have left.  I didn’t find what I wanted (more on that later) but I did find 2 other balls of sock yarn that were cute colors.  They had some Mirasol Hachu but it wasn’t marked so I asked the girl at the register to check the price for me.  It was $75 for one skein!  But hey, it’s 50% off.  No thanks.  I looked up the yarn after I got home and I think the $75 quote was wrong.  People are making socks out of this stuff, there’s no way.

After leaving the yarn store, I noticed a Barnes & Noble and stopped in to check for the latest Handwoven magazine.  They didn’t have that, but they did have 2 new knitting magazines.  The first is Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine.  I’d only just read of this magazine yesterday so I was a little surprised to find it.   I have to say I like it.  There’s not a whole lot I want to knit but I like the magazine as a whole.  There are a couple of pages of ads, which look nice.  Then there are a few book reviews, an interview with Melody Griffiths, a few Q & A’s.  Then comes the pattern section.  Very well photographed in my opinion.  No black sweaters on black backgrounds, white on white, etc.  There was only one little blanket that I think could have been better displayed in the pattern section, but it does show it fully in the instructions section.  As you’d expect, everything is knit in DB yarns but they do give you full info on the yarn in the instructions so it wouldn’t be hard to make substitutions.  Another thing I like is that the patterns are written completely in one section.  None of that -half or most of the instructions on page 70, the rest on page 80 good luck finding it in the middle of other continuations-.

The second magazine is called Love of Knitting.  It’s not really my thing. I love color as much as the next person, don’t get me wrong.  I just don’t like the yarns and notes for the instructions in different colors. While I suppose it does break things up, I like my print in black.  That’s not the thing that makes it not for me.  It’s just the patterns and pictures in general.  Just because it’s not for me doesn’t mean it’s not for someone else though.

You all know how often I knit socks.  I’ve knit a whole 2 pair in my knitting life.  That doesn’t stop me from loving sock yarns though.  I collect it like it’s baseball cards or something. (That’s not entirely true, some of you have more sock yarn than I have in my entire stash.  I envy you because you have the goods!) So it was sort of a surprise to me that I didn’t have the sock yarn I needed.  Most of my sock yarn is girly, and if I’m going to use my sock yarn to make a little jacket for my next grandson, I can’t be using the girly colors.  Yes, it’s another boy.  This (Ravelry link) is the pattern I’m using.  Look at the projects others have completed too, so cute!  It calls for around 100g of scraps.  I started with a ball of sock yarn, intending to use it for the whole sweater, but I didn’t like it.  It just wouldn’t have the same effect.  Then I remembered that I DO have leftover sock yarn from when I made Charlotte*.  There are some tinges of pink in some of them so we’ll see how it turns out.  I’m trying to use the least amount of girly colors as I can.  Being as the yarn shop that is going out of business was having a sale, I didn’t think it would hurt to buy more yarn if the colors were right.  As I said, they didn’t have anything that would work, but I did get some yarn and new magazines so not a total loss.

I am on the home stretch of the shawl.  I may only have something like 11 more rows to go but they are getting loooong.  It’s taking at least 20 minutes for me to finish one row at this point and with as many yarnover increases you add in every other row, I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes me an hour to finish the last one.

*Speaking of Charlotte, not the shawl but the city, The Man has been there for the last 2 weeks.   He was home Friday night but left again Sunday morning and will be home this Friday.   He thinks he may have to go there once a month or so.  Living in different time zones again, what fun.

Just some random crap that’s been on my mind.

The use of “lawls” or “lawlz” - Most everyone in the online world knows LOL stands for Laughing Out Loud but now we’ve gone from being lazy to just plain stupid. (If you sound out “lol”, it sounds like “lawl”, and we’ve added an S or Z. See?) So not knitting related but had to get that one off my chest.

Trolling the patterns on Ravelry, I found a few that were commented about to the effect “this pattern is awful”. Those same people had made changes to the pattern, yet they called it bad? If you stick a cable where lace is supposed to go, did stockinette instead of ribbing, changed the neckline, whatever, it’s not the pattern. It’s your own damn fault. Now if you knit it like you were supposed to, by all means bitch about it so the rest of us will know to make changes or not knit the stupid thing.

Which brings me to another issue. There are some designers that, no matter how much I like the looks of the FO, I have a hard time marking it as a Favorite or adding to the Queue because I don’t like the designer. So as not to mention any particular names, I’ll give you one example. There’s one designer that feels she has the rights to any and all patterns done in a particular manner. If you create a pattern using this technique, she either throws a hissy until you give her credit (inspired by) or badmouths you on her yahoo group. Can you imagine if Barbara Walker were this way? “OMG you used a stitch out of one of my dictionaries, I demand credit/payment or I’m going to tell everyone you’re an ass.” I’ll give you a second, even though I said I’d give you just one. There’s another that comes across as thinking she’s better than everyone else. Love some of her patterns, hate the holier than thou. Which is a shame because she’s got some nice looking things.

And yet there’s another designer that I think is an alright person. I’ve had a problem with a pattern of hers and probably won’t buy another one. She has a popular pattern that everyone will rave about but in secret they’ll tell you that the pattern just doesn’t work right. Stop that people! Just because she’s “popular”, stop letting on like this was a fantastic knit and tell the truth out loud. If you don’t want to tell the truth, just don’t blog/Rav about the FO.

All the sizing whining. If you have a problem with sizes, learn how to make adjustments so things WILL fit you. It’s just math and with a piece of paper, a pen, and a calculator, you can do it. (Unless you’re lazy like me, then you just don’t make the item.) Designers design things they like and generally will fit them. Get off your ass and design your own stuff if you don’t like it.

Now I wonder how long it will be before I have to eat crow. Not on the lawl thing though, you won’t catch me using that one no matter what.