30 Days of Knitting (part trois)

11: Do you have a “Knitter Hero” or someone that is just way too awesome for their own good? Do share!

Yes! There are some amazing knitters around online but the most consistently entertaining is Yarn Harlot. She posts regularly about her escapades on her book tours or simply what she’s knitting and I love seeing how prolific she is. It’s impressive and she inspires me to be better. I know a lot of awesome knitters in real life too. I have yet to meet a knitter I don’t find awesome, in fact!

12: Where do you keep your stash? Post pictures!

BWUAHAHAHA. AHAHAHAH. Haaaahahah. No.

I have a dwindling stash seeing as I’m using it all up for Christmas but let’s just say it’s not at all organised. Case in point: I have my hot pink malabrigo for my sister’s bedsocks stuffed inside a padded envelope that once held the yarn my friend sent me. I have a purple skein of wool/acrylic blend sat loose in my bag. I have a canvas shopping bag full of random skeins at home, plus numerous more littered about the place. Let’s just say I have trouble finding my yarn in a timely fashion and be done with it.

When I am properly settled in Canada, I already know how I want to store my yarn.

Click image for source.

Something like that, only well… probably less organised. Though that said my bookcase is the only thing in my room with any sense of order to it, at least before I started giving away all my books to unwitting friends. The most important aspect of my yarn storage is that it has glass doors: first for display purposes (yarn is pretty!) and second because, well, I don’t expect our flat shall be devoid of sharp-clawed curious furry animals.

13: Do you have yarn that you love but can’t find a project for?

Sort of. I have the yarn I made my first sock from (see previous post) that stubbornly refuses to be anything, but that’s possibly because I don’t like the yarn very much. So that doesn’t qualify. Generally I find use for the yarns I love. The only exception was a skein of Malabrigo silky merino blend in the archangel colourway which was fantastically beautiful but because of the small quantity I owned, I wasted it entirely on a small bag I’ve never looked at again.

I want more of it. That said, I still have no idea what I’d do with it if I had it.

14: What’s the worst yarn/fiber that you’ve worked with and why?

The first yarn I ever purchased was in a small knitting kit from a charity shop in Poole. It was terrible. Thin, brittle, rough on the hands. 100% acrylic which usually I’m okay with even if I prefer something a little more exciting. I have never used it. Even back then I turned my nose up at it and bought some softer, more interesting acrylic.

15: What was your least favorite pattern and why?

I’m not sure. I don’t work for long on patterns I don’t enjoy. In generalised terms though I like to knit things that are intuitive and rhythmic rather than complicated and mathy. I don’t like to have to count all the time when I’m knitting and the less I have to concentrate the better. That’s not to say I don’t love figuring out complicated patterns; it’s just that I’d like to be able to get into the swing of even those sorts of projects after a few repeats rather than spending the entire time struggling and grimacing. I’ve got to think of those wrinkles, you know. I’m already the grand old age of 24!*

I’m really enjoying rambling about my knitting habits. Hopefully it’s interesting to someone else out there too! Stay tuned, kids: more to come tomorrow.

* Disclaimer: I don’t give a damn about wrinkles. 😉

30 Days of Knitting (part deux)

6: What is your favorite piece that you’ve knit?

That’s a toss up between two. There’s the fingerless mitts I finished in November which are made from such a beautiful yarn it makes me ache to touch it; I’m especially proud of these since my Dad, a stoic man, said they look ‘professionally made’. To get a compliment from my father is praise indeed. They’re warm and snug and the yarn was a gift from a very dear friend of mine so they’re special to me, flaws and all.

The yarn is much greener than it appears here.

However, there’s another project I’ve used quite a lot since I crocheted it a long while ago… and I’ve just realised it’s crochet, not knit, so it has no place here. Shock horror! In that case, the mitts above are what does it for me. Aren’t they lovely? I don’t have a good picture of both of them together, but trust me, they look good.

7: Your least favorite?

Oh, there’s lots. I don’t tend to get very far in things I’m not pleased with though which is why I haven’t finished as many projects as I perhaps should have after knitting for over a year. I didn’t really start knitting until recently which means most of my projects have been abandoned as soon as my less-than-beginner head realised it wasn’t going to work for whatever reason.

There is my first sock though. It’s not that I don’t like the sock or that I’m not proud of it; I do, and I am. I just cannot stand the yarn. It’s splitty and uncomfortable to use and I don’t like the wide stripes or the colour transitions. It’s not the yarn for me so I never made the second sock.

It did eventually gain a toe.

8: What’s your most challenging project?

Every project I do is challenging to me, generally. I like to try new things and work out new skills. Socks are difficult in the best way and I love knitting them. Cables I find very difficult because I’m rubbish at keeping track of where I am in a pattern and tend to get it very wrong. You should see my sister’s bedsocks; the cables on it are appalling in places but they look good overall and she won’t mind. I’ve only just got the hang of the cables and I’ve nearly finished the cuff.

Of course, this just makes me want to knit more cables.

9: What fiber or yarn do you love working with?

MALABRIGO. OH MALABRIGO, I CANNOT QUIT YOU. My first couple of skeins came from my girlfriend in a lovely parcel of yarny goodness and I fell in love immediately. With the yarn, that is, not the girlfriend – that came much earlier. 😉 No, I love the squishy butteryness of Malabrigo; the way it feels to knit and the way it feels to use in a finished project. My sister is lucky indeed to be getting malabrigo worsted socks for Christmas but it’s a treat for me too to get to use such delicious yarn.

Even if it is hot pink. Shudder.

I have a lot of love for a lot of different yarns on top of Malabrigo though. The texture of a yarn is important to me in whether I enjoy a project or not. I was pleasantly surprised with King Kole Zig Zag yarn but not so impressed with Tosh sock, which shows it’s not the price that woos me. I do adore the colour of the Tosh sock though which makes up for it.

10: Do you have a favorite pattern or designer?

No. I get most of my patterns from Ravelry just from browsing around. I’m cool with paying a couple of quid if it’s something I really want to make, especially since I know it goes straight to the person who designed it and not some big heartless company. There’s something soothing about that, isn’t there?

In general I like patterns that are both easy to read and interesting. I don’t like counting lots and lots, so intuitive patterns I can memorise and mesmerise myself with are ideal.

Vintage Knitting, Craft Books and Cats

They had great covers, too.

I love old knitting books.

Unfortunately I can’t remember where I got this link but wherever it was, I’m endlessly grateful. I’ve said before that one of the reasons I find knitting so fascinating is its long and illustrious history. The most well-documented of this being, of course, the 1800s. With easy means to mass-produce books and other resources they spun out many patterns that are still accessible today. The above link gives you a great insight into the kind of things people would be knitting at the time.

This wonderful online resource for vintage books doesn’t just cover knitting. There’s all sorts of arts and crafts related books but of course I gravitate towards a certain sector! The image to your right shows the cover of a book/pamphlet that cost one shilling and is written ‘by a Lady’. It’s how to knit in a floral style and it’s simply charming. I would love to hold the physical book, flick through its pages and absorb it that way but since that’s not likely to happen any time soon, this is the next best thing. And there’s a lot of variety there which can suck away hours of your life as you read through all the old patterns and advice given to so many women through the years.

There’s also a book on there entitled ‘Ladies’ Work for Sailors’ which is a pamphlet explaining all manner of useful projects for those not able to shunt their work onto their wives. The fact that it’s called Ladies’ work is intriguing considering sailors must have been doing these kinds of things since time began, or else walking in holey socks throughout their seafaring days. The history of gender and knitting is something I’m planning on researching at some point since it’s a fascinating subject.

In more personal news, I’ve recently received a skein of Tosh sock in the colourway ‘Fjord’. It’s to knit a pair of Christmas socks for my girlfriend and to be honest, I haven’t had the best start. The skein was horribly tangled and it took me many, many hours to wind it into a ball which simultaneously wound me right up! Still, it’s done now and all I have to do is find a pattern for it.

Not the best match for colours, but you get the idea.

I’m actually tempted to make an ordinary plain sock without a pattern. I don’t think I’d need one now.

And yes, I’m still ignoring the sock with the messed-up toe. I’ll get to it!

In non-knitting news I spent a week cat sitting for Jane while she and Sophie were in France and I kind of… didn’t leave. At the moment my house is devoid of cats due to Dad moving to Southampton and when Jane and Sophie said I could stay here, I jumped at the chance. Mostly because Jane is such a lovely person anyway. She’s making her beautiful glass beads right now while I write this post and we’re listening to a bit of Joni Mitchell. What more could I want?

Oh that’s right. Absolutely gorgeous cats. She has two, Lou and Ruby, and they are lovely.

Lou...

…is a slightly shy, standoffish girl with gorgeous markings and lovely soft fur. She took a while to get used to me I think but one morning I woke up and she was sleeping beside me. She wouldn’t let me get up for ages, demanding attention with rather fierce headbutts to the face and now she seems to have accepted my presence.

Ruby...

…is a much more social kitty who took about fifteen microseconds to start attacking me for attention when I showed up. She’s sweet and likes to hit me over the head with her tail until I stroke her. She’s lucky she’s cute! But seriously, this cat is absolutely adorable and I want to pack both of them up and bring them with me when I eventually leave.

Now to work out how to stop these two little fiends attacking my knitting…