Knit Talk

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Not having a current project to work on sure doesn't put a damper on my knitterly thoughts. In lieu of a project, I picked up the Reader's Digest Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley from my library. My knitting theory thus far has been to pick a project and learn the stitches required to make it. Come to think of it, that's my theory on just about anything. But looking through this book has inspired me.

For example, for my first Ribby Cardi, I used the Tubular Cast-on because someone mentioned that it was nice and stretchy and "looked good". But I never really thought about it too much. Sure it looked nice and stretched on the Ribby Cardi but did I understand why? Nuh-uh. But Montse Stanley is teaching me why. *nods solemnly*

So, follow my train of thought here, having that awesome knitterly resource at my fingertips made me wonder what else could be sitting there getting dusty in the library. Couple that with the fact that I'm waiting (oh so patiently) for my Knitpicks order* to arrive and you can find me at the library checking out this great book of knitting patterns. No, not that kind of patterns... I don't have the book on hand for the name but bear with me. In it, I found dozens of different cable designs I could use for my cabled hat, mitten, and scarf set. So I spent the whole weekend swatching for my scarf and it was so fun. Good thing I'm a process knitter... I'll try to get a picture of the finalists to show you before I start (the scarf will be my pre-Olympics project).

*Whew. So, Knitpicks. For my Essential Stripe Olympics Sweater we have Wool of the Andes in:



Actually, since I don't have my knitting folder in front of me, I'm unsure if the sweater has Hollyberry in it. It may have Cranberry and the Hollyberry is for my winter stuff set. I'll verify later.

Anyway, this was my first big yarn order ever. Along with the sweater and winter set stuff I had to throw in some sock yarn, didn't I? Bless my tax refund, shopping is fun.

(Sorry this post is such a mish-mash of half-finished thoughts. I've been super busy working on a big grant and work and my mind is a bit mushy. Hopefully it'll clear sometime late next week after the grant is in the mail.)