Shivery Knits

Finished and Started

Finished:

Started:

Pi Day

Piggy

Still knitting...

Just not having a lot to say about it at the moment.

I did it!

When we went to Iceland in the Fall of 2012, I knew that I wanted to get some Icelandic yarn and make myself a sweater.

Buying yarn=easy

Knitting a sweater=pretty easy. (This is big yarn, people.)

Steeking the sweater=a little harder.

Inserting a zipper = so hard it stopped me from finishing this sweater for more than six months...

Finally, one day I just put on my big girl pants, read every online tutorial I could find and went for it.

And, at last, a sweater! (A very itchy sweater.... Anyone got any tips for what to wear under Icelandic wool?)

Satisfying

Replacement Knitting - Part 2

My sister in law recently went to a Har Mar Superstar concert. (Favorite song of the night: Restless Leg)  This news would not normally be blogworthy, but, unfortunately, she came home from the concert without her favorite winter scarf. Which was hand knit.

And which she has worn regularly for years.

And which I happened to have the same yarn for in my stash.

She now has a new shawl. Maybe Har Mar does too?

Replacement Knitting - Part 1

Some of my most beloved handknit socks recently developed not one

but two holes!

The yarn is well and truly worn out.

Fortunately new socks are ready to take their place in the closet, but I think it will be a while before my old favorites are truly replaced. 

After all, these socks haven't been to nearly as many interesting places yet.

Three Things

I knit three things in this photo:

 

On Knit Blogging

Just before leaving work this evening I read the Yarn Harlot's 10th Anniversary Blog Post. She writes:

Over the years  Ravelry and Facebook have taken the place of many blogs, feeding  knitter's need for connection without a needing a blog, and many bloggers have taken their daily updates and thoughts to those platforms. 

And then I got on the bus and knit on my sock and thought about what it is I like so much about reading blogs, why it is that I read blogs by knitters almost every day, and why (though I like it) I rarely visit Ravelry.

And what I decided is that I like the story that goes with the knitting.  The story about how Jean Miles is knitting a second bridal shawl so that her granddaughter will have one of her very own. Or why Kate Davies is knitting a series about Edinburgh. Or why Lene decided to knit more socks for her daughter even though they wear out so fast. Or why Ann is knitting fair isle and Kay is knitting a(nother) cowl. Or whose children are wearing their knitted gifts. And I love the bloggers who with almost no words at all and just a few pictures give you a peak at their life -- a road trip, or their dog, or a race, or their kids.

And I love the connections. That I knew of June first through her blog and because she designed the DNA scarf -- and then I got to meet her and know her. That I sometimes know how much it snowed in Rochester even though I no longer live there. And that anyone, not just a knitter or a Ravelry member can wander by and say hello (or not).

I love that a blog gives a knitter room to tell you the story and not just a pretty picture and the gauge and the needle they used (although all those things can be super helpful).

Room, for example, to tell you that one reason the sock they are knitting is special is because it's knit from yarn their college roommate sent them in a package. The kind of package with the perfect mix of favorite things and new things that makes you feel loved. That the yarn came already wound into a ball and not a cake and so it must have been wound by hand.

Room to tell you that the sock was cast on one night because the only other piece of knitting-in-progress in the house was a bohus hat and that just shouldn't be touched after a hot toddy.

So thanks to all those bloggers out there still blogging. This reader appreciates your stories.