I can now be labeled

I'm a combination knitter. At least according to this excellent site, where an expert knitter is trying to gain some converts.



I've knit this way all my life and it never occurred to me that this was an anomaly until I noticed that sometimes patterns did not make much sense. And now, after 20+ years of knitting, I discover that my method actually has a name, and someone is trying to teach it to others. I sure see the advantages: no wrist pain ever.



Oh, and that sore pinkie? Well, that comes from ordinary knit stitches, which I learned to make in order to knit in the round (though I still do weird things when I purl in the round).



Well, I'm not alone then. I feel better. Though I hate labels, don't you?

Another FO

Albeit a small one. No, it's not the awaited second sock. It's a camera case:









That's not my camera, of course. It's a birthday gift for my father from my sister, my mom and me. Technically, the case is not yet finished, it needs some blocking and a piece of velcro on the bottom, that's why the flap is hanging. It's not a very professional looking case, but I know he'll use it. It's made with the yarn I got from the retirement home's spring cleaning.

Two potholders

Remember my first Kool-Aid yarn? I thought about different things to do with this very irregular yarn and finally decided to make these two potholders:








One is larger than the other, but not by much. Making these potholders gave me an opportunity to rest my pinkie (so far no pain) and also to practice a couple of new stitches. The small potholder was made in Shaker stitch (from Buss's Big Book of Knitting). I modified the stitch in order to make the larger potholder, and got a less stretchy fabric, but it's just as thick as the Shaker stitch.



I also took a picture of a doily I started about a year ago and then abandoned. Maybe if I post it here I'll get myself to finish it:

More pictures

It seems that getting my hands on the computer is getting harder and harder. Just to give you an idea, my husband spends about 14 hours per day working on it. Which I hope means that he will finish his dissertation soon, he really needs to rest.



Here's the picture I took of my nephew's scarf before packing it:









And here's a picture of the striped yarn I recently dyed:




I'm curious to see how it knits up, but I'm putting this yarn away, since I must finish my yellow and green socks first:







I'm going very slowly, I don't want to get a sore pinkie again.

Finishing a few things

Yes indeed, I finished that beaded scarf, blocked it and packed it. Those two scarves are the only Christmas presents I'm knitting this year. I took a picture of the scarf before packing it, but I'll post it when I get another chance at my husband's computer. I started working again on my striped socks, hoping my pinkie won't resent it.

Michele asked for a link to the beading tecnhique
that I used for the scarves. I tried two other techniques, (I'm sure there's more out there) but this is the one I liked the most. The website does not mention that you cannot have two adjacent beads either vertically or horizontally. That is something I discovered by trial and error. And it kind of makes sense, once you see how it's done.

I don't think I can take four more years.

And if my very depressed husband means it, I won't have to. He said long before the elections that we would leave this country if Bush won.



I have not knitted much, because I want to give my sore pinkie a break, but I hope to finish soon my nephew's scarf. I already finished the airplane, take a look:



I read today that someone does not like pets pictured on knitting blogs. Which is foolish, since Wendy has tons of useful information and a lot of knitting pictures in her blog. I don't see what's wrong with adding pictures of a gorgeous pet that is happy to pose for her owner. Me, I only have Bertoldino, who's a little camera shy, but I still love him and am proud to show him off:





I'm off to pamper myself, I'm not over the elections yet.

Knitter's Pinkie

I've heard some people complain about knitter's wrist, but what I have is a sore left pinkie. This has never happened before and I think it's related to the very thin dpn's I'm using to knit these socks. So in order to rest my pinkie, I chose a different activity: another Kool-Aid experiment (with more sock yarn, not very smart of me).



This time I want the width of the stripes to vary a little bit. So I alternated 15 turns around the top of the same old bottle with eight turns in the middle and 15 turns at the bottom of the bottle. And then, going up, another 8 turns in the middle and 15 turns around the top. The idea is that the color in the middle will create narrower stripes. However, this color will appear twice as often. After winding the yarn, I ended with three connected skeins:





Which I dyed with Sam's Choice cherry flavor (bright red), Wyler's fruit punch flavor (pink), and black cherry Kool aid (dark red). This is the result:







The Wyler's fruit punch had a white precipitate that clouded the jar and it was hard to tell whether the yarn was properly absorbing the color. I was worried about getting yellow "borders" between the colors, but that did not happen. Yarn acts as a candle wick, so the color traveled through the connecting strands. The problem actually was to keep the water at the same level in all three jars to prevent color mixing, since I was dyeing the three sections at the same time in three separate jars.


I am convinced that this would be much cheaper and work perfectly well if I were using food coloring and white vinegar. But I don't usually have any of these ingredients in my kitchen, so I'd rather stick to my little envelopes of junk drinks. They probably smell much better than vinegar anyway.