Sands in the hourglass......

Unless you are a friend of mine on Ravelry, you wouldn't really know what I have been knitting. This is because a chunk of my projects are presents. My overdue wedding party gifts, overdue baby gifts, eventually the wedding socks I promised my husband of 3 months. You get the picture. Not only are they presents, some of them are a special kind of present. I am knitting baby sweaters. "Baby sweaters?" you ask. Yes. Baby sweaters. "But baby sweaters aren't especially special presents." Hush you in the back. These are special.

These are sweaters for babies who have not yet arrived. These are woollies and cottons* (and if you're getting a baby sweater in cotton blend you are a dear friend) for wee ones still cooking. Sweaters like this are sometimes the first garments a baby wears and that makes them very special. By necessity they are to be knit in gender neutral colors (I like either bright primary colors, rainbow pastels or muted creams and forest colors for preference), washable yarn and in a pattern that understands the unique physical properties of newborn babies. Namely that their heads are overly large, they are horribly floppy and their torsos are out of proportion to their legs and arms**.

This means cardigans. Pullovers DO NOT WORK for infants. Even their onesies have those wee neck snaps to ensure that the head opening actually gets over the head. Also, due to the floppiness, pullovers act a bit like straitjackets. It's hard to get floppy arms out of a tube and into smaller tubes. Cardigans are very open, both allowing the arms to be put in before the sweater is closed and the neck to close around the actual neck rather than needing to pass over the enormous head.

I'm delaying the hats that go with these sweaters though. You see, infants don't need gendered clothing. Baby girls do not require pink (though mine are probably going to suffer through quite a bit of purple while I knit down the stash) and boys are not the sole proprietors of red, green, blue and brown. Hats, on the other hand... You see, there are few things more charming than a little lacy cap on a baby girl. And baby boys don't look as cute in them. Baby boys look adorable in rolled brim hats***. So the matching hats (still in the gender neutral colors of the sweaters) will wait until these babies have announced themselves and the contents of their diapers**** to the world.

I have also finished my modified Leaflet cardigan. If you go and look at the pattern, you will see that it has these trendy short sleeves that all the cardigans had this past fall. I think these sleeves are silly, so I sort of winged a sleeve (it doesn't have clever sleeve shaping that actually conforms to the sloping shape of the human arm) with the leaf lace motif on the forearm. They are awesome sleeves if I do say so myself. Yes, it's purple.

I am delaying knitting on my Doctor Who socks until I finish the current pair on the needles. This is yarn that I never would have purchased. While it contains purples, it also has colors I never knit with unless knitting with inherited yarn or for others. It does, however, contain the classic colors of Tom Baker's original 4th Doctor scarf (along with a description that tells you that this yarn will not knit socks that are bigger on the inside). I'm thinking something to take advantage of the stripiness, either a feather-and-fan or jaywalkers.

I'm working on a Baby Sophisticate jacket, which is all shadesong's fault. This is the second of 2 overdue baby presents, the other being a charming lace set that went out in the mail yesterday. I have one lace kerchief left to finish (and I'm about 90% of the way there) before my bridesmaids' gifts are all done. I'm finally picking up the massively overdue wedding afghan for levana_b and masteraleph. Hopefully it'll be finished by the time they next get to live in the same state!

I think that's enough yarn catch-up for the time being.





*There is no clever diminutive for this.
**This is not precisely true, but it sure looks that way.
***Baby girls look adorable in them too, but this is all the boys have and I'm willing to let them have it for the first year.
****Gender being a social construct that no newborn is capable of articulating, no matter how precocious.

Last night mbarr, taylweaver, mollygrue and I went to hear the fabulous Mr. Gaiman speak at Symphony Space. He was being interviewed by Paul Levitz, former president of DC Comics on behalf of Columbia University's Institutes for Israel and Jewish Studies and the one for American Studies.

Side Note: Mr. Letvitz will be teaching an American Studies course on "Transmedia" next Spring. Depending on my schedule, it looks really nifty. Also, a college class taught by a comic book exec! How could I not?

Some interesting questions were asked, including "Why are you the last of the great Jewish comic writers?" Neil's answer was short and hysterical. "I killed them all." Neil was asked about how involved he always was in the business side of his own career, they talked about comics being a "gutter medium," and random fascinating questions that I am not smart enough to think of. Then Neil read a bit of his least known book, A Walking Tour of the Shambles, which was a fictional travel guide written for a World Horror Convention hosted by Chicago. It employed one of my favorite conceits, that of being a small portion of a much larger series which does not actually exist.

Afterwards he answered some questions from audience members that had been written on index cards beforehand. My question (how much fun was it to work on Doctor Who) was not deemed sufficiently interesting. But some other questions were, like the various media he has worked in and how does he fit them to a story. At the end, the professor who had introduced both Neil and Paul basically told us that due to the small budget, the evening was over. So we walked out.

But of course, it's hard to make us all go away. So we congregated outside, discussing Neil's work, the impact he'd had on DC Comics (the Vertigo imprint that we all know due to Fables would never have existed without Sandman) and the impact that his work had on my reading and who I read because of it. And then mbarr snuck up behind me and said "if you want him to sign anything, go back inside." So I did. Neil and his wife were hanging out in the lobby, taking and signing books.

On the theory that a man as awesomely weird as Neil Gaiman is likely to respond to weird requests, I asked him for a bizarre favor. "Can I take a picture of you holding this sock?" I asked. He asked if it was a sock that I was currently knitting, to which I answered yes. He agreed. The picture was taken. We discussed fountain pens (he signs books with them) and how my father collected them. He signed a copy of The Graveyard Book for me. And then we left, so that he and his wife could see each other for the first time in a month and perhaps have dinner.

( This is a picture of one of my favorite authors holding the result of one of my favorite hobbies )

Another side note: I have submitted an audition clip to the American Gods full cast audiobook contest thingie. Please go here and vote for me so that I have a chance to be heard by Neil and the execs at Harper Audio.

If you all thought that Stalkerbook or MySpace had the monopoly on black holes for your time, and you don't knit or crochet, then you're probably right. If you do, then Ravelry has them beat in spades.

Described by the crafty moderngypsy (AKA Miss V) as "MySpace for knitters," it is a wonderful place to hang. Just like on Facecrack, you can belong to groups, namy of which are various TV show fan groups, or listeners to a particular podcast, or readers of a popular blog. There are even a couple of Judaism related groups. On the message board for one of these groups, I found a blurb about a separate group called "Hat Attack."

Most of the people who read my blog have heard of the game "Assassin." This is a knitting version of that game. Each participant knits a hat (there is a specific pattern released on the day the game officially starts) and mails it to their intended victim. If you receive a hat, you are dead. If you have not finished the hat that was meant to kill your target, you mail the materials back to your assassin, who then finishes it and sends it off (and if you think this is nuts, google "Sock Wars").

I joined. And so I started watching the message board for the group. People were talking about the yarn they were going to use, the needles, etc. Then I spotted a thread labeled "Dear Assassin, Dear Target." This thread consisted of posts like:

"Dear Would-Be-Assassin: You should probably know that I only accept mail sent via owl.

Dear Target: Please don’t be frightened by the owl tapping on your window a few hours after we get the pattern. He has a present for you."

Most recently, the following appeared:

"Dear Radar Eavesdroppers and Casey*: Please disregard the number of times the words kill, slay, blood, murder, attack, weapon, etc. are contained within this thread. We are but a group of humble (read smack talkin’), charitable (read bloodthirsty), knitters sharing a bit of generous fun (read DEATH), with our fellow knitters (read Soon-to-die-targets).

This has been a public service announcement.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program, Begging for Mercy while Threatening Bloody Death."

Needless to say, I was amused.




*Site admin

I finished the first sock!

I have immediately cast on the second sock so as to avoid the dreaded SSS*. I am quite enjoying the pattern, despite the fact that I seemingly arsed the pattern up. It seems to have worked out ok, so I will make the same mistake in the second sock, and no one will be the wiser. When I get more batteries for my camera, I'll post a picture.






*Second Sock Syndrome

These are the Broad Ripple socks that I have finished and now worn twice! Ain't they purty?

I am convinced that ribbing is NOT for her pleasure.

I am in the middle of a second pair of socks (remember that we no longer count the tragically frogged sock in the count). The first sock is the Broad Ripple socks from our beloved Knitty. The next is a pair of Jaywalkers in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino yarn in this color (isn't is pretty?). Yes, every blogger and podcaster seemingly must knit a pair of these, to the point where Alcariel is calling them her "One Mind, One Voice" socks and is knitting them out of Borg Queen sock yarn (as in, we are all slowly being assimilated by the loveliness that are Jaywalkers).

Now, a word about sock construction. I know y'all are thinking - it's a sock, what do you mean it has to be constructed. Even if you're hand knitting it, what does construction matter. So, that's all not true. Socks have part. The chief ones are - leg, heel, foot. The leg can then be further subdivided into two parts - the cuff and the actual leg. Let's look at the cuff for a moment.

What is the purpose of the cuff? It is to keep the sock up on the leg. So it has to be stretchy, and actually a teensy bit smaller than the leg of the sock. That means that you have to knit in a stitch pattern that will shrink in on itself, like 1x1 or 2x2 ribbing. This is of course, assuming that you are knitting with a yarn that doesn't have any elastic in it (a garden variety wool or wool blend). If the yarn has some elastic in it (like Cascade Fixation), then the cuff does not serve the same structural purpose.

OK, let's assume you're knitting a sock in a nice springy superwash merino (like my pretty Cherry Tree Hill). Even though the yarn is nice and soft and stretchy, it doesn't have an external force that draws it back in. It needs some nice ribbing (did I just use those 2 words next each other? heh heh heh) to make sure it stays up. So the Jaywalker patterns has you do 1 inch of 2x2 ribbing (1 inch of ribbing is pretty standard). And I hate it. It's boring. My Broad Ripple socks have a cuff that is a garter stitch version of the leg pattern. But every other sock pattern I have seen so far has at least an inch of ribbing, if not some type of ribbing down the whole leg.

It bores me to absolute tears. But I will press on, because the yarn is so pretty...

So unless you are a knitter yourself, or will listen to me anyway (like skywalker363, who might just listen to me read the phone book, he is that sappy) you may want to disregard this particular posting. It's slightly yarn obsessed.

So, on the needles at the moment:

• Holiday project number 1: Scarf for my little sis in Stahl Excellent in this neon green, pink, red, and lavender colorway. Size 13 needles, 20 stiches, k2 p2 ribbing.


• My First Sock Ever: Just what it sounds like. Trekking XXL in this pretty blue, purple, pink, white, and light blue colorway, size 1 needles, standard Ann Norling sock pattern.


• Afghift: 12 block afghan in Manos Del Uraguay. Block patterns come from the Design Source books, and are mixed and matched. Each block is a different color, and I am not listing them here. Size 9 needles.


• Polo Shirt: Striped pullover in Takhi Stacy Charles Cotton Classic, deep purple base with pink, gray, and turquoise stripes. Store pattern from The Skein Attraction, size 6 needles.


• Felted Bag: The Booga Bag done in 2 pretty colorways of Noro Kureyon, both of which are green and brown based. Size 10.5 needles, which are my absolute favorite needle size.

I also fell down and went boom in a major way. As I said in the last post, I have been listening to the Lime and Violet podcast. They are enablers of the worst kind. I went to The Loopy Ewe, a site they basically advertise (as in they gush about it all the time) and bought 2 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. Because, of course, sock yarn doesn't count as stash! And then I went to Knitpicks and bought most of the sock yarn that has been sitting in my cart there, because all of their hand dyed sock yarn colors are going away. And I wanted them, so very much. So I think I will be making a lot of socks for a while... And before this falling down, my LYS had a sale. This is not safe for my credit card. Because I think I may have bought everyone's holiday present yarn, and yarn for a cardigan for me. So I fell down. And made a big boom.

So that's the end of the massive knitting post. I will update on birthday events, and other events in my life soon.

So on Friday, I got two incredible rushes.

One is that the baby blanket that I started on March 31 or so (give or take a day) is finished. It's not blocked yet, so no pictures. I did, however, beat the mother of the baby that it is possibly going to (no definitive statements, as I don't want to step on anyone's superstitions). It is the first large project that I have cast on and then knit to the finish without interruptions.

The other was that I taught someone how to do something. I was sitting at my LYS*, busily knitting the last few rows, and someone looked at the blanket, and decided they would start one. I showed her which yarn I was using, and told her to tell one of the girls that owns the store that she was going to knit this project. She got the pattern, got Shaina to show her how she casts on (which is a nicer cast-on than mine), and then turned to me and said "what's seed stitch?" Since, after this blanket, I am now an expert on seed stitch (I do think highly of myself), I showed her the basic stitch pattern, and how to know where she was in it. The owners didn't teach her seed stitch, I did. And that was so awesome.

Now back to the regularly scheduled ADD style knitting of the following projects - afghift (afghan that is a going away present for the family that I used to live with who is making aliyah), a striped cotton polo shirt for myself, and my socks. Hopefully someone will buy me a digital camera for my upcoming birthday, and we can get some pictures up here!





*LYS - Local Yarn Store

Can I digress for a moment on the subject of alpaca yarn? It is wonderfully soft, warm, and makes the nicest hats. And Frog Tree Alpaca comes in the most amazing rainbow of colors. It is the right weight for doubling (knitting 2 strands at the same time), and thus can pattern itself in a most pretty way.

I just finished a cranberry and black hat for me. I cast the hat on on Wednesday night, and finished it on Saturday night, which is the fastest I have ever completed a non-scarf project. Yay me!

Started another hat today, in Rowan Plaid. It is a red hat. Let's see if I can get the time similar, and have it in the mail to AB by next week!

Look at the pretty shrug!