NadaJ Knits

Sleeve Island

Funny how I plan to post to whine about some injustice that I think happened to me, and not to share all the cool things that have been going on in my neck of the woods....

Let me start by saying that I finished the front and back of the Tennis Sweater, and even seamed the shoulders and finished the neckband. Wooo-hooo!

I'm on sleeve island...figured I'd do both at the same time.

I've tried on the front and back, and did a sleeve wrap-around on my arm, and I'm gonna have to block the hell outta this sweater!

Okay, now what I really wanted to talk about--so I'm at knit night tonight, and the conversation is going alright--till we get on the topic of continental versus English knitting.

**sigh**

I can knit both ways, and knit with both hands when I do fair isle work, but I choose to knit English. I throw! I'm much faster throwing, and it's easier for me to do. I am so sick of having to justify the way I knit, or have to listen to people explain the joys of continental. Continental is not faster--I just can't believe that. If your rhythm is great, you can knit like the wind. I consider myself a pretty good knitter, and I felt tonight that because, God-forbid, I throw, I can't be as good as a picker. Bullshit. Let's just say when the conversation made this turn, I finished my increase stitch round and fucking left.

Back to the sweater...Oh wait, enough about the sweater. I have bought some new yarn recently (surprise!):  The Malabrigo was from Playing With Yarn. I forgot I had hidden it in the trunk. With all this heat we've been getting and being jostled around in the trunk I'm surprised it didn't felt.

On the right are 6 skeins of Oh Baby by Plymouth Yarn for a baby sweater. An associate of mine is having a baby, and the doctor's aren't sure the little boy will make it, so she asked me if I could knit him a blanket. Oh my God...yeah..I'll make him a blanket with the softest yarn I can find. So here it is.

There's some Trekking XXL to the left, Abby from Borealis loving calls the MnDOT socks (Hhmm..I don't know Abby...not sure if their logo captures all the cool colors of this yarn. But I like the name, so I'll keep it) This picture sucks, but it'll be on the needles soon enough.

Umm..that's all knitting wise. I've been in a funk lately, I hope it's just PMS, but it may be school too. Going back to school will be harder than I thought..I hope I can do this. I hope it's not a mistake. I'll just keep on knitting and see where this takes me.

I've finished the armhole decreases and have about a gazillion more rows till I'm done with the V-neck shaping for the front. Here's proof:
Really I just wanted to feel sorry for myself that I lost that Alice Starmore book that was for auction on Ebay by one freakin' dollar. Guess who was on the computer? His name rhymes with SETH.

That is all.

Hey, I can do a drive by post..that wasn't so hard. Now back to the veeeeeeee-neck.

Knitting Anxiety

I took off from work this week to knit attend a training and development class at the U. I'm knitting on the Tennis Sweater. I finsihed the back and I have about 8 inches of the front so far.

So, I'm knitting during the breaks in class, and many of the students are asking me questions abouty my knitting. YAY, right? Questions like, What is it? How'd you pick those colors? Can I see? How long have you been knitting?

It's all pretty generic questions, but I took it so personally. They can't possibly know how dear knitting is to me, that I blog about it, and how obsessed I am about yarn and patterns. Instead of playing it cool and casual, and just saying, oh yeah, I'm knitting a sweater...This fiber is cotton...I've been knitting for almost three years...nope, instead I freaked and probably came off as a snotty knitting woman. I came off so defensive and dismissive. Really, I just didn't want to talk to them about my knitting. No, that's not it. I didn't want to fake talk about my knitting. If they were truly interested, I'm sure I would've behaved myself. I'll have to think of some community service I can do to redeem myself....

It's been a while since I posted. Last week was crazy! I was busy at work, my in-laws were in town for the weekend, and it was hot as hell. But I was able to buy yarn. Let's see what's in the box...

 

Wow, right? Where should I begin. Okay there's some sock yarn there. Little Knits had some great Fleece Artist sock yarn on sale, and I don't have a color like this in the stash, so here I am.

The second pinky-greeny yarn is from Dani at Sunshine Yarns. I think it's the Waterlily colorway. I've bought yarn from her before and have been very pleased with the color and the yarn. The green-emerald yarn is Cherry Tree Hill. I had to buy something at Borealis last week, and isn't this color just wonderful? The picture is pretty accurate. It's a very true green, subtly vareigated.

And finally..that lonely skein of Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed has 19 brothers and sisters in a USPS Priority Box, also from Little Knits to make Accordian from Knitty.

Oh, and I have to break my cardinal "no baby knitting" rule. My best-est friend Jen, the one I knit Gigi for...is pregnant! I'm thinking the Pea Pod sweater from IK, and maybe a baby blanket. Sad part is, I have the yarn for the blanket in my stash. I follow rules very carefully, dontchaknow.

Guilty Pleasures

There's this feeling that I think all Catholics feel at least once a day. At least once a day. Guilt. And lately, I've been indulging in guilty yarn pleasures...

Last Wednedsday, I was cruising along on the Fair Isle Cardigan. Crrrrrusin', you know? I made these grand plans to finish a band a day. Then the Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere I ordered from Knit Happens came in the mail. The yarn is to make the Tennis Sweater from VK Spring 2005.

Thursday, I thought I could swatch, and put the yarn back. I felt a little guilty but not much. It's just a swatch.

Friday, Seth and I went to our friend's house for fondu and wine, so I didn't knit at all. Felt a little twinge of guilt for n ot knitting. Oh well, c'est la vie, right?

Saturday, after running all over St. Paul it seems for various errands, I sat down and figured some nice easy ribbing in cotton and cashmere would relax me a bit.

It's now Monday night, and I can't stop. I'm almost to the armhole shaping. The pattern is so relaxing, and the yarn is really nice. Guilty nice. Like, I'm having too much fun for this to be a cotton yarn. My hands aren't drying out, and the knitting is dense and cushiony. My cables pop too. I can even overlook how the yarn occasionaly splits, but I've been careful. Overall, it's very nice. The pattern called for gauge on US5's, but I'm using US4's. I swatched and swatched, and I think my guage was the same on 5's and 4's. So the toss-up was between using the Denise 5's or the Clover 4's, and the bamboo won. I just hope this thing fits..me. Cotton grows, so I'm pretty confident it'll be okay.

I cast on for a pair of socks last week, but I need a sweater. I need a sweater right now. My plan is to finish this Tennis Sweater, switch back to the Fair Isle Cardigan, and then start work on a Knitty pattern, Accordian, with some Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed I bought from Little Knits. Anyone see a trend here? I'm on a Debbie Bliss kick. (Help me) Really, I'm fine. (Help me) This will be the last of the Debbie Bliss (HELP).

So, while I've been knitting through my guilt, I've been enjoying all the new knitting podcasts out there instead of blogging. Seth momopolizes the computer at night, so i gingerly head off to my yarn room (which, by the way, is all cleaned up, and looks goregeous, so i don't mind), and listen to podcasts. I've caught up with Brenda Dayne's Cast On and Marie Irshad's Knit Cast. But I've also discoved It's a Purl, Man and At the Yarn Shop. I have a few more to sample on the iPod, but these two are my new favorites.

I've been thinking about setting up my own podcast. Like in August sometime. I'm not sure of the set-up and how to go about it--I'll have to research that, but this may be a possibility. I really just want to hear myself talk. A podcast of a knitter rambling. I'll need guidelines on what I can say, so I don't go overboard and feel even more guilty. Or rather, be guilty of what comes outta my mouth.

I've also been vsiisting new knititng blogs. You know how there's little cliques of knitters, and not that we're malicious--are we?--but we get ina rut of visting the same people. I'm branching out people! I can't remember any of them, but the online knitting is so big now, I'm just happy to find so many people like me that are soo into knitting. Even with our 26 yarn stores in the Twin Cities Area, I feel like a lone knitter. Send me new blog fodder everyone...

Knitting Mojo

I really meant to post yesterday, since I was having such a great and relaxing day, but Seth's brother was staying the night, and I didn't want to disturb his sleep on our fine futon with my loud typing (I'm getting a laptop soon...), so here I am, a day late and a dollar short...

Speaking of dollars short....okay, no, let me start from the beginning....

Seth's brother is moving back to the States from Winnepeg (and over the Fourth of July weekend, how fitting). He's leaving his car in Minnesota and spending the summer in DC, so he needed a ride to the Cities to make his flight to DC. Abridged story short, Seth and I drove to Knife River for the weekend. I've written about Knife River (KR) before, but if you don't remember, KR is a little northwoods town 20 miles north of Duluth. It's right next to Lake Superior.

We could not have asked for a better weekend. Four days in KR is what I needed to jump start my knitting again. The weather was GORGEOUS. Blue skys equals a great blue lake to sit/drive/ride/look by and enjoy. The sun, the pine trees, the birds... The peace and fucking quiet. It was grand. Granted, there were plenty of tourists and RVs and boats and trucks and trailers, but I could not have asked for a better weekend.

I made the obligatory stop at Playing With Yarn. Twice. That's the money part. But pictures speak a thousand words. I'll add subtitles...

I bought an advanced bead kit from Judy last year, and it's sitting in the yarn room because I'm freaked out by beads. I bought the easy beaded purse kit, a pattern she designed and she showed me how to string the beads. I strung all the beads Judy! Now I have to knit it with US000. Into the yarn room with you...

Ya'll know I love Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and when I saw this color, I couldn't resist. The color is Firestorm, and the pattern is called Facine Braid Socks, also by Mountain Colors. The braid is really cool, and of course, my photo skills are shitty, but I'm also knitting this pattern in my Lorna's Laces's Safari yarn. I'll talk about that in another post.

Judy has the best selection of books in Minnesota. Hands down. I browsed her book and pattern selection for easily an hour or more. She had an original, hardcover copy of Fancy Feet: Traditional Knitting Patterns of Turkey, by Anna Zilboorg (Simply Socks is the reprint), another hardcover original copy of The Celtic Collection, by Alice Starmore, and a bazillion other hard-to-find-in-person books. It was a hard choice, but I decided on Knitting Fair Isle Gloves and Mittens by Carol Noble. I'd love to make every pair of mittens and gloves in the book. But I'd need lots of little skeins of yarn...

Oh yeah, I bought the Fair Isle Cardigan kit from Knit Picks. the pattern. I'll have lots of left over fingering weight yarn to make mittens and gloves.  I bought the kit about two weeks ago, and held off...and held off--till last Thursday. I needed to rip back on Madeline, and instead started this cardigan. It's pretty addictive. I cast on Thursday, and because I can't count, I spent the night tinking around correcting my K2 P2 ribbing. In black yarn no less, oiy vey. Saturday, I started and finished the red and blue ribbing, and then noticed I had made a beginner's mistake and my rounds were twisted. I cut the steek. With no reinforcing sticthing, or anything. I cut the few rounds, cast on a few more stitches for the steek and kept on going. This is sure to bite me in the ass later, but so far, it's held on. When I get a little further ahead, I might crochet stitch it, but for now, it's holding on.

Hmm..what else??

Oh yeah, I bought a dreidel hand spindle. It's a kit from Nancy Knit Knacks, and it comes with an instructional DVD and some greyish roving. I don't know...I may just be a knitter. I like the idea of spinning , and I'd love to have a wheel, but I don't know. I'm not feeling the texture of the roving. maybe it's just the roving.

Oh, and I bought two skeins of Malabrigo in..Dusty Olive?? I gotta check on that later. I just love her store. I can't remember where, but another Minnesota blogger said they couldn't find anything in her store, and I am just the opposite. Her store gives me inspiration. Oh,a dn her prices are usually a few dollars more than in the Cities, but she has every yarn or book you could ask for. Except Manos del Uruguay. I asked. But that's okay, I forgive her.

I know, no pictures of Knife River or Duluth...Oh and off-topic, we saw Superman Returns at the Imax theater. Anyone else see it?? I was really mad about the whole "kid/dad/mom" thing. If you've seen it, leave me a comment and tell me I'm not the only one who thought that was a bit weird (Or is cold a better word?) Now see, no one will know what I mean, and think I'm crazy. But I admit, Superman was hot.

Oh, and before I forget, THANK YOU FOR THE HAIRCUT COMPLIMENTS! I love the ease of not having any hair, but I get the weirdest looks. Either I'm a cancer survior or a militant black lady. I'm neither.  I'm just a knitter that cuts her hair off when I get stressed.

Well, back to my steeked cardigan...

Oh, wait, I'm still blocked at work, but I will definitely make the blog rounds tomorrow. I'm staying home tomorrow morning..I need to wait on some yarn to arrive..more on that later too...