One very long edge.

You ever have the dream where you are running so fast your legs blur, but in actuality you are going absolutely no where?  I wish I was asleep; it would be far easier to accept my recent bout of go-no-where-ness.  So where was I when I last blogged with you?  Ah, yes….talking about fences.

I’ve joined the ABC along for this year.  I am hoping it will encourage me to broaden the topics I post about. Knitting is my entire life and the very reason for existing a large part of my life.  I struggle to post when the rest of my life takes over and I have nothing knitty to blog.   My goal is to broaden my blogging horizon so to speak.

Full of excitement (new pictures to be taken of before now untold stories) and anticipation of blogging more frequently (this was a logical assumption given that I was expanding my resources of blogworthy topics), I joined right up.  Then I ran smack into a complete and total blank for A.   I was ready for B.  C is pretty much a done deal too, but A was throwing me for a loop.  I briefly thought about going out of order but some things should not be mess with.   I consider the alphabet one of those things.  So I began panicking over Q, X and Z continued to mull over possible A’s.

Until a discussion with my hubby about a possible DVD purchase.  He pointed out that many of the videos in our house do not feature live people and buying more non-real-people movies might certify us as, well, weird.  My husband and I enjoy a good laugh, especially if it is from a well-told subtle intelligence required joke.  Bonus points for a thin layer of sarcasm.  Pix*ar Animation films never fail to deliver as well as the Ice Age series.  My favorite has been and probably always will be this short film although this one runs a very close second.

We have no children.  I would like to take this opportunity to ask if we really should be concerned?

The words “I am . . .” are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to.  The thing you’re claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you. — A. L. Kitsleman

Countless times I have participated in or eavesdropped on conversations that revolved around the type of knitting one does.  Statements like “I am a sock knitter”,  “I am fair isle knitter” or “I am not a sweater knitter” get bandied about.  If asked I would reply I am a lace knitter. However, I have knit stockinette, garter, ribs, cables, lace, intarsia, and fair isle. I have knit socks, shawls, scarves, sweaters, purses, totes, blankets, dishcloths, hats, and mittens. I can think of  at least one project in every category that I loved and another that I hated. I have knit for myself with mixed results. I have knit for others with mixed feelings of gratitude and grudge. I have knit for the process. I have knit for the finished project.

Are we allowed to stray once a position has been claimed, for example “I am a sock knitter”?  Do you come across a beautiful sweater pattern and tell yourself you cannot knit it because you only knit socks?  If you show up at knit group next week with a shawl after months of heels, gussets, and toes, will you be checked for a fever?  By defining ourselves by the projects we knit or the materials we use, we can become victims of our own fences.  It becomes easy to dismiss the new, the different, the unfamiliar and a convenient excuse to not try.  And by saying emphatically that “I only…” or “I never…” we encourage others to fortify the very boundaries that are hemming us in.  I can recall that one self-proclaimed non-sock knitter was knitting gloves on size US 2 needles.  I didn’t ask, but have often wished I did, was it the absence of turning the heel that made the difference in her project choice? 

If I could only knit for the rest of my life what came after I am, I would choose to be a sweater knitter. Surprised? Were you thinking lace shawls. Surprised me too. Like those quizzes where you are supposed to answer without thought, sweater popped out before I could think lace into it’s place.

However, I can see why that choice fits. There is a lot of potential direction for sweaters. They can be lace, cables, or an infinite choice of textures. Sweaters can use complicated shaping or simple construction. Sweaters can be infant sized or 6′ 2″ husband sized. It is hard to pigeonhole a sweater.   My mother will tell you I have always been anti-pigeonhole much to her dismay during my teenage years.

Defining our knitting provides direction and guidance but shouldn’t be all encompassing of ourselves as knitters. Fences aren’t bad as long as they are built with an unlocked gate. Some way of letting us be on the other side of it every now and then.

I spent all of New Years Day knitting on the mystery shawl.  I had turned the corner.  I had also committed the pattern to memory.  I was speeding along until . . . I began to have the sneaky suspicion that I wasn’t picking up the edge stitches at the proper ratio.  More specifically, I was going to run out of border rows to knit before I ran out of border.  So I ripped back and started again.  Cruising merrily along right into the same problem.

I consulted with a friend to see if there was a way to avoid this.  I’m willing to make the same mistake twice, but not crazy enough to go for three.  She told me I would have to stop knitting, do the math, and mark out the placement of the repeats. 

She was right. It is the first thing I stress to beginning knitters.  Mark your edge so you know you are picking up your stitches evenly.  Use locking stitch markers, safety pins, 1980’s hoop earrings, whatever it takes to divide your edge into easily counted groups of stitches. 

Like most shortcuts, it is always the long way around.

Most of us who knit, do so for the pleasure of knitting.  It relaxes us, it gives our hands something productive to do, it is a wonderful excuse to buy more yarn, etc.  But, when was the last time you heard someone say “I knit so that I can have dozens of ends to weave in”?  Or how about this one - “If only my yarn would come pre-knitted so that I could jump straight to sewing up some seams”? 

Seriously, you think I would learn.  Weave the ends in as I go.  Then I wouldn’t have procrastinated 3 days for an hour before tackling the task of finishing and blocking my Lady E.

I know it has been awhile since I’ve posted but the knitting hasn’t stopped.  Not only is the year almost over, so are a few more projects.

Apparently giving in to my case of start-it-is is what I needed to motivate me to finish a few things on my needles.

My Lady Eleanor is off the needles. The fringe has been cut to length.  A light blocking and tying on the fringe is all that is needed.  Given that the temperature at my office changes by the minute, I cannot wait to take it with me when I return to work.  This might also make it as a 2007 finished object.  But let’s not hold our breath, shall we?

And the mystery shawl is in the home stretch.  All the sections have been knit and one border completed.  Three more borders to go and it too will be ready for it’s new home.  More importantly this project has once again become portable knitting.  Except for the corner chart, the border is very easy to memorize.   Far easier than say the 162 row charted ends that kept me from knitting this while on the go.

Since I’ve completed the first border, I can now see its true length.  Unblocked, yes, but a good indication that this is going to be far bigger than the pattern’s intended dimensions.  Not a bad thing in my opinion but it does have me concerned that the yarn may run out before the pattern instructions do.  I’m going to think positive though.  And if you want to think positive too, I won’t turn down the help.

Once a single distracting knit throws itself onto your needles, the second and third project are more easily justified.  My world, my illusions.  Don’t take them from me.

Let me introduce Donni’s KISS.  I need to knit a sample for my business.  Of course, I need to knit it NOW.  Do not remind me that I have other more pressing obligations.   Really, I like my illusions.  I am using Casacade’s “Cloud 9″ in a 50/50 alpaca and wool blend.  Donni used a yarn that had 80/20 alpaca and wool.  Even though the yardage to weight per skein is the same, I am amazed at how the increased wool content adds more density to the knit.  It is still incredibly soft but has less drape than her version.

Then there is my new sweater.  I’m calling it my Island sweater for now because it was invented on Bois Blanc Island during a knitting retreat.   Knitted on size US 10.5 needles, it is a super quick knit.  See? It is a QUICK knit.  It’ll be off my needles before you can say “Don’t you have something else you should be focusing your knitting powers on?”  I am in complete and total denial that I have never knit a sweater quickly.  My illusions are grand things, I tell you.  I plan on knitting it with a yoke and funnel neck.  The welts at the bottom will be repeated at the top of the sweater as well. 

And may I say, I am in absolute heaven using this yarn - Brooksfarm 80/20 alpaca and wool.  I cannot find it listed on their website, so I wonder if it was only made available for the Stitches Midwest event.  Because it is hand dyed, I followed the precaution of alternately knitting with two skeins.  Inspite of that, I still have a spiral of color happening.  I like the look it creates though - like a chocolate and raspberry swirl.

I am also certain that the shawl has not noticed all the knitting going on.  Absolutely positive.  I had to rip back 3 rows, but I am sure that has no correlation to my knitting infidelity.  Sometimes my illusions are all I have.