pepperknit

The new apartment is slowly taking shape, little by little and bit by bit, and I’m knitting like a fiend on a sweater I started a week ago Sunday when I needed some relatively mindless knitting to get me through the election. I am determined to have it finished and ready to wear by Saturday, so wish me luck.

But if you’re a fellow foodie, check it out! One of my pictures is the Photo of the Day on SeriousEats.com. I’m tickled that it caught Adam Kuban’s eye.

I’m always fascinated by the thousands of different ways there are to knit. People learn from books, from teachers, from grandmothers, from mothers. We all make it comfortable for us, in our own ways.

My mom taught me to knit when I was about 8 years old. She knits English, so that’s how I knit. But even then we knit differently—back then, we only had straight needles (long ones!), and mom tucks the needle into the crook of her elbow, something I find impossibly awkward. I’ve since moved exclusively to circular needles, and after taking a class (in double knitting, natch!) at Stitches East, in which I sat next to a woman who knit Continental, I’ve switched to knitting with my left hand. (So I’m a completely self-taught Continental knitter—I saw it in action out of the corner of my eye, and I just unvented it for myself when I was back home.)

I’ve mentioned before, but I’ll say it again: Making the switch to Continental was really rather difficult. Getting an even gauge and even feeling comfortable with the motion (heck, remembering to knit Continental, and not just go back to the old way) took a lot of time. The payoff is so so worth it, though—I’d been a quick knitter before, but I’m lightning-fast now. And since I’m a product knitter, I like speed. (I’m also just an impatient person, so speed works for my personality.)

Here’s a video of me knitting. I don’t try to show you how to form a stitch, I don’t explain how I wrap the yarn: I am just working on my project. Note: This isn’t only knitting—I’m doing a k10, p1. Because purling looks so wacked out, and because I didn’t want people to be confused and think I was actually knitting the entire time, I say “purl” when I get to the purl. (So those of you who haven’t purchased the Tapestry Cowl or who don’t know me in person will get to hear my voice! If I sound stuffy, it’s fall allergy season.)

It’s funny to watch it and dissect the actions. Damn, I move the tips of my index fingers a LOT! Much more than I thought I did. In all the various times I’ve taught someone to knit, I’ve noticed more and more quirks to my style—how I hold the stitch I just knit with the tip of my right index finger. But there are some things I’d never realized until today—I feed myself more yarn by lightly pressing the middle finger of my left hand against the yarn.

I just filmed three short videos showing my technique in slower-motion—more of a tutorial on my version of Continental—with the aim to share that with you, too, but I’m having trouble getting them up onto the web. (And putting all 4 in one post might have been too much for the blog, anyway!) I hope I’ll be able to share them soon.

Knitting is so visual, and yet we rarely take the time to really look at how we do it. I’m loving making these little videos, and I hope to include video with all my future patterns so that the patterns are as clear as possible. But I maybe need some actual video editing software—as it is, I’m uploading straight out of the camera! Does anyone have a suggestion for something easy and, preferably, free?

Wow, you guys! The response to the Tapestry Cowl has been phenomenal. Thank you so much! I’ve got new, totally different, designs in the works, which I hope you’ll like just as much.

Many of you commented on the kick-ass color combo in the official Tapestry Cowl—a not-quite “choqua” pairing of a reddish-brown and a bold light blue. All credit to the color combo goes to Megan, the Knitting Philistine, who watched me stress over a wall of Koigu, looking for the appropriate high-contrast yarns. The girl? She has a sense for color. Which makes it all the more exciting that she’s started making colorful, spectacular fabricy things to sell!

I’m totally smitten with what she’s creating. Click on any of the pillows to buy them now (before it gets snatched out from under you!) Then bookmark her store and keep an eye out for some cleverly made totes, too.

I’m not opening this post up to comments, because you must go over to Pam’s to lavish praise, awe, and enthusiasm on the amazing, amazing birthday present she made me, if you haven’t already. (I’m sure many of you already saw it there.) A whole blouse, perfect in every way. I want to wear it all the time.

Blogfriends are the BEST! Thank you so much, Pam.

My favorite holiday after Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day is another time to tell the people in your life that you love them and are happy to know them. It’s also a time to realize just how very loved you are, as well!

Love you guys. Enjoy the day! I’ll happily bask in the love of all my family and friends. (Who will forgive me for the lack of Valentines of the paper variety this year, I know.)

Left Unfinished #1

Many of you asked about the many many lovely small skeins of yarn I got as a birthday present. They’re Koigu, sample sizes. A friend had received them but she’s not as much of a knitter as I am. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with them, but keen observers noticed that I’d arranged them in a deliberate sequence of progressing colors . . . because I’ve got entrelac on the brain. Note that I’ve never done entrelac before, but how hard can it be? For now, though, the yarn is marinating in a box under the couch. First I need to wait for a night when all I’m in the mood to do is wind yarn on the ball winder. (You can’t force nights like that.)

Left Unfinished #2

I had a contest! Remember? I asked for advice for my newly 30 self. The responses were quite varied, and ranged from the mollifying to the enthusiastic. Personally, I preferred the enthusiastic–no way should anyone be worried about turning 30! I had two prizes to give out–a copy of Folk Socks and a skein of Neighborhood Fiber Company sock yarn (I know I didn’t tell you that that was what it was going to be, but that’s what I have to give). My father was regularly checking the comments, and he couldn’t help weighing in on who should win. I had intended to go with some kind of random number, but he was partially impartial enough for me! (That is, it’s not like he knows one of your from another and could have been playing some kind of preconceived favorites. Plus, my blog, my rules.) I’m happy to announce the winner of the book is Nell, and the yarn goes to Serenknitity! (The book/yarn designation was totally random–it’s not as if he said “I think the yarn is best for her” or anything, and to me they’re equally wonderful gifts. I hope you feel the same way.) Congrats, and thanks everyone for playing! I’ve emailed the winners to ask for addresses, but here’s a reminder to get in touch.

Left Unfinished #3

Jenn tagged me for a meme. I’m a month late and a dollar short, but I figured, hey, I’ll play! I’ve done these kinds of things before, but I’ll try to come up with new and interesting things. “Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.”

1. When I’m waiting to meet a friend, I always fear that I won’t recognize him or her. It’s been pointed out to me that I have no experience of having not recognized someone (also: for some reason I think the sole responsibility for recognizing falls on my shoulders), but the worry comes up nonetheless. This happens no matter how long I’ve known someone–20 years or 2 months–and I inevitably recognize my friend from more than a block away by gait alone.
2. Speaking of gait, I am generally very good at identifying someone by just the sound of their footfalls. This skill was first developed in college, when you hear people walking up and down the hall at all times, and it has been since honed in office settings.
3. You know how a strand of your own hair will come unattached from your head and fall to the floor? Only it almost never falls right to the floor–it settles on your shirt and tickles the back of your arm? This annoys me so much that I am constantly reaching around and grabbing at my arm/shirt to hopefully grasp any stray hairs to get rid of them. I don’t know if I’m particularly sensitive to this, but the slightest end of a strand of hair out of place drives me crazy.
4. I’m one of those people who can smell the asparagus in my pee. Apparently–I read this in a book once–the agent that causes the smell is always there, it’s just that some people can smell it and others can’t.
5. I believe that certain artificial flavors–notably “grape” and anything that uses the word “blue” or crazy blue packaging–don’t taste like anything but that color. That is, things labeled “grape” actually just taste purple, and “Sharkelberry Fin” Kool-Aid (which is raucously blue) just tastes like blue. This theory is particularly convenient when it comes to orange things. (ha!)

So there are my 5 weird facts. In case you didn’t notice, they’re all about the senses.

~

OK! With unfinished business out of the way, I can happily move onto finished business. And then some new unfinished business, which will eventually turn into finished business, and–hey!–I seem to have discovered the trick to this knitblogging thing!

I don’t know how I keep doing it, but I have forgotten about Eye Candy Friday for the past few weeks. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been taking pictures!

In the last week, I went to the Met with friends and saw some “coloury” goodness.

I got back into cooking again, playing with everything from complex flavor pairings (click the picture for the recipe) to old standbys.

I had my 30th birthday party, which was so much fun and made me really happy.

I got some excellent gifts, some useful . . .

Some pretty . . .

And one that truly blew my mind.

And since this is my birthday week, I’m feeling generous. It’s time I gave away that extra copy of Folk Socks that I have, and there will be a yarny second prize as well. So leave me a comment with advice for me as I hit my thirties! (I’ve already gotten the eye cream lecture, thanks.) If you already own the book, please say so, and I will not enter you into the drawing for the book. The contest will be open until midnight on Friday, November 23, when my 30th birthday comes to an official close. I’ll do a random drawing once I’m back from Portland, Oregon, where I’m celebrating Thanksgiving.

I went to Kaffe Fassett’s book signing at Knitty City tonight, with my friend Staci, who is celebrating her 1 year anniversary of learning to knit today! In the past year she’s made several fantastic sweaters. Probably more than I have! And she’s jumped in with both feet–planning a cashmere sweater. I swoon with jealousy. She’s not a blogger . . . yet. But anyway.

Kaffe was charming, funny, witty, and inspiring. Brandon Mably introduced him and spoke a little about their tour so far, and Kaffe showed pieces from the latest book and encouraged everyone to take his work as “recipes” to be built upon, because it’s all about exploring color.

We of course asked to see the back of the pieces. He showed us the back of the blanket (the cover shot), which he had not knit, and deemed it “anal.” Later he showed us the back of one of his own knits, and unfortunately my picture was blurry! But it was only marginally less anal than the blanket, I would say. (And, um, I don’t want to think about the searches that might turn up my blog after the use of that word twice, and once in quotation marks! Let’s not even talk about the fact that Kaffe asked if I was a hooker and I admitted in front of everyone that yes, I am. (He’s a thrower.))

Hila was the teacher’s pet, though, pulling from her bag one of his older books that wasn’t in the store (he referred to it and wanted it as a reference), and even knitting on a glove using the new Kaffe sock yarn–much to his delight. (Show-off!)

This Thursday, November 1, he’s doing a slide presentation about color and inspiration in all its forms (knitting, patchwork, etc) at the Haft Auditorium at FIT, from 6-7:30. I’ll be there, too!

Fall skies are the prettiest.

And for those who are interested, my mom started her own blog, about their new lives in Singapore. Plus, she just finished the Babette blanket!