On day 2 of being sick I was already so completely and utterly bored that I grabbed one of Barbara Walker’s stitch treasuries, picked a stitch pattern with a large repeat, grabbed some cotton and knitting needles that looked like they would probably work, and made this washcloth.

The problem with the project was that it woke up the giant knitting obsession, but more on that later…

Meanwhile another huge sense of accomplishment was achieved by installing hooks behind the door in the studio to hang my no-longer-pile of bags.

Little victories.

I reaaaaally want to make something, but all my stuff – beads, yarn, fabric – is in boxes. And that would entail unpacking, which would require moving furniture into place, which is heavy and frustrating and feels like that game where you move the little squares around to make a picture. Pfft. Forget that. I’ll just weave through the piles to get to my computer and read happy crafty blogs all day.

Today’s find was the nerd and the needles, and yummy pictures of traditional Norwegian mittens.

I want to knit those little people soooo bad. Might have to go unpack a box…

This mask was my first assignment when I took a class with Katharine Cobey.

Many of my guests are freaked out by it. I like it.

Packing requires touching everything, visiting a little.
CON: it slows me down. PRO: it entertains me.

There’s really no other word to describe this hunk of manliness:

His head gear is reminiscent of the delicious balaclava helmet, yet so much more modern, and he wears it with a casual, rugged insouciance that makes it hard to look away.

Note that the garment’s small size, combined with the use of a chunky yarn and garter stitch, make it the ideal project for a novice knitter.

I found him on Flickr where Flint Knits has posted gems from her large collection of vintage patterns. Check out selections from the 1940s-50s, 1960s, and the 1980s – a decade all too fresh in my mind.

Ugh. I’ve had to frog my sweater all the way back to the shoulder. I was feeling good, knitting along, when this post over at Brooklyn Tweed made me stop and actually look at my knitting. I had this itchy feeling that maybe my gauge wasn’t working right, and I was gaining too many stitches on the sleeves. Investigation confirmed my fearful suspicions.

Here are the pics of my happy oblivious progress pre-unravelling:

And here’s the proof that I was well on my way to having a floral Star Trek outfit:

Ready to do the damage, I reread the section I’m following in Knitting From the Top – only to discover that in my, shall we say, enthusiasm, I had been increasing every single row, instead of alternate rows. The end result of which would be power shoulders worthy of Dynasty.

I am humbled, and back to this:

I had to take some handwork with me on our recent trip, so the weekend before leaving we rode the bus down to Red Hook to investigate Brooklyn General. Love at first sight! The store is delightful and old-fashioned and I wanted everything. Every. Thing.

Poor M followed me around patiently while I filled his arms with yarn, then asked him to return it to the shelves while I simultaneously shoved more, different yarn in his direction. It was the usual choosing anxiety attack since what I’d pictured in my head doesn’t exist and I had to reevaluate the whole sweater spur-of-the-buying-trip. On the ride home my mood swung wildly between delight and buyer’s remorse. Exhausting.

I had planned to make myself a sweater using the green and red colors and flower pattern of my fingerless mittens but there were no equivalent yarns in a larger gauge. Assisted and emotionally-supported by M and the enthusiastic shopkeeper, I chose a deep cerise Noro on a background of dark gray Morehouse Merino. (As I write this I am still swinging between delight and anxiety at the thought. Jeez.)

I decided to knit from the top down, following Barbara Walker’s Knitting from the Top. Turns out that while it really does allow you to check your fit as you go, this is not a technique devised with 2-color patterning in mind. Witness the chaos:

But I am nothing if not stubborn; this was taken the night before we flew home:

M refers to it as “your little shrug”.

The dire threats of weather men are manifesting as heavy rain and gray skies instead of the threatened snow.

A day for indoor pursuits: cats, tea, making a necklace, and gloating over yesterday’s good mail:

A crow patch from bird&b at etsy.
And all the way from Australia…

…a bracelet by Helle at gooseflesh, which I immediately put on and wore out to an art opening. It kept me smiling in the middle of a roomful of networking arteeests.

Subway Knitter is a blog devoted to knitting in public. Mystery Knitter of the Week is my favorite part; a feature in which she shows covert photos of strangers knitting on the subway, in airports, and even walking down the street.

Highly entertaining, although in future I may be torn between focusing on my commuting project and scanning for sneaky photographers.

It may be November before I have a picture of my newly completed beret on my head. In the meantime I can tell you that it’s cute and comfy, and give you a picture of sunlight shining through the knitting, exposing the incidental nifty little flower at the center.

Sunday night and I’m still tired. A month into adjusting to a new schedule, new outside work, and increased commuting, I figure it’ll take another month or two to recover my stride.

I’m spending daily chunks on public transportation. A week ago I watched the man in front of me on the bus crochet a hat at high velocity as we bumped along. Just when I was wondering if he was following a pattern, he carefully took off the wonderful hat he was wearing (and had obviously made) and placed the little hat-to-be, yarmulke-style, on his head, checking that the shaping was correct. By the time I got off he had it down to his ears.

Inspired by this sighting as well as by Jude over at Spirit Cloth who quilts while commuting, and having run out of reading material, I have started knitting while traveling. I thought I’d feel self-conscious but I’m far too absorbed for that. And when standing on the subway, I’m far too busy keeping my balance. (I’ve found that bracing against the door frame and keeping my knees bent works well.)

It’s amazing how much I can get done in these in-between times. I finished a beret in a few days, a bigger version of the Purl Bee pattern, which is being blocked as I write, stretched over a dinner plate.