Representations of Self

My basic photography class came to an end this week. The last assignment was to do a self portrait. This was by far the hardest assignment.


A little bit of me thru books.



Then, as a maker of things, I thought about doing a whole series of hand shots doing what I do everyday. This was much more difficult than I thought it would be as time to set up shots, in general and especially while cooking, and working the self timer proved to be very interesting. But I got a couple of shots that I liked.







Tank and I

Tank was not cooperating as she just wanted to go to bed for the night.

My instructor suggested taking a self portrait every year on your birthday. Just a little food for thought that I may try next year. Also on Pinterest (warning: highly addictive) I came across the most amazing family portrait series that I thought I would share.

Source: marvelouskiddo.blogspot.com via Woolanthrope on Pinterest

A new adventure

Here's a confession. I am afraid of small needles. When I first started knitting, I was all about 15, 17, 19, and 35 size needles and bulky yarn. Scarves were flying off my big, fat needles at a rapid pace. It gave me a great sense of encouragement and satisfaction as a beginner. Of course, I eventually downsized to worsted weight and number 8 needles. I have done a couple of shawls on size 6 needles and maybe a baby sweater on size 5s. In my mind making socks was for the insane. The size 0 and 1 needles are teeny tiny, so scant compared to a robust 15. The anorexic runway model of needles in my world of healthy sized needles. I love needles that could stop a vampire.

A couple of years ago for Christmas, I got two pairs of knit socks from my friends Ellen and MaryJo. They were my first pairs of knit socks and I love them. So my thought was maybe some day I will knit socks. Well, the tipping point came after a daily browsing around Ravelry and coming across these particular socks.

The Burning Stripes Socks by Susan Luni.

I love stripey socks and this pattern gives me stripes and variegation. They remind me of the Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood. It's a pattern I love. While finishing my dissertation I made quite a few of these because the pattern required no thinking but the Noro colors kept me interested. It was the perfect project for my stressed out brain. What else I like about this sock pattern is that it looks fairly straight forward...no lace or cables or anything too fancy.

Now I already know I would be one of those second sock syndrome people. Second sock syndrome is when you knit one sock and then never knit the other one. I know this because I once tried to knit a pair of gauntlets. The funny thing is I never even finished the first one and it was almost done. I think it may still be on needles in some long ago project bag. So sad. That said, I definitely needed a two socks at a time method.













This book seemed to cover everything I might need to know like two at a time, toe up or cuff down. This is also a two needle method rather than the magic loop. My friend Mary Jo, who knit me socks, she says she prefers this method.













For cross referencing I picked up these two books at the library. I love the library.














A bought two balls of Schoppel Wolle Zauberball. I love the colors.














This method uses a 16-inch needle and 24-inch needle. On Mary Jo's recommendation I got two different colored needles. She says it's easier to keep track of your needles that way.













Look at these toothpick like needles. These are size 1. Did you know that there are 2 different size one needles? You probably did, but I didn't! It's really like a 1 and 1.5. Yes, it's a little bit confusing.

Never say never. I am about to try my hand at sock knitting. Now if you have any experience with sock knitting I am happy to take any advice, since I don't have a clue about what I am doing. Already I am thinking I need to divide up these two balls of yarn since I am knitting two at a time. Am I on the right track with that? Will it get too crazy if I am knitting from outside the skein on one pair of socks and the inside on the other pair? Just writing it sounds like a mess so I think I answered my own question. But please chime in if you have an opinion.

I will let you now how this sock adventure goes.

081510: His & Hers

Herringbone Scarf - His Birthday present


Covalence Scarf - enough yarn left over for me!

Hand Dyed Chunky Yarn
70% Merino/20% Alpaca/ 10% Silk
from Twist Fibre Craft Studio
in Newburgh, Scotland

Coming at it from both ends

There was a time earlier this year when I was having a really tough time finding joy in knitting.

GASP! I know. Never did I think that would happen. I mean, knitting is my happy place. Playing with sticks and string brings me JOY...

but...

Every project had lost its appeal. Total dullsville. In a willy nilly search for new projects I would cast on and still be unenthusiastic or I couldn't get gauge with the yarn at hand. One week I desperately cast on for three or four new projects in the hopes that one would renew my prior fervor but all it did was leave me feeling more frustrated and unmotivated. This was serious. This was a knitting depression.

This was not going to do. I needed my happy place back so I had to figure this out. After acknowledging that this was a significant problem, I gave my self a clean slate. Yep, permission to clear the mind, the ravelry queue, the ubiquitous stash and start fresh. Both the clearing the rav queue and stash are meant figuratively, of course. But does anyone else feel the pressure of their ravelry queue? 200+ projects all lined up for a rainy year or decade. Do you feel the pressure of using your stash in order not to be the next hoarder on Hoarders? Because stashing is just one more skein away from hoarding when your closets and garage are bursting with yarn already. Too much pressure from your hobby/love/joy really isn't about that specific thing exactly...at least in my case, it was just a manifestation of other pressures that were happening in my life. But when bad things start popping up in your happy place, it is time to take action. Therefore, it was time for a fresh start.

The next thing I did was rededicate myself to the process of knitting and not the end product. It was time to start enjoying the journey and stop and smell the yarn once in a while. Sometimes I just want to wear the shawl or get the gift made in time or knit without thinking and I am jonesing for the rush of the bind off of the finished project. There is it. Attachment to the finished object. All the bumps, foibles, dropped stitches, following patterns, and crappy inexact gauges were giving me grief and standing in my way of said FO! Writing this I realize that I had gotten in a very bad habit of not wanting to think at all while knitting. I just wanted to float along on a row of stitches without engaging in the process. Escapist knitting, if you will. This worked well for me while finishing my dissertation. During those last few months, I made scarves which was all I could manage in the few stolen moments of knitting at the time. Now I had the mindless knitting habit, which was not working for the things more complicated than a scarf. It was time to reignite the flame of process and study the quirks of the journey and maybe learn something new. Whoa, what a concept.

Lastly, I asked myself what I wanted in a project and the answer was a simple cardigan. With this cardigan, my hopes were to engage in the process of constructing a sweater so that in the future I will be able to adapt/alter/make sense of other patterns in regards to my body. Also, I wanted a sweater I could wear all the time. A go-to sweater.

The easy top down raglan by Cosmicpluto aka Laura Chau was a good place to start.

My general inclination towards yarn is the bright and colorful, but in an everyday sweater you really need something a little more neutral. The yarn is Noro Silk Garden in the two most neutral colorways available. The cream color is one of my all time favorite Noro colorways because it is almost the antithesis to the incredible colorways he is generally known for. The brown/black colorway was to add a little more interest to the sweater, although I debated about doing an all cream one with subtle stripes.

The body is finished and it worked up nice and easy from the top down. The tricky part is knowing exactly when to join the sweater under, what will essentially be, the underarm. It should be comfortable, not too tight under the armpit, but it's still kind of like diving into unknown waters and taking it on faith that it is going to work out. Trying to stay in the process, I reminded myself that I can always rip out a few rows if in fact it doesn't really work once I got further into the body. Being able to try on the sweater going from top down is another great advantage in getting the right fit.

Coming to the bottom of the sweater was a convergence of keeping my striping in mind, ribbing, the buttonhole placement and where to end the sweater. There was some anxiety as I negotiated all these factors but with a little bit of thinking things through and going with the flow I was satisfied with the results.


Now I am on the first sleeve. It seems to be taking so much longer than the body for some weird reason. The yarn is more easily tangling around one another and if you are familiar with Silk Garden it tends to stick to each other. Another cause of construction anxiety was the decreases. The pattern called for 10 decreases, every 5 rows, but I have spider monkey arms so I wondered whether to do the decreases every six rows or stop at 9 decreases. I went with the pattern and it seems to have worked out. It probably would have worked if I stopped at 9 decreases as well, but I have not finished the sleeve yet to make a sound assessment of it. Because of my long limbs it seems I have inches to go before I will bind off. When the time comes I am sure I will have another moment of anxiety in determining where exactly to bind of sleeve...at the wrist crease, a row or two beyond. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Please chime in if you have a preference. The 3/4 sleeve length, which I really like, was ruled out because I want this to be an all purpose sweater.

How often is it that there is only one project going on? Never. This means I have another cardigan on the needles. This one is Manu by Kate Davies. She is an amazing designer and you may be familiar with her Owls or Paper Dolls sweaters. This sweater is knit from the bottom up and is more complicated from the simple top down raglan sweater.

Now the problem with knitting from the bottom up is it takes some time to get to something more exciting than stockinette stitch in the pattern. There are about 4 more inches to knit before any pattern changes take place. The yarn is Rowan Felted Tweed and a beautiful teal blue. There just had to be some color in this process. But have you maybe seen these colors before?


Like maybe in the last post?

Coinkidink or not? I wasn't aware of it until I uploaded my pictures and saw all the photos next to each other. Anywhoo...

By giving myself a fresh start and a couple of projects to compare and contrast techniques has allowed me to focus and enjoy knitting again. I declare the knitting slump officially over and I am glad for it. (picture cartwheels & split leaps through grassy meadows & brilliant sunshine)

Now, back to sleeve length, any thoughts? Where do you stop your sleeves?

Pringle of Scotland Animation by David Shrigley - Life Behind The Scenes

This morning I was checking out a (new to me) knitter's blog, Eskimimi Knits and found this delightful animated short on Pringle of Scotland.


Pringle of Scotland Animation by David Shrigley - Life Behind The Scenes



Funny, right?

One of the reasons I found it interesting is that we are going to Scotland in July for the British Open, which it is only called outside of the US. There it is known as The Open. I'll be attending one day of The Open because I am a good wifey. The rest of the time I will be exploring the Kingdom of Fife in search of all things woolly while the hubby plays golf and drinks Scotch. I wonder how much yarn can fit in his golf bag to bring home? Hmmmm, some testing may be in order. With the extra padding for the clubs I am sure he won't mind one bit if they are encased in skeins of wool. Yes, the wheels are churning and I am dreaming of chasing down sheep through the heather.