Tag! I'm it!

Helena tagged me with a meme. I find this amusing considering that she is the co-author of this blog. But, I think that may have been the point... anyways, due to that, I am only going to share a few of my knitting quirks. She can make up the difference.

1. I rarely knit for myself. I see things that I want, but can't seem to justify the time or expense. Add that to the fact that anything I knit for myself has to be perfect. If I know there is a flaw, I won't be able to deal with it and I won' t wear or use whatever I knit. And that is a waste.

2. I don't like wearing hand knit socks. Sacrilege, I know, but I do have cause and a possible solution or two. The purl side of the interior of the instep hurts. I don't have particularly sensitive feet, but every time I try to wear my hand knit socks (I admit, I only have one pair) I last about 2 minutes before they come off. They are lovely and warm, so I usually wear thin half socks underneath to protect the bottom of my foot. Solutions? 1) Knit socks at a larger gauge. I think the stiffness might be part of the problem. 2) Knit the bottom in reverse stockinette. Vee's are probably less irritating than the purl bumps.

3. I am very well versed in many different knitting techniques. I know six cast ons, seven bind offs, multiple increases and decreases and lots of crazy construction shortcuts. The odd part of this is that some of these I have never executed and that doesn't particularly bother me. It's only knitting. And I know how to knit.

4. Crochet scares me. I've seen it done. I've seen the results. I've even tried it myself. I just cannot wrap my brain around it. But that's okay. I can live my life without being a hooker.

5. I desperately want to knit a lace shawl. The only thing stopping me is that I have no use for a lace shawl. I can't leave it lying around looking pretty (kitties), it doesn't go with my wardrobe (simple, sophisticated aesthetic, or , you know, jeans) and the yarn is too damn thin (if I want to play with thread, I'll get out my sewing machine.) So, what to do? I may wait until I'm pregnant and knit something to wrap baby in. Babies like lace, right?

6. I have not knit a hat for my husband. I also refuse to discuss this.

Okay- that's it from me. As for the tagging, if you just read this, you're it!

Basic rules are: a quirky number of quirk-isms about your quirky self. Leave us a comment so we can come over and check out all our stalkers. And have fun with it!

Adventures in Whimsy

I knit this for a co-worker. He likes to dress up for his yearbook photo. I can safely say this is one of the coolest and defiantly the quirkiest thing I have ever knit. In order to get a good picture, I took advantage of Mother's Day and had my family model for me.

First up, Older Sister:

(She's wearing the Knucks I knit for her.)

Next we have my younger sister:

She wasn't happy when I told her she was going to be on the Internets. Hi Autumn!

Rounding out the siblings, my brother-in-law:

I think he wants one, too.

Next we have Mom:

Mom insisted on wearing a housecoat for her photo shoot. Doesn't she look fancy?

And my favorite model of the day, Dad:

Cool and collected as always in this wonderful tribute to his three daughters. (We used to style his hair when we were little. The wig seems less invasive and achieves a better look.)

Pattern: Desperate Housefrau from Knitty

Mr. Felker: I hope you like it.

February Baby Sweater, The Conclusion

The February Baby Sweater from Knitter's Almanac

Like every other EZ pattern, this one is fantastic. As I am wont to do, I made some alterations. EZ would approve, I think. Seams were completely eliminated with the following modifications:

On RS row, knit in pattern across first 25 sts (right front) + 28 (sleeve) =54 sts. Put last 28 (sleeve) sts on hold. Continue in patt for next 70 sts [42(back) + 28(sleeve)], placing last 28 on hold for other sleeve, finish row as established (25 sts-left front) . Next row: using backward loop cast, cast on 14 sts over each sleeve gap. Continue on with body.

Sleeves- Starting at midpoint of underarm seam, pick up 7 sts, then put held stitches on needles, and pick up 7 more stitches at underarm. Knit one round, then continue in lace pattern. For the Gull Lace pattern in the round, knit the purl rounds.

This eliminates all seams! Now go run and knit one out of the sock yarn that you will never make into socks. I'm off on button-adventures.

February Baby Sweater, Part 3

It has been completed. It was finished Sunday night. That means that I did finish it over the weekend. Pictures tomorrow when I have better light.

Hatless in San Diego

My wife has been knitting for over 4 years and I still do not have a knit hat. This strikes me as an absurd contradiction. The two most basic knitted items have to be scarves and hats (I am assuming, I don't knit), and I haven't been knitted either. I have been given a pair of socks that don't quite fit and a sweater that chokes me when I sit down (a story for another post), both of which were prototypes for other projects for other people (most of which I don't know).

To be fair, I have also been given knit cozies for all the miscellaneous electronic flotsam floating around my work bag (Andrea calls it my purse) and a great pair of knit gloves for Christmas (or The Holidays, Solstice, Kwanza or whatever floats your boat). But that is not the point.

The point is, Andrea has knitted more hats for more babies than I thought possible. I think she is now directly competing with China's knit baby hat import industry (and she is probably working for a lower hourly wage, maybe they will start outsourcing work to her).

But the number of knit hats (or scarves) she has knitted for her husband remains steady at zero.

What is up with this? I am a contributing member of society who pays his taxes and, in the words of the great George W. Bush, "puts food on my family". Babies, on the other hand, don't contribute anything but drool and poo, and they get all the knit hats they want. Can you believe this is happening in America?

I am writing this in the hope that the knitting masses who read this will rise up in their righteous fury and force my wife to knit me a hat.

Or maybe not.






It has now been 1521 days since Andrea started knitting and her Husband still does not have a hat.

February Baby Sweater, Part 2

The first sleeve is about 1/3 done.



It should be done this weekend. I may even use the left overs to knit some booties...