small change

cutting the string

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to knit myself a scarf, for a change. I chose a lace pattern, something I have never done before, and faithfully followed it. The yarn I picked for it was soft and a beautiful color – well, beautiful to me, as such things are subjective. Last night, the end loomed near. That is, the unblocked scarf was almost as long as I am tall.

After I bound it off, finished the loose ends, I came across one incredibly loose stitch. I tugged on it some, making it looser, so I would have plenty of yarn for what I was the solution to the problem of the glaring imperfection in this work. I cut the yarn and tied it and tucked in the ends. Then, I pulled on the scarf, and there went a bunch of rows, making a void of what was just a slightly larger whole in the pattern.

Maybe I was too attached to the outcome, and so the lesson is plain here, as is the whole, with which I do not know what to do. Darn it – I mean, that is what I need to do. Right?

For the moment, though, I decided to begin from the beginning. Different needles, different yarn, wilder color, but the same old pattern. Hoping that I won't have the same old problem at the end.

In spite of the unraveling, it is obvious I have not cut the string.

holding pattern

Well, the younger son made it back from Boston to San Francisco, after some 16 hours of travel time, which included lots of waiting at airports and refueling the plane en route on account of those headwinds. The older son's plane is somewhere near Colorado (probably) as I write this.

Meanwhile, I have been whiling away the time with more knitting. I seem to have gotten hooked on this pattern, which knits up very fast and can help reduce the piles of leftover yarn beautifully -- that is, if one's knitting is beautiful, to start with. I have knitted up five hats in a week or so, and haven't been very happy with the results, until the very last one (the yellow base with stripes). Turns out that I am a neat freak of sorts, and I wasn't satisfied with my handiwork until I got the decrease tidy -- which I did by modifying the pattern.

Still, even as I finish more project that I start with great relish and fantasies of how they will fit perfectly the person for whom I knitting it, I find myself in great doubt at the end of the project, wondering if the finished work should be scrapped after all. It's almost as if I could not see the piece truly, like someone with a body image problem who can't perceive the reality of their body apart from the image they have of it.

I couldn't get the humans in the house to pose with the latest batch of hats, so these bears, being the captive audience that they are, obliged gladly -- or so it seems.

my first cardigan

The hooded parka project I mentioned before is finished, as far as I am concerned. Though I messed up in places, frogged a sleeve, and started over a few times, I was able to rectify some mistakes by turning a flaw into a feature with some fancy needle work. But, when it came to putting in the zipper, I took the easy route, given the way I read instructions through the first run through. I gave gave the hoodie to my local yarn store, which has a finisher on call. I already spent a pretty penny on the yards and yards of yarn (the offspring's choice of non-shedding stuff) that went into this garment that is big enough, and somber enough, to fit Darth Vader or even the Grim Reaper should he need a wardrobe option for casual Fridays.

For my knitting readers, there are details to be had about the hoodie over at Ravelry, where I have been hanging out these days. Meanwhile, during this weekend, I managed to finish 2 hats, based on a great pattern that is not girlie at all and and which make wonderful presents (the knitted-up things, not the pattern) for the guys in anyone’s life.

Needless to say, I haven't made much headway in my Spanish studies this week...

picking up a stitch in time

With daylight hours at a premium these days, much like credit in the world of finance, I have been hoarding experiences (much like the bailed-out banks) instead of spending words on them here to purchase my readers' (or that one reader's) favor. Not that these experiences have been worthy of a lot of words, or even a few precious ones. It’s been what it is, which is mostly, life – which is, by its nature, beyond words and any worth, I suppose.

At work, it’s been busy, since we moved offices. OK, not far, just across the hallways. I no longer have a view of the sky and the tree-lined street, but am much warmer and also cocooned in my space, rendered steady by unchanging light of those fixtures overhead. That is why, probably, when I left around 3 pm yesterday, I was so struck by the light outside, the sun’s angle flooding the hills and the road with such brilliance that I felt suddenly happy as I took in the textures within this profligate light, or some evocation of it, with my camera, but that wasn’t going to do it for capturing that sudden happiness.

At home, it’s been busy with knitting projects. I taught myself (for the second time, and this time, successfully) to make socks on a single set of circular needles, using the magic loop technique. So now, I making socks (finally) I can actually give to people as gifts. I also finished the big hoodie project, save for sewing in the zipper. And, before I forget: I joined Ravelry, that awesome knitting social network site…. So that’s where a big chunk of my time also went!

black - photo friday challenge

Last Friday’s photo challenge was “black.” Well, it proved to be quite a challenge for my nascent participation in this weekly ritual. For days I drew a blank on it. I also took dozens of photographs, but none had anything to say about the theme of “black,” even if they featured plenty of black within their frames in varying degrees of obviousness.

It wasn’t until I took a friend and fellow knitter to my neighborhood yarn store that it hit me.  Just about every serious knitting project I undertook so far has been with thread that was either black or some slight variation on it, like this hooded parka I am knitting for the younger son (who happens to be a challenge of another sort).  After having gone through some 20 balls of yarn (and I am still not done with this piece), I am so ready to knit with color!

And I am also ready to abandon the idea that patterns in knitting books are written in plain black and white, for all to follow to get the finished product featured in the picture. As it turns out, this pattern omitted a couple stitches in the raglan decrease, so what I got is not what is in the picture!

even threaded

So, I have embarked on my first huge knitting project, a hooded parka, for my younger son. The body of the oeuvre was easy enough to execute, thanks to an almost mindless process of following a simple pattern. The sleeves however have bedeviled me, and I have wasted enough cheap yarn already making prototypes that didn’t work. Then, in a moment of inspiration, and what I thought was clarity, I believed I had the problem licked and went ahead with the pricey yarn I am using for the parka. I even made a chart to follow the increases and the rounds, thinking myself extremely smart for it.

and so, these last couple of days, I settled back with the knitting, making rounds through TV shows and breakfast coffee … and the sleeve was growing, albeit a bit slowly, it seemed to me. How was I going to get from 56 cast on stitches to the 93 stitches in the round and not go beyond the 20 inches in length the pattern called for? In fact, I reached the 20-inch mark and I was still on round 7 or so, of the 17 I should have knitted shortly before reaching 20 inches.

Surely, there must be a mistake in the pattern, I thought. I googled the book in combination with errors. But all I found was praise for the author and his work. Yes, his work.

So, that is when I decided to do what I should have done in the first place: the math! Duh! After measuring my gauge, multiplying and dividing a few times, it became very obvious to me that I misread the very first instruction. Rather, I think, I took an assumption I had for granted – and all the subsequent Zen-like practice of paying attention or minding my stitches was for naught.

You see, the pattern called for knitting one round in a pattern, then another round in simple knitting. The pattern for the sleeve increase started with working even for 6 rounds. Well, yours truly must have had a thing for that “even,” because she assumed that she was to knit 2 rounds for each one in those 6 rounds: 1 round in pattern, and 1 in plain knitting. No wonder her 20-inch sleeve, the way she read the pattern, was going to be 40 inches…. OK, no need to go into the third person just because I am so embarrassed. Still, when I went for help at my local knitting store, I bet the women kept laughing long after I drove off with the yarn between my proverbial legs – or should I say knitting needles.

The painful lesson from this Penelope-like endeavor?  Apart from the actual pain in my hands from the hours of knitting? It is a simple one: though you may lavish all your attention on that first assumption that you take to be your launching pad, be it in thought, writing, work, what have you, do not take it for granted, however happy it makes you and do everything you can to question it thoroughly.

In other words, I learned today that it in a practice (be it meditation or knitting), it is not enough to focus the attention. It is also necessary to train the mind to do what the mind does best: discriminate between what is and what we think there is.

 

scaling

 

Well, I am not the greatest when it comes to following instructions, or, rather, reading the manual. So, rather than waste a lot of expensive wool on a knitted hoodie my younger son said he would wear if I made for him, I thought I'll do the engineering thing and make the prototype first. And this from a book on knitting for men written by a man.

Of course, this version, looks nothing like the enticing picture of the original in the book. First, the sleeves: I did those in a different color because I wanted to see better how it would all join up, considering that this hoodie is a seamless sweater. Then, the pattern got out of whack -- or, to fess up, I missed a few key instructions here and there, and what with having scaled the sweater and the pattern down, I think my math got out of whack as well. The result is a ragged raglan, but the stuffed bear that ended up wearing it, doesn't seem to mind much. If he does, he has no way of letting me know, anyway!

So, now, when I start on the actual project, I am going to have to do that dreaded thing that no one in my family likes to do: ask for help! Ouch!

what i did on my blog vacation

So, it's been quiet here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy or having fun and adventures. Courtesy of the current state of the economy, I have been riding the rollercoaster, watching our savings diminish in the face of diminishing years we have left to recover whatever losses we will incur.

So, I have been worried about the economy, but also amused by the wealth of explanations of how we got here and who is to blame for the wild ride in the amusement park that is about to close down.  Inspired by a post on the Babyboomer Chronicles, I started to peruse the barter section of craigslist myself, as well as take stock of the skills I could barter for things I need. I am pretty good at organizing information and paperwork. I am also a decent cook, one who knows how to make healthy and tasty meals. I amnot a gardener, though. I knit fairly, but can't sew....

Apropos of knitting: I have taken up the needles again, having been asked by my son to knit him some warm socks in which he could watch the Green Bay Packers with his buddies in his sub-heated house in Wisconisn. So, I am obliging, and throwing in a chullu-inspired hat, with a generous earflap that extends to the back of the head:

Well, the hat is in progress and almost finished, since this picture was taken.  At this speed of knitting, I think I will have my gift-giving dilemma solved for this season. Between my dehydrator (and my friend's persimon tree) and my knitting needles and stash of yarn, there is a bounty of goodies to come.

Sock

Seems I caught the sock-knitting bug that has been felling a few fellow bloggers, and just as I was getting over it -- or rather, it was getting over me, judging by the shoddy quality of my output -- my older son, the one who had gone back to winter in Wisconsin, called yesterday and asked for "the knitter." That would be me. Seems that after refusing to take any of the scarves I knit so far, he put in an urgent order for a pair of "oversized" socks, something he could slip over his already sock-clad feet to wear inside the house.

At first, I thought my spouse had put him up to these shenanigans, but the spouse swore up and down that he had nothing to do with this or the fact that given this request I'll be spending the better part of the day (if not days) on the couch and knitting, instead of rushing about and cleaning up the house the weekend before my workweek starts, the first week of juggling working three jobs.

So, after the son asked for the socks, I dashed out to buy some thick wool, similar to Madil Iceland, and, while getting the wool and needles, I also picked up a book by Michael del Vecchio, titled "Knitting with Balls: A hands-on guide to knitting for the modern man." I figured if I can't handle the simple pattern for hiking boot socks, I ought to just stuff it and give up the sock-knitting business for good.

After spending a small fortune on wool, needles, and the book, I can say that we have something that approximates the looks (and feel) of socks:

Of course, it would have been much cheaper and perhaps more sensible -- and, in the end, more comfortable for the aforementioned son -- to let him buy a pair of down booties!

Then again, whatever time and money has been spent on this project is a pittance compared to the riches of the warm fuzzies that son of mine provided when he asked his mother to knit him those socks!

Rip

My knitting needles might have looked delicate before I cast on the yarn to knit my first pair of sox, but as I am finding out, they are battering rams when it comes to recalcitrant thread and a mind resistant to following instructions in the form of pattern reading.

I was going to start this project on a pair of circular "turbo" needles, going for the lure of fast with the magic loop method, when all along I had in my possession these marvelous sticks ready to poke a hole in the balloon that is any idea I might have had about my craftiness.

What am I saying?

Just enough to suggest that the sock is now in the frog pond.

I am not giving up, though. Even with the three part-time jobs I have now and with the yoga practice ... there will be sox again!