Yes, yes, I realize it’s March of 2021. So, lets talk about February of 2020! Specifically, the Knitter’s Almanac. To get you caught up…I have not completed the January project of a highly cabled Aran sweater. February seems a bit more reasonable…baby clothes.
On the left, we have Elizabeth Zimmerman’s glorious plan. The two on the right are what I had done by the end of February 2020. I started by doing the changing pad (the one in the middle), but relatively quickly realized that wasn’t gong to get done, so I decided to see if I could finish the sweater instead. It’s a SUPER quick knit, I just didn’t bail to it until towards the end of the month. So, clearly, no, I could not finish the sweater. Had I *just* done the sweater, then yes, I would have.
Update on this, the pad is a double knit, in that it’s do the border, slip 1, knit 1, then do the other border, turn. All the ones you slipped, you now knit, and the ones you knit you now slip. This makes a double thick fabric, with the wrong side on the inside. It’s a great pattern/project to do to ease yourself into more complicated double knitting. But, the changing pad is a relatively large project, and you are in effect making 2, just both at the same time. So, it sits by my desk at work, and when I’m on hold, or in a meeting, I can get a few stitches in here and there. It was also my lights out project, so I’ve gotten it close to being done….just not close enough.
I’ve done literally nothing more on that sweater. Other than disconnecting the needle tips for other projects, and putting them back on when I’m done. I so love interchangeable circular needles. 🙂
While I seem to be posting these Knitter’s Almanac thoughts on Fridays, they really aren’t failures for me. Yeah, it’s kind of a bummer that I didn’t complete my stated goal. But, goals are things that are just out of reach. If we could always reach our goals, they wouldn’t need to be goals, they would just be things we are doing. That being said, there’s a difference between not trying and not succeeding. I legitimately tried, and we are getting to some months where I succeeded. I want to be careful here that you don’t “hear” me give you permission to never stretch what you think your boundaries might be.
Firstly, you don’t need my permission for anything. (Unless you do, and you know who you are!) I’m a bunch of random words on your screen of choice, and am here for entertainment purposes only. Secondly, though, stretching is good! Generally, the worst thing that happens is you decide not to do that thing again. The cost/benefit analysis, for ME makes it worth stretching a bit. Not all the time, mind you. There is clearly something to be said for the soothing comfort of the rivers and the lakes that you are used to. (Ha! those of us of a certain age have that song in our heads now)
Before I leave you tonight, I’ll share one small EZ related bon mot. I’m taking a quilting class (yes, yes, I’ll share about that later, I am quite behind on so many things). Sunday night, our homework for this Saturday (by noon) was to complete 20 quilt blocks 10.5″ x 10.5″, plus the sashing in between. So…the entire top. I have been frantically sewing in all my spare moments, and I have completed 6 blocks. I have GB tonight, so I won’t be getting much more done. When telling Poopie of my homework earlier this week, his response was “Is Elizabeth Zimmerman teaching this class?” Clearly, she is. So, that’s my fail, I’m not going to have my homework done. Think they’ll believe the baby ate it?
One of my favorite, relatively inexpensive yarns is Lion Brand’s Homespun. It has such beautiful colors (yes, while I can be an ass about using color as the defining consideration, I do recognize it can be *a* consideration), it feels so soft. However, as you can see, it’s all bumply. What this means is that it doesn’t show stitch definition. The good of that: you can screw up a whole bunch and no one can see. The bad of that: you can work your ass off with a beautiful stitch pattern, and no one will be able to see it. This yarn makes wonderful garter stitch blankets. They look super cozy (and actually are), and they are super easy to make. If you are not one to like a concert hat, perhaps this would make a good concert knitting project for you. So, this probably won’t be my first choice for Waiting for Rain. Unless I only did the garter in this, and found something to go with it for the lace panels.
This is a singles spun yarn, which means that it is not plied like many other yarns. It is also a warm yarn, but it is smoother than the Homespun, so it would show definition. I made a wonderful cabled blanket out of it. With the leftovers, I’ve made several twined knitted hats for Poopie. Which he loves. However, because it is only spun in one direction (rather than spun, and then plied in the opposite direction), the twisting of the knitting, and twisting of the yarns for the twining technique means that it frequently untwists enough to fall apart, so I have to do a lot of splicing in the hats. This is why I try really, really hard not to tell people they can’t or shouldn’t do something. Conventional wisdom is that you “shouldn’t” use singles for twined knitting. However, these are truly Poopie’s favorite hats. They are a giant PITA to make, though. So while I won’t say you “shouldn’t” use singles for twined knitting, I will say you “should” make sure the project/recipient is worth the extra effort you are sure to need to put in. This yarn would be a perfectly reasonable choice for the shawl, the color repeats are long enough to not be super busy and detract from the lacework.
This yarn is an interesting yarn to discuss. If you look at the “core” of it, it is a laceweight. However, it has a wide halo around it. The ball band calls it a bulky. I think this is because you should probably use larger needles to give that halo enough freedom to “bloom”. While this is an acrylic yarn, this type of construction is similar to what you would see with rabbit (which, yes, I know, I didn’t talk about last yarn structure post). Yarns with this construction seem to me to most often be the super warm yarns. They look so delicate, but they are soooooo cozy. If you spin a more robust yarn with rabbit, you could go to the North Pole. For me, this construction of yarn works best with a simple lace design. I think you need the holes of the lace to let the halo really shine, but that halo will make it difficult to really see the lace. If I’m going to be working charts and tearing out rows, I want the casual observer to *know* I busted my ass to do that, and I want them to be totally jealous of my skills. Fuzzy yarn just doesn’t do that. However, it makes a super easy lace chart look like you *did* do all that hard work. Better than having everyone ooh and aah over a complicated pattern is to have everyone ooh and aah over something super easy. I’m a big proponent of making my yarn work harder than me. You may think that’s lazy. I choose to say it’s smart. Tomayto/Tomahto.
But…I had some projects half started from Madrona. Plus another thing I just started (which is not the shawl I’m supposed to make for Sheri, because I suck). 
Plus spinning, plus…plus…plus… So, I just packed a little of everything. There’s the weaving on the knitting loom that hopes to become a hat someday. There’s the new hat. There’s the drop spindling.
The tables were lit with Beer signs. There was even a large biker dude, complete with motorcycle patches on his leather jacket. Also, he had an itty bitty dog with its own leather vest. Apparently, it was a support dog? The dichotomy was startling to say the least.
When I sat down and opened my notebook to be ready to take notes, I found this. I don’t remember which kid had done this, but I’m thinking it was likely Thing 1. This was a random notebook from the house, and this was done a long time ago. But, how fun to find it!
The round part will be woven to make the top of a hat. My plan is then to pick up and knit down. I’m planning on using twined knitting to keep a similar texture. We’ll see how this experiment ends up working. There was also a technique for continuous weaving which should use a Danish Scarf Loom–which may or may not exist anymore. I didn’t play with that technique, but it plays with the idea of what is the warp and what is the weft. This is what I want Pam to teach this summer since the idea is completely fascinating. Weaving is really Pam’s area of expertise more than mine. We’ll see…
And so it is with zippers. As you can see, in a very short amount of time, I learned how to add a zipper to knit fabric.
Full disclosure, the baggie full of goodies will likely end up on the shelf of my quilting table for a good long time before being pulled out and put together. (side glance to the left) So….doubly WIP.
Here in the foreground, you see the brim. I’m that far along before the opening act got onstage. When it’s general admission, you gotta get there early.
Here you see where it all begins…the Yarn Wall. In the corner, is the Fun Fur. If you look really closely at the photo of the Yarn Wall in the previous post, you will see the yarn in the very lower left hand corner.
I know I can do hats pretty much anywhere, so I had decided to make a new hat be my new carry along project. I wanted to try something different. And I was inspired not only by my yarn wall, but also by talking about my yarn wall. I wondered if maybe I could use the Fun Fur to make the hat look like it had a fur trim??
I tried a couple times to cast on. Oh, yeah, this is why I don’t care for Fun Fur. It’s not really all that fun to work with. So here I am at a 
And here it is the next night at a concert at local venue. I have, apparently, a reputation for knitting at concerts. There will often be chairs set aside for me at house shows so I can sit in my corner and knit while listening to live music.
La Tejedora Crafts 