Jon's Knit Blog

Newfound Appreciation

One of my favorite things about being a knitter is looking at all the knitwear out there. I have an understanding and passion for it. Everywhere I look, I can now say, "Oh, I know what had to be done to make that."

It makes me think that some things are particularly impressive. Or when I picked up a Fair Isle hat in Barney's the other day, and noticed all the ends that had barely even been tied in, I had myself a little chuckle at the lack of high-end finishing on a hat that was being sold for over $100. Then again, that's a lot less than it would have cost me to make it.

That's the tough part about knitting... you can spend more on yarn than you can on a lot of storebought sweaters, and then once you factor in the hours of labor spent on something, well, you realize that hand knitting is a labor of love, and something that is done out of passion, and it makes you get back to work on your Christmas present projects with the hope that the recipient will actually realize how much time was spent crossing all those cables and flipping yarn from front to back as you ribbed across all those stitches. And even though you know they have no idea how many hours you spent on the sweater, hell, you probably don't even remember yourself, it probably won't even fit right.

But it's fun, it's relaxing, and it's just such a wonderful thing to do that I hope I don't ever feel compelled to stop.

The Turkey Time Has Passed

So Thanksgiving was wonderful, being with the family and all. Plus I got to go to a yarn shop. Because, well, I need more yarn. More yarn! Must have more yarn... I escaped with 14 balls and skeins... I think:

Four balls of Ananas, a multi-colored boucle yarn that is made in Italy of 65% viscose, 15% acrylic and 20% nylon from Filatura di Crosa.

Two balls of some yarn my sister found in a yarn shop in Columbus which were my (early) holiday gift from her. She was excited about them because they are 32% baby camel. I remember that much from the ball band, just not the name. These should become a scarf for me, but I don't know if two balls (95 yards, I think) will be enough... I hope it will...

The pieces de resistence: four skeins of Bearfoot from Mountain Colors. Three in Firestorm and one in Black Cherry or something like that... the solo skein is destined to become a pair of mittens (he said it's enough) and I'm thinking that the three skeins of Firestorm should become a vest for me... I'll do the front (or fronts, as it may become a cardigan) first, so I can know if I have to do the back in a complementary solid or if I can use the multi for it, too. When I get to it...

But Jon, you said you bought 14 balls or skeins... which is right. I just figured that you didn't need to see me add four more balls of the off-white Eros that I like for carrying along in scarves to make it more fun... you know what the yarn is.

I knit a little bit, too. A few more rows of the SSS, and a few more rows of the next sleeve of the Blue Cable-y Goodness. But not as much as I would have liked to knit this weekend. But I think Wednesday is going to be a "sit around and do nothing but watch TV, eat, and knit" day. So stay tuned!

Oh... my sister loved the Colinette poncho except for one detail: the size of the neck hole, combined with the drapiness of the knitted fabric, means it keeps slipping off one shoulder. You've seen the photo; what do you think I should do to the neck to help prevent this from recurring? I have more of both yarns left. I hate to break up the simplicity of the lines of the poncho, but I also need to make it wearable... I'm thinking of doing like a 2 inch wide garter band, just in the Giotto... but I am really not sure I would like it. Please let me know your thoughts.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am off to my parent's house for the holiday. I believe I'll get in a trip to an LYS or two, which will be nice, of course. And I'll get some turkey, and other fun, yummy goodies. And I'll hopefully get a few inches of the SSS knit. It is my "official" travel knitting, after all. God, I just want that scarf to be done!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, that your turkey comes out just so, that your family doesn't argue, and that everything is just perfect. After all, even in spite of that imbicile in the White House our fearless and dedicated president, we still have lots to be thankful for.

Feeling Grafty!

I feel very thankful that the Fall edition of IK had some great instructions on grafting, because it enabled me to finish the Bunny Head Band:

You can't really see, but there the grafting turned out pretty nice! See?!?

So you might want to know, the Head Band is in Angora, and I used a simple, cute Fair Isle pattern from Ann Feitelson's great FI book.

Anyhow, this is not all that I've been up to in the past very busy week with all the craziness and, not least of all, the demise of my modem, which entailed a trip to 23rd Street to replace it. Of course, that's close to the acclaimed land known as Knit NY where I bought some KPM and some KPPPM which I'm going to use to try out a new idea that I have. That's when I'm not knitting this new scarf, using the Kersti I bought in Seattle:

That's going to need a lot of blocking. Can you tell that it's 5 rows of stockinette followed by 5 rows of reverse stockinette? It looks really nice in person!

But that's not all! I knit most of the front for Dad's Sweater! It has a fun cable up the front of it, and I'm basically right now at the point where I have to do the neck, so I have to figure out how many stitches to bind off. But the cable looks nice, which I wish you could tell in this photo:

So I feel bad about being gone from blogdom last week, but it's kind of cool to have so much neat stuff to show you all at once, don't ya think? And no, I haven't finished BGWA. Sorry, J&B!

I'm Not Dead Yet

You'll have to forgive me. It's been crazily busy at work lately. Lots of overtime, lots of stress. So I've been coming home and getting some knitting done, but not really any photographing. And it doesn't help that my modem appears to be on its last legs. Sometimes getting a connection can take 10 or 15 minutes. So you can understand the lack of blogging, right?

Anyhow, I've been knitting. Not as much as I might like, but knitting nonetheless. So that's good, right? Except that with all the knitted products which I've promised people, sometimes I feel like I'm knitting to get stuff done rather than for the sheer pleasure of knitting. And I wish it were the other way 'round.

I'm off tomorrow and I will have a brief knitting photo session for you. So take it easy til then!

Progress is a Good Thing

18 rows left of BGWA!

Nothing to See Here, People

I knit a bit more yesterday, but not as much as I planned. I ended up doing other fun things like booking a trip and going to an alumni reception.

Yes, I'm going on a trip. To Asia. In January.

This means that the official start to the Impossible-Along will be postponed until such time as I return to launch it into all of its glory. I guess people can start early if they want to, but I won't be casting on until February 1.

And that's all I have for today, people. I should have a nice photo of something, though, soon to soonish!

The Best One Yet

Are you a "West Wing" watcher? I am. And I have to say that my favorite characters are CJ Cregg and Donatella Moss. And tonight was possibly the best CJ episode yet. I am so excited she's Chief of Staff, and I loved the whole learning curve arc she had in tonight's episode. I watched the opening sequence twice, that's how much I enjoyed it.

Anyhow, I was also knitting on the BGWA while I was watching, and while I watched "LAX" and a few other shows including this evening's rather bizarre episode of "South Park." Eh, what can you do?

Well, what I did was knit a number more rows of the BGWA. I have two more garter stitch rows before I start the final section of Feather/Fan rows, which means I have 40 rows left. Yay! I will be glad when this is done, for many reasons, not the least of which is that J&B need their wedding gift! The other is that it's getting rather big to be knitting on: it fills up my entire lap with afghany goodness. And although I love that, I'm ready for it to be done, at least for this particular afghan. After all, it's not for my lap!

The Hard Part

The difficult thing about having a knit blog is that you have to knit a lot for it to be interesting! So of course since I'm deep in the midst of the BGWA, there's nothing really new to say. I made a few more scallop rows last night, and I'm almost onto the final pattern repeat, so hopefully just a few more days. Depends on work and stuff like that. It is a really lovely piece of knitting, though, and I hope that the Big Gay Couple do enjoy owning it, once it is given to them.

And egads, so many WIP's that have to be finished once the BGWA is done. I need a few weeks to just knit!

Escape from A Red State!

Phew! I made it back to New York City, after four days of Red State-ing it. Well, my alma mater is deep in the heart of Texas, so what can you do? I mean, I bought the plane ticket well before the voter fraud and exit poll fiasco that resulted in four more years of this bullshit fair election. (Does anyone else besides me think that it's ironic that Fearless Leader--I decided that it's degrading the letter W to be his monogram, so I'm calling him Fearless Leader, in all its glorious sarcastitude, from now on, ok?--thinks he has a "mandate" but if you set him up on a real man date, well, he'd be running the other way as fast as his spindly legs could carry him.)

Anyhow, I got a bit of knitting done in Texas. Fittingly, I knit red yarn. I worked a few rows of the notoriously slow-growing SSS. I promise, I'll finish it one of these days. It is really lovely and will be wonderful to wear. I just have to knit the damn thing first...

And now, it's bedtime. See you all soon.

Oh, and thanks for your kind comments about the Poncho! I understand now why nobody noticed it the first day around. And to answer a couple of questions and concerns from said comments:

Em: Cafe Gray, in the Time Warner Center.
May: I was in Texas...
Drew: I grew up in Ohio, and my Mom, Dad and sister are still there (Toledo, Toledo, and Columbus, respectively), so I had a first hand report on Ohio's election experience and my mom's major election-influenced depression. Glad to hear that some of the Bushies seem to have mellowed.
Consensus? Let's all just sit at home and knit for the next four years. I know that I have enough stash so that I wouldn't really have to leave the house...

So Much for That

Wow, I posted an FO and noone even commented. I guess everyone was in a worse mood today than I thought!

Anyhow, I had a really shitty day. Pretty much the entire City appeared to be having a shitty day. People who usually say "Hi, how are you today?" such as the guy at the dry cleaner or my barista or whoever, knew better than to ask that question, because they already knew and didn't want to hear another person whine about it too. So that was my day, up til dinner time, when things improved. Risotto with white truffles which almost made up for everything that happened over the past day. Almost. And a very cute waiter; we flirted and that was fun. And then, opera, which is always a lovely way to spend an evening.

When I wake up, less than five hours from now, I will shower, throw a few more things into my suitcase, and head out to the airport, where I will board an airplane which will take me to an airport ridiculously named after our ridiciolous president's father. And I will then go to my 10 year college reunion.

See you Monday!

Screw the Election, We Got A Poncho!

Well, we like the poncho. Even if it's not the most structured looking garment we've ever seen... We don't like the way the returns are looking right now. How the all the polls predict Kerry and then this? Egads, is all I can say. Hey, look at the bright side: I get to keep my "Knitters Against Bush" button up for four more years...

A No Knit Weekend

Well, I knit some on Friday night but ripped it all out, as I discussed already. The Big Gay Wedding, in all its alcoholic glory, precluded knitting Saturday night, and since I had a work related project last night that I had to do, I didn't get to knit last night, either. And I may not knit much tonigh, although we'll see how it is when I get home from work. I just have to be able to get up early tomorrow so I can go vote before work...