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Knitting Friday

(Note: I'm posting early Saturday though the blog was written early Friday. I'm still waiting for my Mario blanket photo so I'll put that in later today. Edit: Mario has arrived!)

As I wait for Word Perfect to remove the words Not Responding (I worry about WP because it's a far superior word processor to Word; WP gives the word processor platform and allows you to explore and create, Word says: Here, let me show you what you can do on MY word processor.) let me grouse - something I never do.

First, if the Vogue web site offers you the option of checking “Remember Me”after you register for the first time, it should keep that bargain and remember your user name and password. Not expect me to remember all these dinky passwords. Though I have to say, they e-mailed me immediately with my password. Though I also have to say, it’s a password which has no sense to me now. It must of have been arrived at after being shown the red writing of doom phrase: Please choose another password. This one is in use.

Second, it seems that the less complicated the knitting pattern, the more rip-its I have. Here’s the pattern:

CO 50 stitches; US 11 needles
Row 1 and 2: K1, *YO, K2tog* K1
Row 3: K

Can you ask for a simpler pattern? Apparently, I could. I’m even using a row counter but every so often I mess up the row count or drop a stitch in the K2tog. (More on this pattern later.)

Third, it seems that Knitting Pattern Central is listing fewer and fewer patterns these days. Now, when I view the list twice a week I usually don’t find anything I like, and usually there are no shawls. I wonder if Ravelry is cutting into sites such as these?

Fourth, I hope you can get to this site: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/fashion/17etsy.html?_r=1&em

it’s from the NYT and I think you have to register but that’s free and this is worth the read. The title is That Hobby Looks Like a Lot of Work and the first section is about a woman who took her love of knitting into a successful business. But that isn’t the interesting part, this is: She knits 13 hours a day with a young child (I’m assuming the child was very, very young when she started because she has now has to hire other people for the business because she has to care for the child.)

What I can’t figure out is how she got such a big chunk of time to knit. As you know, I’m in the middle of my Mario blanket and I’m lucky if I get a one hour chunk of time. It’s possible she started before the child was born but I hear this all the time on Ravelry where people start and finish projects in record time. I must get myself some of that time.

OK, that’s it for grousing. Word Perfect hasn’t crashed, Vogue sent the password (didn’t like the pattern after all since it was the speciality yarn which made it pop) and I’m ready for pictures.

The first picture is the off-white wool (Lion Brand Fisherman wool) scarf/shawl from the pattern above. This pattern evolved because early this fall I tried on this shawl in its first life as a very long rectangular shawl and said: This doesn’t work. It’s too long. So it went to the frog pond and emerged as a trinity stitch triangular shawl. Trinity stitch is heaven for lazy knitters, like me, who don’t want to wash the yarn before the second project but don’t want a crinkly yarn look either.

Then I looked at the yarn remaining (5.5 ozs) and thought: How about making a rectangular trinity stitch shawl? Well, the only problem turned out to be I have no concept when it comes to the amount of yarn needed for, well, for anything. I always buy too much (perhaps started at the Smiley’s Yarn hotel sales) and therefore, I always have enough.

Not this time. Before I even got close to the length in my diagonal knitting, I realized that no way was this shawl going to have enough yarn for finishing, and I was even using US 15.

So for the scarf/shawl pictured above, I weighed the remaining yarn after 9 inches and discovered I had enough for about 63". The looks is crinkly but it’s also all knit so I think I’m going to get away with it. Whether I ever finish the little bugger is another thing.

And finally, a picture of Mario. I’ve started the face and it looks pretty wide to me but Mario does have a big face. I’m hoping to finish up to and including his red cap this weekend. I have my doubts but I’m at the stage where I’m knitting much faster. One crazy thing though, I’m having to knit each face square in US 7 and US 6 needles. Although it’s the same doubled fingering yarn from Knit Picks as the light blue sky , I can’t see to keep my gauge in this color.

I know I said I would begin the pattern instructions this week but I’m going to wait. This is much too big a project to approach instructions in a piecemeal fashion. But just as I figured this out on my own, so can any experienced knitter (No, I’m not bragging. The experience is not so much in the knitting but in the knitting prep. That takes a chunk of time for each color change.) Plus, an experienced knitter may see a better way to approach this project. This project is a huge learning curve for me. More on Mario next week.

Happy holidays to all who celebrate. Happy times to all who don’t.