December posting: knitting

[oyceter]

And now I am not behind anymore!

Anyway, thistleingrey requested "knitting," which seemed to logically follow from the previous post on sheep.

I learned how to knit when I was fairly young, maybe around 8 or 9 years old? My cousin's grandmother (the one not related to me) taught me how to cast on, knit, and purl, although I didn't know the terms of any of it, so all I could do was knit long swatches of stockinette that inevitably curled in on itself. I made up my own method for casting off by just stringing yarn through the final loops and tying a knot; learning how to actually do it was nice! I also figured out that you could alternate knit and purl to make patterns, and I figured out the hard way that you had to change the yarn from the front of the needle to the back or vice versa if you wanted to switch between knit and purl.

I more officially learned how to knit around 2004 or 2005, when my sister was knitting a simple garter stitch scarf and I decided to grab it from her to see if I still remembered how to do it. I then found Stitch n' Bitch and learned that there were things like needle sizes, different weights of yarn, and etc. It was kind of mind-boggling! I gave myself a little time to learn how to increase and decrease, and then I decided to jump right into lace.

I have discovered that I'm better with small projects that give me a chance of finishing; I've actually finished knitting all the pieces of a top, but I've yet to seam them. Scarves are best for knitting with TV with subtitles, and I love socks because there's enough variation to be interesting (sometimes scarves just... never end). I would knit tons and tons of hats except I don't actually wear them. I love how many hats you can make with a fairly minimal amount of yarn, and like socks, there's enough variation to be interesting, especially the crown. I also love love love knitting lace; making a pattern and watching it grow row by row is so satisfying. Of course, getting it wrong and having to tink five rows of sticky mohair or wool is WORST.

I am terrible at gauge and swatching. Of course, this always ends up biting me in the ass when I have to knit up the top of a sock five billion times so the multicolored yarn doesn't pool unattractively, but at least undoing rows of sock is much less annoying than anything bigger. But that's also why hats and scarves and socks are my go to. I also usually enjoy troubleshooting knitting unless something has gone dramatically wrong (see: tinking over five rows of sticky mohair) and I'm not particularly afraid of messing up knitting. I didn't think that was odd until I was in some knitting circles and taught other people to knit; I think having to knit by myself as a kid basically forced me to not be scared of mucking around with the yarn and stitches.

Despite all this, I don't think I've finished any knitting for a couple of years now =(. I blame grad school? I wanted to knit a fancy lace shawl for my sister for her wedding, and then hopefully for her first year anniversary. Now I am just hoping I finish.

Maybe this will actually inspire me to start again! So far, I have the fancy lace shawl, a half finished pair of socks, colorwork mittens, another shawl, and probably a lot of other things I don't even remember any more. I'm a little wary of going back to the socks and mittens, since my gauge has probably changed, and then I'll have to tear them out and start over. Ugh.

There's something about making something tangible when I spend so much time in the digital world, and I kind of miss having something to do with my hands.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

I remain impressed by fancy socks you've made. :) For me the best yarnwork is something I can give away afterwards. The lovely thing about Reason's recent vest (nearly too short, alas, so I'm about to make the next size up) is that it's sleeveless and required no picking up. I pick up stitches with a crochet hook, and the small stuffed animals have given me practice--though I too dislike picking up stitches and find I don't want to make any more stuffed animals. :P I've promised one more after the two that're 90% finished (heh)....