Monday, January 28, 2008

Creativity strikes at odd moments

So I'm sitting here with a ball of yarn the size of a large grapefruit, and it's in a nice ball, too. I wound this one myself, and it's a lot nicer than usual (and center-pull, at least for now...)

Guess how I made it?

I took a large knitting needle, two pieces of cardboard, and made a turkish-spindle-like apparatus. And then I wound. All I had to do was move my right arm up and down while spinning the whole thing by the needle. I felt like a human ball-winder, but it worked. Heh.

I'm planning on making another Odessa, this time for my mom, out of this yarn.

~~~~~

I was thinking about what it means to be a better knitter, and I know it's easy to say "you're a good knitter when the finished product is beautiful and takes little time."

But I feel that's wrong, ja? Being able to knit even stitches, keep a consistent tension, choose colors that go together well, all these are tangible effects of experience. Yet there are some other things I feel we think about and then banish to corners of our minds.

When you can read a pattern and say "that looks interesting, let me knit that" rather than "that looks interesting, it's probably really hard."

When you modify patterns because you know this technique doesn't suit you. Not that it's something you're uncomfortable with--by all means do things that scare you a bit--but rather that you've tried it before and you don't think it works with the rest of the project.

When you start to fix things more efficiently. I for one feel like this comes not from "1337 knitta skillz" or anything but from a simple desire to spend less time undoing your valuable knitting. To cut corners and minimize the damage. And yet people think being able to fix something by dropping stitches rather than by frogging is more advanced.
It's just lazier, but when you get to that level, you can afford to be lazy, because it won't hurt you. Too much.

That's about all. I'm by no means an expert knitter, but I'd like to think I've got some experience under my belt.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Random Stuff

The holes in myself, I fill with knitting.

I'd like to learn Japanese, partly for the hell of it and partly to be able to knit from Japanese patterns. (More for the hell of it though.)

I'm one and a half repeats into the second Chevrolace, I'd like to get a couple more done tonight. I'm done with finals, for better or worse, so I have lots of knitting time. Until next semester starts. >_>

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Scarf Pattern

My Cabled Scarf
(action shot first, naturally)


I made this scarf in 9th grade. It was my second FO (yes, ever.) and I had lost the first one. (More about that later.)

I made it out of yarn my mother had used to make a sweater for me, but it would work in just about anything. It's a really basic pattern, pretty easy to memorize, it doesn't roll up, and it's skinny enough to wrap around a couple times without being so skinny that it doesn't keep your neck warm.

As far as I can remember this was it:

CO 26 sts, any CO you'd like. Make sure it's fairly stretchy.

RS : K3, P2, K2, P1, K1, P1, K6, P1, K1, P1, K2, P2, K3
WS: P3, K2, P2, K1, P1, K1, P6, K1, P1, K1, P2, K2, P3

The 6 knit stitches in the middle become a braid cable, so one crossing every four rows.
Pattern repeat:
1: *ribbing* k2 CL *ribbing*
2: work in pattern
3: work in pattern
4: work in pattern
5: *ribbing* CR k2 *ribbing*
6: work in pattern
7: work in pattern
8: work in pattern

Here are some handy dandy pictures:

This is the actual chart, RS and WS rows. Green implies cabling, if it's after the k2, then CL, if it's before, CR.(read it like a normal chart, right --> left and bottom --> top)


Here's a nicer version, with only the RS rows put in (to get a feel for the pattern):
(same reading)

Sorry about these charts, they're made from a java program I wrote myself and so they don't have cables and stuff added yet. Still pretty nifty, eh?

And here's a picture of the actual scarf, that's served me well for four years now:

Stitch definition is kinda iffy--this "camera" is actually the built-in camera on my laptop, so there's like no flash and no fancy angles.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

SSS

Ah yes, here it is. I had my physics final this morning and I don't really want to think about it. I finished the first Chevrolace yesterday, and I don't really want to think about doing the second one.

I can't tell if I'm just being lazy or if I don't want to do it because it reminds me of physics. Hm. Either way, I've still got sss and it's being annoying. I am going to remedy it. Not by starting another project though, I don't need too many WIPs.

Actually.......... *evil glint*
I should start working on Sarah's glittens. Combat second sock syndrome by tempting second glovelet syndrome. Aiya.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Morning 'till....er, Morning?

So I pulled an all-nighter, supposedly to do the physics problem set (which I did do, thank you very much) and ended up watching House and knitting the Chevrolace. I got like 5 or 6 pattern repeats done since this morning, and I calculated how many stitches I've knit so far, it comes out to about 9,500. Maybe more.

That just makes me stop and go HOLY FUCK WHAT AM I DOING?!

Almost ten thousand of the same stitch (well, and basic variants) over and over again. Why is knitting so addictive? I could never see myself doing something ten thousand times....maybe it's just incomprehensible and knitting makes it easier to avoid big numbers.

I came across this article at some point in the recent past, and it really made me think about the way humans think about things. It's all experience, really. I mean, relativity would not have been so ground-breaking if we all moved at relativistic speeds, because it would be something so intuitive. We'd feel heavier, shorter, squatter, etc. We wouldn't have to constantly refer back to the Lorentz transformation to back up or refute our (usually-incorrect) guesses.

So maybe, through knitting, I'm getting more comfortable with the idea of big numbers. Maybe I'm getting more comfortable with visualizing shapes, with multi-variable calculus. (Haha, that last one's a long shot, but who knows?)

All I know is that when I knit I get things. It's satisfying and you end up with something satisfying. It makes me happy, that I can say I'm good at this thing and yet I'm also never perfect. But that's ok. I will always learn something more, something brilliant and useful or something mundane and superfluous.

It doesn't scare me to know that I'm never going to stop learning.
It amazes me that everything I know is built upon the simplest of stitches, and that they are all entwined in such a way that many paths lead to the same result.

Yeah, I'm being all metaphorical. I get like this about knitting though.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

It's All Backwards!

I mean that. This Chevrolace is constructed toe-up, but has a gusset, heel flap, etc. I love the way a traditional heel fits, especially the gusset and all. So when I finally turned the heel of the first sock, my mind just went kablooey. Up until that point I was in danger of getting SSS (except in my case it would be FSS?) and I wasn't sure what all the brouhaha was for.
But now I'm in love with toe-up top-down socks. They're backwards, just like me!

Also, I need to try some of Cookie A's designs. Apparently this whole topsy-turvy thing goes on in those too.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Stress Knitting

I've found that when I get stressed out I turn to knitting (or making origami stars) to calm me down. I think this is because the act of making something gives me a feeling of accomplishment, lets me see that I'm worth something, has a tangible result. I'm not sure. But I don't get the same feeling after reading lots of manga (tough books are different) or playing flash games. It's not just a high score I want, it's a sock I can wear. (Theoretically. I'm still sensitive to wool.)

So I'm working on that Chevrolace and I feel like the pattern doesn't quite suit the yarn because it hides it, but it's ok because the yarn is a soft spring day, that perfect day in April when the clouds wisp across the sky and the wind breathes patterns on your skin and the grass shines with something like life and the sun caresses your face. It's that lovely day when all the world is happy and you are with it.

Which is why it's so hard to give up this yarn for studying....

Friday, January 11, 2008

Finals? What finals?

Instead of studying like a good student, I'm knitting a Chevrolace sock. In Koigu KPPPM, P905. This colorway looks and feels like a dream, one of flying high above the clouds and perhaps sometimes in them. It's beautiful. (Ravelry is awesome too.)

Now I need to go study for physics and math. (I wish there were an easy knitting-centered way to learn both...hehe)

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Score one for the obvious...

I guess I haven't quite realized it's 2008 just yet. So when I say Project Spectrum and link to the entry from a year ago, just know that I do mean the one with the elements and all.

I'm sitting here before going to class with a paper to write, a problem set to do, a program to make, and two tests to study for. And yet all I can think about is what I want to knit. I don't think I'm going to allow myself to knit until after all this, because I use it to procrastinate, and that would NOT be good at this juncture. So no knitting until the 23rd and then I'll start with my friend's glittens, which I am completely improvising and for which I have a pretty color chart of my own creation. (I'll probably fail at fair isle, but I figure I won't know until I try and I'm not going to tell myself that I can't do it just yet.)

Anyhow, the spinning goes slowly, as I use that similarly, as stress-relief or procrastination.

Oh well, off to class.