It's not always about me

As I've previously mentioned, a few years ago, my husband decided to learn how to knit, for the purposes of, as he put it, "self defence". Actually, there were more reasons than just that. He, being a sweet and caring man, knew that knitting was vitally important to me, and therefore wanted to know more about it for my sake. (Awww.) As well, he wanted some golf club head covers and really liked the idea of making them for himself.

He's turned out to be a remarkably fearless knitter. His second project (still unfinished, alas) was a cabled scarf for me, the pattern for which he made up himself. His third project was a basketweave scarf for our elder daughter, again, making up the pattern. (The fact that the basketweave stitch pattern has been around for a long time is of no consequence as far as my being impressed with him is concerned...he still invented it out of his own head without knowing about it beforehand.) His actual knitting is slowly done, he still keeps a death grip on the needles, and his gauge needs to be more onsistent, but his grasp of the basic concepts is strong and he has absolutely no problem with diving right in and inventing his own patterns. He is truly a wonder.

Lately, he's been picking my brains about socks. Partly because he wanted to start making socks for himself, and partly because he wanted to surprise me with socks for Christmas. (One has been made so far. It fits great.) Finally I told him that he could stop knitting just because I like knitting. However, it's too late. He is now, by his own admission, hooked.

[insert evil laugh here]

(Sadly I cannot show you photos of all the great stuff he's working on. He went to work and took all four of his current WIPs with him in case business gets slow. Perhaps another time.)

Socks are particularly obsessive for him, he tells me. This week he dropped by the LYS and picked up a 100g ball of some self-patterning 'On Your Toes' because the two pairs he's currently got on the needles are not enough. Have I created a monster? Perhaps.

He has become rather frustrated with the scarf he's knitting for me, though. It's now reached a stage where the length is a hindrance, and apparently (he tells me), men cannot sit with their legs closed - not only because they don't want to squoosh their goolies, but also because their hips just don't like being placed that way. (Who knew.) So the scarf keeps falling through his lap and pulling on his needles, which of course is a hindrance to the knitting. Last night as he was knitting, this happened to him one too many times, and in frustration he cried out,

"Get out from between my legs, you great big floppy thing!"

Ahem.

So anyway, back to me...

I self-published a pattern! It's the Lacy Ribs Scarf I recently finished - the weather finally cleared up enough on Wednesday that DH and I could go outside and do a decent photoshoot.


'in action'


pattern detail

If you'd like it, there's a 'buy now' link in the sidebar, or you can follow the link to the pattern page and click the 'available for purchase' link from there. Whether or not you feel like buying it, please feel free to comment on what you think of it...and do be honest. I'm on enough of a high from selling several copies already (holy cow, that is an AWESOME feeling!) that hopefully, even vitriolic criticism wouldn't bring me down too much. :)

Actually, I'm on a bit of a self-publishing kick right now...

Leafy baby poncho

I have already deviated from the 2008 Schedule. (You knew I would. However, it's pretty shocking how early in the year it happened.) I was going through the sock yarn display at Knitter's Attic, and came across a skein of On Your Toes that had lots of pinks and pale yellows and aquas in it. I held it up and remarked on what a truly 'girly' colourway it was, and how it could be turned into some great leggings for my eldest one day, or maybe a shrug, or something. You know. At some point in the future.

"Take it home," said June (the owner). "Make up your own shrug pattern, we'll display the model in the shop."

(You see how I am surrounded by temptation? Even my friends aren't helping me to be good.)

But I was strong. I did not yield. I put down the ball and left it there when it was time for me to go home.

Not an hour after I walked into the door of my house, I was seized with total inspiration to make a top-down baby poncho out of the sock yarn. I knew exactly how I was going to construct it, and how I wanted the lace pattern to look, and DAMMIT, the sock yarn was still sitting in the shop! Augh!

In the absence of the yarn to make the poncho, I grabbed some spare yarn and started fiddling with the pattern idea I had in mind. After many frustrating attempts, I triumphed and got the look I was going for. Alas, the yarn was still at the shop and I had to wait a few days before I could go in and pick it up. But once I did, I started it right up and am currently cruising at a wingspan of about 8 inches. I like it a lot. With any luck, there will be enough yardage in the ball to make a poncho that fits my younger daughter so that she can be the model when I self-publish the pattern. Whee!

Mitred baby blanket for Raymond

Being distracted by irresistible inspirations for other patterns has fortunately not hindered momentum on this project. It's going very well, and I'm actually ahead of Schedule with it - I finished this week's quota last night, five days ahead of when I had to.

I'm very eager to get this thing finished, photographed, and available for purchase. The construction of the blanket is so nifty that I can't wait to share.

But it's not all mercenary around here. I have been doing other stuff.

Anniversary socks for DH

I finished these! It took a little finagling with the yarn to make everything stripe exactly like the first sock, but they turned out great. I really, really like the way this yarn striped.



They are now hiding from DH in one of the baskets beside the living room futon. (I write that not for your own edification, but for mine. I can easily see myself tearing the house apart on the eve of our anniversary next month trying to find where the hell I put them, unless I write it down here.)

Paisley Long Shawl

I mentioned in my description of the Christmas haul that I had received (from my wonderful MIL) a kit to make the Paisley Long Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. The yarn that came with the kit was three skeins of 'Ruby'. This is an unutterably gorgeous wine-red. However, I had something different in mind. I wanted to make it out of three colours, blending and gradiating across the length of the shawl: 'Mahogany' (a plum), Ruby, and 'Cinnabar' (a lovely red with an almost indiscernable hint of brownishness). Fortunately, June at Knitter's Attic was extremely generous (considering that the kit was bought at another shop), and let me exchange my two extra skeins of Ruby for the Mahogany and Cinnabar. I think the colour effect is going to be stunning:



I wish I could say that I was going to start it soon, but it is sooo outside the realm of my 2008 Schedule, which really can't take too much more after-the-fact modification. Alas. (Sob.)

Child Legs for DD1

This has become my 'purse project' - the one I stash in my purse for emergency knitting needs. :) As such, it's seen a few inches' growth recently.

Ragna for my brother

Last week sometime, I think it was, I made the BRILLIANT move of going to the LYS with a knitting bag packed chock-a-block with projects...but not their patterns.

(Seriously. Could I be any more dumbass?)

Fortunately, Ragna was one of the projects, and I'm at the point where I'm just repeating the cable pattern over and over again until I hit a length somewhere past two feet. It's easy to look at the cabling that's already there and figure out from that what to do next, so it was the only project I was able to work on. I probably got about another inch or so done. (It's so hard to concentrate on knitting when you're in a yarn store that needs help putting the stock on the shelves. :)