Wendy Bernard's Blog, page 15

The Principles of Knitting, a Non-Pithy Review

To tell you the truth, I have had this book in my possession for a couple of weeks now, although it was released yesterday. As you know, bloggers are often asked by a publisher to review a book and when I was asked to review this one, I thought "why not"?

The thing is, this book, The Principles of Knitting, is totally overwhelming to someone like me.

To give you an example, just the other day I was in a yarn store and I asked a few people about interchangeable needles since I've never used them let alone touched them too much. The room went quiet and three pair of mouths formed "O's" and the owner whispered: "You don't have any?" as if I had five eyes.

Nope. I don't have interchangeables. I don't seem to have proper scissors, either. I don't even have half of the things that other knitters seem to have, want or need. Like a fleshed-out library of how-to books or reference materials beyond several stitch pattern books. To me, knitting is just a lot of fun and has happened to become a business. I knit continentally and I don't use straight needles ever (don't have any; I just have circs and some dpn's). I don't have a blocking board although I just received blocking needles from a friend as a gift. I use two types of cast on's: Long Tail and Cable (but only if I need to) and once in awhile I'll use Long Tail Provisional. And if I need a cable needle in a pinch, I'll go find a skewer and break it. I do own cable needles; friends, things aren't that bad, but I never have one handy and for some reason, there are loads of skewers in this joint. And we don't eat kabobs.

I'm a simple girl. I just cast on and see where it takes me. I don't need fancy cast on's or stretchy ones, well maybe I do need a stretchy cast on or bind off, but it never occurred to me so why should I?

So, this Principles of Knitting book is a big book to take on. But I did.

Did you know that there are things called Axis Cables? These cables are made with three sets of stitches rather than your usual two and the center section of stitches remain in position while the ones on each sides cross. You use two cable needles for these and in my case, should I work an Axis Cable, I would need two broken skewers.

Intarsia, probably my least favorite thing to do, has an entire section. And I guess it should if you are going to be thorough. She covers Basic Intarsia, Intarsia with Stranded Patterns, Small Scale Intarsia, Slip-Stranded Intarsia (slip-stranded?), Woven Intarsia, Circular Intarsia Worked in Rows (huh?), you get the idea.

June Hemmons Hiatt is a force to be reckoned with, let me tell you. This book is so meaty, so detailed, that my guess is you could--just like asking your iPhone Siri a random question and getting a pithy answer--come up with some left-toenail and random subject that just *might* be related to knitting and totally find the answer in this giant tome (a whopping 712 pages).

Except for being a little afraid of its contents (do I really need to know any more than three or so types of cast ons? What about swatching? Do I need to "dress it" as she says or is it okay to just block it any old way?), I think people who love reference materials and want something super comprehensive, will love this book. If you do, you won't need anything else reference-wise except maybe some supplementary books like Knitting From the Top by Barbara Walker and a couple stitch pattern books. It really is that comprehensive.

I will warn you, however, she does have some knitting handles of her own. For example, she calls continental knitting the "Left-Handed Method," and writes/insinuates that people who knit top-down and in the round do so to avoid purling, which could be marginally true in some people's cases but, hello. It's just knitting and if you want to avoid purling I'm not going to point fingers or anything else at you. Heck, I use skewers to hold stitches. Who am I to talk?

In the end, however; I am sure, in spite of my tendency to shut down when confronted with too much at one time, that I will get a ton of use out of this book.

Note that this is a follow-up and re-vamped version of an earlier edition. I don't have access to it so I can't tell you how it has changed, but from other people's comments I think the tone is a bit lighter than the first and she addresses circular knitting and top-down knitting a little bit more than before.

I Must Have Some Knitting to Do

. . . otherwise I wouldn't be doing everything BUT knitting.

This weekend, I spent some time with old friends working on our balls. Let me tell you, you'd think we're a bunch of teenagers the way we giggle about these, but who could help but giggle? I mean, if someone were just passing by and overheard even a third of what we mutter while we work, they'd be in stitches.

"How's your ball coming along?"

"How many balls do you have now?"

"My ball is driving me nuts! The stitches keep slipping around."

"I like to work a four-incher because those two-incher's are too difficult to hold." 

"Really? You like the four-inchers? I prefer smaller balls."

"What yarn and batting do you like to use for your balls?"

"Here, take this needle and try it on your balls. It's the perfect length."

Seriously. We've said it all with straight faces and then it becomes too much and we fall over laughing.

If you're interested, these are called Temari thread balls and they aren't very difficult to stitch. One will usually take me about a day's work. There are loads of how-to books available on Amazon and elsewhere.

And if you have to ask me what they're for, please don't. Because if you do, all I will tell you is that not everything has to be useful. Sometimes it is nice to make something beautiful just "because." (And it doesn't hurt that stitching these balls in a group can be, at times, hilarious.)

 

I Was Just Thinking

about the very first person for whom I knit. The first person I knit for. I remember the thing that I knit for him. It rolled like a son of a gun but he didn't care. At that time, I didn't know that stockinette, you know, knit on one side and purl on the other, without some sort of edging, will roll. Every time. As sure as the sun will rise the next day or that one day you'll die, any stockinette will roll. It just will. But at 18 years of age, and after a cumulative 10 hours of knitting under my belt, I didn't know. Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet. In those days, you'd have to call up your grandmother or something.

But I knit for him a scarf that rolled. It was also about 20 feet long. I remember one day he was going to take me on a hot air balloon trip for my birthday and I presented it to him at about 5:00 a.m. that morning. I took a picture of him with it wrapped all around his neck, grinning. He loved it. Of course he appreciated it. He was an artist.

He came here from the midwest to live with his dad who promised that once he graduated from high school that he and his new wife would pay for his education. My boyfriend, he was super smart and got into all the colleges he chose. Thing is, he told his dad that he wanted to study art. His dad wouldn't have it and promptly kicked him out of the house.

So my boyfriend, still wanting to pursue art, took on as many jobs as he could so he could go to the local community college and study. One of his jobs was climbing up in the rafters of old buildings in Los Angeles to do security work; you know, spying on would-be shoplifters. He scraped and saved and did all he could do to stay in school. At one point, he was so poor that he had to sell his car and ride a motorcycle instead, to work and school. His mom got sick back home and he rode that thing all the way to Kansas and back so he could see her.

We parted ways when I was 20. Last I heard, he died from lung cancer at about 23 years of age. He got it from the asbestos in the rafters in those old buildings.

And he loved my wonky scarf.

He was someone who I would describe as scarf-worthy.

The Knitting Won't Let you Down (Unless you Allow it)

Today we were sitting there eating lunch discussing the fact that everything around us is falling apart. Honestly, it really is. So, HWWV says, I've been noticing that we have fewer and fewer glasses in the cupboard. And I say that they've been cracking and I have been throwing them away one by one. And then he says that he looks in the cupboard and then checks the dishwasher thinking that it must be needing to be emptied, but it doesn't. And then I say, same here.

And then he says, "I guess that means we will have to start drinking straight out of the bottle."

Amen.

But, the knitting, it usually doesn't let me down. The good thing about knitting is that, if it breaks, you can rip and re-knit. Shoot, there are people who routinely find second-hand sweaters and re-purpose the yarn by ripping the sweater, laundering the yarn, and re-knitting it into some other item.

I never understood people who lament, oh, my sweater is ruined! It doesn't fit! I made a mistake!

Friends, let's be real. It is knitting. It won't let you down unless YOU let IT down.

Amen.

P.S. My hat turned out fine.

Peace out.

(And another BTW: There's a giveaway at Stitch Diva for a copy of my book, Custom Knits 2, plus a discounted yarn kit for the Blithe Tee which appears in the book. Also watch for a podcast with my buddy Marly. It happens on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. Listen to it live--before she has to edit out my bloopers!)

Check!

Dishwasher threatening to die? Check!

Cracked bedroom window? Check!

Completely broken bathroom window held in the jam with duct tape? Check!

Spilt nail polish on white carpet that I can't clean up? Check!

Broken radiator and transmission threatening on HWWV's car? Check!

Refrigerator on the semi-blink since two years ago? Check!

Coffee maker on the fritz? Check!

Leaking something or other and the engine light on in my car? Check!

Have to jiggle the television in the studio to get it to turn on? Check!

A just-knit cap whose crown may or may not "improve" with blocking? Check!

(Photo sideways? Check!)

Inserting Foot into Mouth and TNNA

This past weekend I swooped into TNNA in Phoenix. By "swoop" I mean that I flew in on Saturday morning and flew out that same evening. I had a book signing for Custom Knits 2 so I had to be there.

After booking my flight I realized I would have to get up at 3:30 a.m. in order to be at the airport in time for my flight. Knowing that this is totally not my bag, and it would create all kinds of crazy town fatigue for me, I got a hotel room across the street from the airport to save time.

HWWV* and Girlfriend drove me to the hotel and while we were pulling up we noticed crowds of people loitering around the outside. We looked at each other with a knowing look. "Geez. I hope there isn't a convention," I said, worried that I'd get stuck in a hallway with a bunch of rowdy folks wearing hooded sweatshirts. And wouldn't you know, the lobby was full of them too. Crowds of folks wearing sweatshirts, oversized coats (it was 65 degrees), you know, your general casual fare, but there was something about the crowd that made be go: O_o

When I checked in, I said to the clerk, "Please don't tell me there's a convention..."

"Yes mam, there is. They have it here every year."

"Oh great," I said. "Is there any chance you can put me in a wing far, far away from the crowds? I have to get up early."

"Yes, of course. I'll put you well away from the convention attendees. They're mostly in this wing."

"Oh, I'm so happy you can do that. Thanks. What kind of convention is it?"

"Narcotics Anonymous."

("Oh, sorry; if you can't get me a room far away, I'm sure everything will be okay.")

*I know I haven't mentioned him in awhile. For newer readers, it means "He Who Wears Versace," but for the sake of our current economic condition, let's just call him "He Who Wore Versace."

Owls

It's Owls by Kate Davies.

I know, I'm probably the last person in the entire knitter community to finally knit one, but it took me only three glorious days of knitting (hardly knitting, that is. This thing was fast). And better than the just three days it took, it used just one skein of yarn to boot. Take a look at the before and after. The before, or light color in my right hand, is a brand-new skein of the Cascade Ecological Wool all caked up, which is a wonderful value for your money. The one in my left hand is what I have left over from the sweater I knit.

I decided to place just one pair of button eyes on the owls because, first of all, the local store that sells buttons is such a buzz kill that after I leave I want to find a padded room, and second, I prefer to make things with minimal finishing so attaching two buttons is about all I can endure.

The only thing I would do differently on this sweater is knit it from the top down (I think there are notes online about how to do it) because that little bit of yarn that is left over would have given me an extra inch in length for the Body and I would have been able to knit top down until I nearly ran out of yarn. But, that's okay. I like it anyway, and I actually wore it the day before yesterday for practically the whole day. That's a feat for me in of itself.

As far as modifications go, I knit the second size (33" chest) and instead of knitting long sleeves, I cast on 40 stitches and knit 10 rows of ribbing and then increased to 44 stitches among 16 rows. After that, I just followed the directions for the rest of the sweater and adjusted my stitch count on the first couple of the Body rounds so that it matched the pattern on my size. Voila.

In other news: Loretta just pooped under Girlfriend's bed.

Your Mission: To Name That Sweater in, THREE DAYS! (Name that Sweater.)

I just knit a sweater in three days. Not a full three days. Just a couple hours one day, and then the next and then the next. To do this, it helps if you're knitting in a light aran weight like I did--or maybe a chunky (except that chunky is what chunky does or is it the other way around?)--the Cascade Eco +, and make it a really short sleeved version of the real version because, frankly, we're feeling like we might not see the south side of 75 degrees any time soon in these parts. Truth be told, I doubt I'll even be able to wear my version for more than seven seconds without dying of some sort of wool-induced heat death.

But I knit it in three days, and that is a big plus.

I mean, who knits a sweater in three days? I knit a sweater in three days! Three days of heaven. No one intrerrupted me. I made only sixteen mistakes and hid them so well! The pattern was a delight. I don't think I will add buttons for eyes for every owl because truly, and truthfully, I don't think I could find 34 buttons at Jo-ann's that all match in the same size, but I knit the sucker in three days! (Not to mention, the Jo-Ann's in my area is such a buzz kill that you had better bring some sort of bag of booze or bottle of pills or perhaps a fresh Harikari knife to put you out of your misery whilst in line on double coupon day.)

Maybe I need to smoke that pipe they call "Size 10 Needles" more often.

Not Myself, yet Unwilling to Make an Excuse at the Moment.

I picked up some double point needles to do a quick swatch today and for a second I thought I had forgotten how to cast on.

I chalked it up to using double point needles for a flat swatch instead of my usual circulars which were more than a few steps away.

Then, I tried it again and got it right and knit a few rows. Boy, was I rusty.

And it hit me: I hadn't knit since, oh, maybe the second week in December.

The second week in December? What person who considers themselves a major knitter--no, a Major Knitter--doesn't knit for weeks on end unless:

They've broken both their hands and haven't yet mastered holding needles and yarn in their toes and teeth
or, they've fallen off a sixteen-storey building and hit their head really hard, woke up convinced they were Martha Stewart, and would rather re-pot 13,000 vintage chrysanthemums instead
or, fell and couldn't get up
or, got stuck in some Chilean coal mine (wait: wasn't that last year's news?)
or, decided, like one kid I know did, that shearing sheep was akin to abuse and told me so powerfully and with more passion than some evangelicals I know
or, got hooked on sewing (which, I have NOT)

Or?

A Knitter's Nightmare

We just returned from a little trip. The trip was good. We had snow.

We also had long walks in the snow.

I got to finally, really, wear hand knits (I'm wearing the Monkey Bones Super Slouch...hooray!) and we threw snowballs at each other which, as it turned out, wasn't half bad, especially since I have a better arm than my little sister. Her boots, however, warranted her extra points.

We also visited a really old mining town in Colorado. And on our way there, it was just treacherous. We teased my sister, Dooze, about the Donner party, a bit of history of which she never heard. We told her that her thigh meat would be mighty tasty should we get stranded.

And, after a drink at an old bar,

I won 22 bucks at the slots in a place called Minnie's in Central City, Colorado.

But the problem was, before we left home, I had carefully packed in anticipation for the trip. After much thought--and you knitters know exactly what I'm talking about--I decided to include an unfinished, but almost finished, pair of socks that I was going to *finally* finish for a dear friend of mine. I put the project bag in my carry-on and blew a sigh of relief when the TSA didn't say a word about my super sharp pair of circular needles. The 32-inch ones.

Truthfully, the trip was perfect, except for one thing.

I forgot to bring the yarn.