One more knitting picture

I finally finished my scarf!

That’s my fifth and final of the summer. This is what became of that delicious Inca Cotton yarn (Joseph Galler, Inc.) that I bought at Green Planet Yarn. It took the whole twist, minus a few inches. I’m going to attempt to write a pattern for it at the bottom of this post.

The other thing I wanted to say was that I was originally going to take it with me to Sweden, but then I heard about the Red Scarf Project, and now I’m seriously considering giving my beloved scarf up. The Red Scarf Project takes donated homemade scarves and gives them to foster kids entering college. Did that just break your heart? It did mine. I just wish I’d heard about it a month or two ago, because I could have made an extra scarf just for the project. As it is, this is what I have. And it was fun to make, but I don’t really need it. I’m kind of a scarf addict, so I’ve got plenty. It’s always way more fun to make scarves for other people, anyways.

(p.s. I know my scarf isn’t red, but they accept any gender-neutral color)

The reason I mention the Red Scarf Project at all isn’t to make myself look good (remember, “considering” giving up the scarf means “considering” keeping it, too :p ). But I figure that the more links there are to this amazing organization, the more a few other ambitious knitters out there will find out about it. Even if I don’t give this scarf up, I might inspire some other people to donate to the project this year (The current submission period this year is September 1 through October 31, so you knitters out there better get started!). And now that I know about it, I have some good knittins to look forward to when I come back! Besides my goal to make a sweater.

Okay, here’s my attempt at writing a knitting pattern, so unless you’re really interested, you can stop reading now. :p

Haley’s Cable Scarf

Cast on 38 stitches.

So I started and finished with a little bit of ribbing just to make the ends smooth, so it’s about 6 rows of knit 1, purl 1, on both sides.

Then the cabling starts.

Row 1: Purl 2, knit 6, purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, knit 6, purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, knit 6.

Row 2: Knit 2, purl 6, knit 2, purl 4, knit 2, purl 6, knit 2, purl 4, knit 2, purl 6.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 one more time each.

Then you do the same stitching for Row 1, except now you do the cable stitch-switching (I’m a great pattern-writer—you can tell I know what I’m talking about! :p ). It looks something like this:

Purl 2, put 3 stitches on cable needle, knit 3, knit the 3 stitches off the cable needle, purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, do the same thing with the cable needle, purl 2, knit 4, purl 2, do the same with the cable needle, purl 2.

Do the next row just like Row 2, then do the same Row 1, Row 2 pattern for 10 rows

When you feel like your scarf is just about long enough (for me it was when I could tell I was running out of yarn), do (I think) only 5 rows (Row 2, Row 1, Row 2, Row 1, Row 2) after the cable switcharoo, then 6 rows of knit 1, purl 1 ribbing.

Bind off.

I’m sorry it’s not more concrete than that, but I was just kind of figuring it out as I went along. You might have to play with it a little to get it to look right. Just remember that you do the cable switcharoos when you’re knitting on the front side and any switching between ribbing and cables is done on the front side. If that makes sense.

Good luck!

More needles!

So the knitting excursion to Green Planet Yarn yesterday was a success! I have brought another convert to the world of knitting, and she loves it too! I also made quite a bit of headway on my own scarf; I’ll have to put a picture up soon. And it was fun to see all the regulars as well as some new faces. I always like making friends! And I got to tell Gunilla the Swedish employee that I’m going to Sweden for a year and a half! She was jealous because she hasn’t been there in sixteen years but she was happy for me.

Plus it was fun to get to know my coworker better. We stopped at her house and I got to meet her parents, and I guess I’m not the typical friend she brings home (I’m like, clean-cut or something?). She got a kick out or saying “bye, we’re going knitting!” to her parents. Haha.

Good times!

Needles!

Knitting update: I finished the cable scarf a couple weeks ago and promptly gave it to Tashina as a birthday present. I also completed another checkerboard scarf, quite like my first one—same yarn and everything—except narrower, and gave it to my mom. See, she coveted the first one I made and kept hoping I’d change my mind about giving it to Allison. But Allison’s birthday came first. Game over. Anyways, now she has her own Haley original to keep her neck warm and fuzzy.

And I have finally started my own scarf with that delicious Inca cotton I bought. It’s got some fat cables and some skinny columns, which I’ve considered making into cables as well, going the opposite direction, but I’m not sure I want to think that hard. My goodness that cotton is soft! Someday I’m going to make me a sweater out of it.

And if all goes well, I’ll go back to Green Planet Yarn tomorrow with a coworker who wants to learn how to knit, and I promised her I’d teach her before I leave on my mission. We’d better get ‘er done soon, because I’m T-minus 30 days and counting!

I also think I might be getting a carpal tunnel flare-up in my left wrist from knitting so much. Well my wrists will get a nice long vacation in Sweden, because I won’t be doing TOO much typing, or piano, or knitting, or guitar. Mama’s got bigger fish to fry!

some happy things

Number one: It turns out I like running! I have always loathed running, but if I have a buddy and we take it slow and chat while we’re at it, I can actually do it and enjoy it at the same time! What’s more, I can do about two miles if I pace myself. Now that’s something. I haven’t even run a mile since we were required to do it in high school. Now if I could just keep up the running when I’m actually in school (time-management has always been a problem, and I don’t do well with cold air in the winter months), I’d be set. And, frankly, this is more about keeping my heart healthy than anything. I do not exercise for vanity (okay, I admit, the hardening muscles in my legs are a perk!).

Number two: I started riding my bike to work again! The air has been much better for some time now, but I was already in the habit of driving and suddenly I couldn’t be ready early enough to ride my bike. But now my parents are back in town and I have to actually juggle for a car again, and the weather has been so nice, and so I decided it was time. Oh, it feels good. I’ll have to go to the library soon (I think I have an overdue DVD, while I’m at it).

Number three: I finally went to the yarn shop in Campbell! A boy in my ward, Kaden (he’s about 10 but I’m not really sure), likes to knit too, so I took him to Green Planet Yarn in Campbell. And we had a blast. I had known for a few years that there is a yarn shop in Campbell where you can go and sit and knit, and I’ve always wanted to go. I’m so glad I finally did. Now it turns out that Green Planet has only been there about three months, and it was another yarn shop that used to be on the same street, that closed some months ago. But that’s all right. I got to know the owner and some of the regulars, and OH MY GOSH they have the most scrumptious yarns. That’s right, scrumptious. Kaden bought some beautiful silk yarn and I got some delicious Inca cotton from Peru. I’ve already started what is going to be a beee-utiful cable-knit scarf for myself (that’s right, finally something for myself). It was so much fun. I went back today and hung out for a little while too. They know me now.

Number four: I can knit hats! I finished that checkerboard scarf and promptly gave it to my best friend as an early birthday present. So I was itching for a new project. Laurie Perry gives great easy instructions for a simple rollbrim hat in her book Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair, so I rode my bike to Michaels after work yesterday and bought some circular knitting needles and some double-ended needles. Perry recommends starting with the circular, and then when you have to decrease the stitches to come to the top of the head, switching to the double-ended. Well the circular ended up being the wrong length, so I just started with the double-ended (they let you knit in a circle by knitting from one needle to the next), and it’s actually not too bad! And today one of my new chums at the yarn shop showed me something called “magic loop” where you can pretend to shorten the cable on the circular needles. Anyways, I’m excited! I went to downtown San Jose today to have lunch with my dad, and I had pulled out the hat I was working on, and the Italian waitress got all excited because she didn’t know that Americans could knit. Haha

So yeah, life is good.

knitting pictures

Here’s a quote from the introduction to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knitting and Crocheting:

Like many crafts, [knitting and crocheting] grew out of necessity: People needed a way to take simple tools and supplies and craft them into usable items. Today, base survival barely figures into knitting and crocheting. Your family members aren’t dependent on your knitting skills to keep their feet toasty; usable socks are easy enough to buy from a store.

And yet, more and more people continue to learn these crafts. In fact, their popularity has escalated substantially in recent years. Young adults are looking for a creative, relaxing outlet are turning to knitting and crocheting as an after-hours escape from life’s hectic pace. The choice to stitch or not to stitch adds a new freedom to the crafts that wasn’t there either at the turn of the century, when women felt compelled to stitch for survival, or in the liberated ’60s, when women felt compelled to make a statement and not stitch. Folks are now knitting and crocheting because they choose to.

I remember reading somewhere, either in this book or another (it could be Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair), that knitting seemed to skip a generation, from our grandmothers who had to knit out of necessity, to our mothers who decided not to knit simply because they didn’t have to, to this generation where people are picking the needles back up. Whoever wrote this also said that it shows that people want to make things with their hands. Sometimes this world of technology leaves us feeling a bit disconnected, but knitting and crocheting, and other activities like gardening, bring our bodies–and souls–back to the good earth.

And another quote from Idiot’s Guide:

Some experts believe that working with your hands, following repetitive motions–such as those in knitting, crocheting, and needlepoint–actually fuel the creative process in other areas of your life. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, believes that by allowing your hands to work repetitiously your brain can simultaneously think through solutions creatively.

Cool! So many of my daily activities (school, work, etc) require both my hands and my brain, especially when I do editing work and my brain is filled with words and punctuation marks. I often feel like when I’m on my own to think, my brain is so tired that I usually just want to sleep instead. But I have found that activities just using my hands, like knitting (or, for some strange reason, scrubbing the bathroom), keep my body busy so I stay awake, but they let my mind roam around so I can actually think.

Okay, enough introspection. Here are the pictures I promised. (You can click on each one for a short explanation of why I think that picture is important)

I’m such a grandma

new old hobby

My grandmother taught me how to knit when I was a child, say, probably six. The first pattern she taught me was for a cotton dishcloth. As a result, my mom gets a kick out of telling the story about how I stood up in show-and-tell in school and announced proudly, “My gramma makes rags!” Well, over the past fifteen years or so, I made lots and lots of dishrags and the occasional plain-stitched rectangular scarf. I also learned how to crochet and made some pretty plain hats and scarves. My dishrag knitting turned into saving these similar-sized squares to make an eventual sort of patchwork afghan thing. Which I am still working on. But I love knitting! I always have. I have a habit of knitting during General Conference as a way to stay awake. I’m not bored; I’m just narcoleptic if I don’t have something to do with my hands.

I have a point to this. This summer I’ve been working at the Hallmark Store, and we carry a delightful book called Crazy Aunt Purl’s Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair: the true-life misadventures of a 30-something who learned to knit after he split. Crazy Aunt Purl is the working nickname of Laurie Perry, the author. It’s kind of a self-help book, not something I usually go for, but the stories she tells are true and heartfelt and often funny. Basically, in her antisocial funk after her husband left her, a friend dragged her to a knitting class just to get her out of the house, and she got hooked. The knitting side of it was what originally caught my eye, but it talks about things that anyone can relate to. Starting to date again after the horrific end of a long-term relationship. Insecurities in growing older. Learning to be a whole person on your own. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So her discussion of her knitting adventures, only a minor part of the book, made me think about my knitting, and how I’ve been making the same things over and over since I was six. And I thought, well, I’m on summer break and have nothing better to do, maybe it’s time to go back to my old hobby and learn something new. I already own The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knitting and Crocheting, a fantastic get-started book that lets you go at your own pace (which, depending on my mood, can be rocket-fast or snail-slow). I bought it years ago (and by “bought it” I mean “asked for it for Christmas”) because it had both knitting and crocheting, so it was like a 2-for-1 deal. So I pulled that off the shelf a few weeks ago and learned how to purl, which as knitters out there know is basically the backwards of knitting. And then I learned how to do stockinette stitch (which, if you look closely, is the weave t-shirts are made out of), and then ribbing, and then checkerboard, and then (gasp) cables! I’ll take some pictures of my work soon and upload them because it’s awesome. It’s amazing what you can do just by alternating two very easy stitches (knitting and purling) in different patterns. Wow. I love it. I love knitting. I made a beautiful ribbed scarf, and now I’m working on a checkerboard one and a cabled one. After that, I want to do a couple more chapters in my book and learn increasing and decreasing and knitting in a circle, so I can make hats and that sort of thing. My brother really wants me to make him some mittens. We’ll see if I have time before I leave on a mission. If not, I’ll learn how when I come back!

I love picking up old hobbies and giving them new life. I’ve also considered painting again this summer, ever since I read Asher Lev. But I don’t want to overwhelm myself. I just want to have fun making things with my hands. It’s productive.