The Love Affair With Linen Stitch

Linen stitch is simple, interesting, and versatile. It’s fun to do, especially in the round. It’s also more interesting than stockinette stitch yet takes about the same amount of attention once you get into the habit.

And boy, am I in the habit.

You might guess that linen stitch is my favourite of all the knitted stitches and you would be right. Every time I make something in linen stitch I get super excited about it and gaze lovingly at whatever project is on the needles.

The things I love about it:

1. It is really easy to do.
2. It doesn’t stretch too much.
3. Even at a loose gauge it’s dense-looking.
4. Clown-barf colours work together in it.

A few weeks ago Martina at LGH put up a couple of skeins of new yarn together like a funky necklace around a mannequin and I spent far too much time staring at it when I was at the knitting group each Thursday. Last week she was running an Easter promo where you get an egg with a random percentage off and I got a 20% egg, so I grabbed the two skeins.

It turns out it’s Fiora by Berroco, which I described as ‘almost cottony’ – which would make sense as it’s 40% cotton, duh. It also contains alpaca, wool, and synthetic elements. It’s an eccentric blend but it knits up wonderfully.

Martina has an excellent eye for colour so the two I picked work well together, even if it doesn’t seem like they would when you see them separately. These are the colourways:

 

The mustardy-gold is called Ray, the dusky purple is called Elberta. Can I take a moment to enjoy the names of these colours in Fiora? There’s also a Tybee, a Marietta, and a Bristol. I like these names. They are amusing names.

Back to linen stitch. When I saw these colours together my mind instantly went to linen stitch (as it often does) and soon enough I found myself casting on a random amount of stitches and working a linen stitch cowl in the two colours. I thought every other row would look a little busy, yet I knew I wanted them blended together. This is what I’ve ended up with so far.

Taken with my Blackberry – please excuse the dullness of the purple. It’s much richer in real life.

This picture was taken on the train as I was on my way to a Pet Expo in Mississauga and I found I couldn’t stop knitting it. Even when we were queuing up to get in I still kept knitting. Once we were inside I had to put it away, but only because otherwise I couldn’t cuddle all the adorable dogs wandering around.

Related: I want a Yorkshire Terrier so bad I could cry. I would settle for a Great Dane.

The cowl is growing fast and will be excellent work knitting next week. Linen stitch in the round is so easy – I don’t even need to pay attention to where the start of the round is, though I’ve marked it for when it’s time to cast off. I’m only paying attention to which colour to use in each round in the most basic of ways; I have no concrete plan, I’m just going to see what happens.

With linen stitch that’s possible to do and still end up with something gorgeous. Is it any wonder I love it so much?

 

 

I need to stop buying needles.

Lately I’ve been turning up at my knit night with my yarn in hand and no needles with which to cast on. Don’t ask me how I manage it buy I’m always either right at the end of a project or on a really fiddly bit when I get there, which means I’m forced to start another project (I know, my life is hard). Of course I am a complete sock addict so that’s usually what I pick up.

Two weeks ago I bought some 2mm needles. Usually I knit on a larger gauge – 2.5 or above – purely because I have the tendency to break anything smaller. What? I knit tightly, okay?

Of course I broke one of the needles about five minutes in but that’s okay, I had one spare. I’m nearing the toe on that project and have yet to destroy any more needles. They’re wooden ones because despite the advantages of being less easy to snap, I cannot stand metal or carbon for long.

Last week I went back to Martina’s and still could not knit without buying some needles. Not wanting to repeat the same situation as before, I decided to try out the Hiya Hiya 9″ circulars specifically made for socks. They have tiny needles which means you have to crunch up your fingers near the end but when you’re as tense a person/knitter as me, that’s not a problem. I was surprised how easy it was to adjust to them.

One of the biggest benefits of knitting with a 9″ circular is the lack of ladders where your DPNs meet. Now, I don’t know if I’ll ever completely abandon my DPNs, but I do not hate these circulars.

When I got to the heel my mind unravelled as I attempted to figure out how to knit the heel. Turns out I should have just used Youtube, but I never make things that easy for myself. I struggled and fiddled and cursed and somehow managed to turn a successful heel yesterday.

In future I’ll stick to googling videos like this one before I get tempted to throw my project out of a window.

Have you tried these needles before? What did you think?

It’s a boy!

My little sister already has one gorgeous little boy who is the most hilarious, beautiful little nephew I could hope for. Except now my sister is pregnant again so I get another nephew!

I’m so excited. My little sister (Megan) is a fabulous mother and it’s great to see her growing her little brood. My other sister has a lovely daughter so she gets a new cousin too.

The only thing is that I’m on a different continent. I will not be able to meet my new nephew for quite some time. I’m trying not to think about that too much.

Of course for any knitter this is time to start creating cute little items for the upcoming sweetheart. I have already knit a cardigan (pictures upcoming) but it is not for my nephew; it was for my co-worker’s granddaughter. I started knitting some booties for my nephew but I can’t find a pattern I like this time and I don’t know why.

Maybe I’m just not in the mood to knit booties.

I did eye my current socks and wonder whether to frog my process to knit something adorable for him but managed to put it on time-out until I curtailed that instinct. I mean, really. This is the perfect yarn for this pattern, I can’t rip the sock back. For a moment it was tempting.

I managed to keep going with the sock. I’ll work on the booties more when I find some adorable yarn.

A Triumphant Return!

At the end of the week I concluded my desperate struggle against lack of cares and finished a project. Yes, a sock came off the needles and – get this, people – I even kitchenered the toe and sewed in the ends. OOH YEAH! Look at this knitter go!

Wearing my Big Four socks today! They took me forever thanks to a knitsperation slump but I love them. pic.twitter.com/7MywPDlc8o

— Polo Lonergan (@alpacabutt) February 27, 2015

Yep, welcome to the world of crappy badly-lit camera photos taken in the joy of the moment. What the photo lacks in elegance it makes up for in enthusiasm.

These socks were a pleasure to knit. The pattern is Big Four, based on Poirot. Yes, the design was by a friend of mine (Maureen) but that doesn’t mean I’m completely biased. The design was intuitive past the first repeat and I barely looked back at the pattern despite how complicated they look. They are deceptively simple and when you’re not in a lover’s tiff with knitting, they go fast.

I knitted the first of these two socks in less than a week. The second took over a month. That’s the difference in my motivational skills right now.

Still, spring is coming and I have some pretty socks to wear into the breach. Things don’t completely suck.

In a Slump: Please Inspire Me?

Knitting is hard.

At least, it’s hard right now. I made the mistake of doing some twisted stitches and awkward tight knitting yesterday and now my old RSI is acting up in my right hand. I’ll be taking it easy today, but that’s not new either.

The last few days – about a week or so – I’ve been suffering from knitting lethargy. Considering how many pairs of socks and such I’ve made in the last couple of months it’s not too surprising but it’s still annoying. I want to knit more. I want to knit ALL THE THINGS.

Alas, I can barely manage a few rows of the gorgeous socks I’m knitting right now, let alone the hat I started to stave off the lethargy.

All it means is that I’ll be reading a book where I would normally be knitting and that’s okay for a while. It seems like all knitters go through stages like this and I’ve certainly experienced it before. I’m just hoping it doesn’t last too long.

So help me! If you’re knitting something lovely right now please link it below so I can go coo over it and hopefully get some knitting mojo back.

Look, I Know I Knit a lot of Socks, Okay?

If I look back at the last few months I would say it’s been a time of epic sock production. Since November I’ve been knitting pair after pair and even better I’ve been wearing the results.

Last week I finished the rainbow socks which I am wearing as I write this.

Before that I knitted these socks, and started wearing some socks that mean a lot to me that have been languishing in a drawer for a while.

These socks I finished at least a month ago, maybe longer. I don’t know why I haven’t mentioned them here before. I finished them a while ago and I’ve been wearing them a lot since then. they’re comfortable and warm and long, all very good traits in socks.

I can’t remember what yarn this is. I don’t know when I started them. This is either a sign that I’ve hit my head recently (I haven’t this time), or a clue that I am knitting too many socks.

But is there even such a thing?

Forgotten Projects Part Two

Yesterday I had a day off work for an appointment with a new doctor. I was pretty stressed out afterwards so I put on an episode of American Horror Story and sat down to sort out my yarn, a task I’ve been meaning to do for a while.

We’ve finally resigned ourselves to staying in the current apartment for a while. Don’t get me wrong; we like it. It’s a nice space and it’s in a good location. They don’t mind that we have so many animals. All in all it’s great but the rent is high and it makes it difficult to save for our own place.

This resignation has lead us to cleaning up the spare room which until now has been mostly for storage. We’re going to get a desk in there and a recliner to make it a cosy space for relaxing and writing.

Part of clearing it up involved sorting my yarn and like before, I found projects I had forgotten.

This is my worsted-weight snuggly shawl I started… I don’t even know when. A while before leaving the UK so probably about a year ago. It is a simple knit from the Acadian Shawl pattern on Ravelry, very satisfying to do yet easy to remember and do without thinking about it constantly. A great TV-knit.

This photo was taken a long time before I left the UK. I know that because my shawl is about three rows from being finished. Yeah, that’s right – I abandoned it just before finishing it.

D’oh.

I’m going to figure out where in the diamond pattern I reached and then it should be finished and bound off within half an hour.

Forgetting projects like this is a fun way to distract myself from the fact I have lost all motivation for all of my current projects, but please tell me I’m not the only one who does this!

Forgotten Projects

Spring is coming.

At least that’s what my girlfriend keeps saying. I think she might be ahead of herself, willing the weather into some semblance of warmth when in fact the ground outside is blanketed with white. It snowed a few days ago, recent enough that the dog walks are pleasant and not too slippery.

When she was tidying the spare room I began organising my yarn stash. Some of it I had to let go but I’m still left with plenty. There was, deep in that stash, a bag I’d forgotten.

It must have come from England with me but moving to Canada is a blur now. It feels as though I’ve always been here. Looking back, this is the bag I shoved in my suitcase because it was full of half-finished projects and I didn’t want to send that through the mail.

Inside that bag I found this.

This is a half-finished shawlette made from some Handmaiden Sea Silk. I bought this two years ago at Martina’s and it has been languishing ever since. I’ve tried to knit a few things with it but nothing has worked yet.

The colours are sublime but that’s nothing compared to the texture. It’s smooth and cool and light. It’s squishable but slinky. I love it.

Yet… I don’t think this project is right for it. I think I might be ripping it back to try something new once more. Thankfully it seems to be holding up quite well to the abuse, though I won’t rip it back until I find something that it wants to be.

Sometimes yarns don’t listen to you when you tell it what project it should be. I get this a lot, actually. Sometimes I’ll buy a yarn with a project in mind and the yarn will flat out refuse to cooperate. It’s fortunate I don’t have a problem with frogging projects (I’m a process knitter) because otherwise I would be in a constant stream of tears.

This sea silk needs to be something beautiful but more importantly it needs to be something I can use a lot and admire. I’m not the sort of person to put things away to gaze at with distant adoration. I knit to use my knitted goods.

If only I could figure out what this sea silk wants to be.

A Little Bit of Inspiration: Knitting Behind Bars

Whilst ambling aimlessly around the interwebs as I am prone to doing on my days off, this little beauty found its way to me. It’s the story of a woman who found new purpose in inspiring convicts with knitting.

The men were reluctant at first, complaining that knitting was too girly or too difficult. But Zwerling assured them men had invented the craft, then gave them a five-minute knitting lesson she swears can teach anyone. Suddenly, Zwerling says, the men “found the zen,” and got hooked. Now, every Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m., they come to class, leaving their crimes and the hierarchies of prison life behind.

Now it’s no surprise to anyone who reads this that knitting could be used as a form of relaxation, community, and even meditation. We all know it, that’s why we’re here at all. Still it’s amazing to see how a woman took that idea and ran with it, using sticks and string and patience.

Also I’d like to see this five minute lesson. I’ve tried teaching people to knit before and let’s just say the only times it takes less than five minutes is when they give up and throw the yarn across the room.

Credit goes to the article. Click the pic.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of people teaching knitting in unusual places but every time I hear about it I’m pleased. I know that knitting has done me the world of good and the thought of it helping people who might otherwise not be reached is excellent. It’s just knitting. It’s not a miracle but if it brings peace to people for even a few minutes then surely it’s worth it.

The prison’s assistant warden, Margaret Chippendale, believes the men involved with KBB get into trouble less often. “It’s very positive because you can see when you go into the room, the dynamics of their conversation; very calm, very soothing,” Chippendale says. “It radiates even when they leave the room and go out into the institution.”

Looks like the benefits are already being felt.

Thoughts on Sock Sizing

I have a problem.

No, that problem isn’t my raging addiction to knitting socks that’s been taking hold lately, though that’s certainly part of it. No, the problem is that I always knit exactly the same default socks. I cast on 60 stitches on whichever sock-relevant DPNs I have near (usually my 2.75mm cubics) and have at it.

This is not working for me.

You see, I have always had tiny ankles. My stepdad used to say they looked like matchsticks with the wood shaved off. Even when I was quite a bit larger on the rest of my body, my ankles were spindly little pins beneath it all. Skinny jeans look ridiculous on me, baggy around the bottom. I often wonder how they keep me upright without snapping.

And it turns out 60 stitches is just too much. I am sad about this because I don’t have to think about it; the sock just comes off the needles and I love the results. I’ve knit three pairs for myself in the past month, however, and not one of them fits right around the ankles.

I could continue as I am, letting the baggy ankles be a thing. Or I could suck it up and cut it back a few stitches so that they actually stay up on my leg. Of course it’s always good to allow for shrinkage considering my tendency to throw them in the wash without looking, but I need to find a good balance.

This might be the last time for a while that I make a vanilla sock; I’ve got Maureen Fould’s Poirot sock designs to play with once I get some new solid or heathered sock yarn. But I hope that when I get back to the plain sock kick (pun intended) I remember to cut back on the stitches.