knit and tonic

Yes, It Looks Funny When we Wear Uggs with Shorts (but Manpris are Worse).

We just returned from a short stay at my father's home in Colorado. This isn't my usual shot with the usual sunshine and the usual mis-match of sweater with bikini action, but you know. One must consider all of the people who actually have a reason to wear a cap other than:

1. Baldness

2. Coolness

3. Bad Hair

4. Roots

5. Fashion

6. My Mom Made it for me

7. My Girlfriend Made it for me

8. It's the Only Way my Toupee Stays Secure

9. Insert Another Excuse Here

I actually gave a slouch cap to HWWV to wear (he's grown facial hair and looks like an exotic what's his name, he's Irish, I think, and smokes a lot and gets drunk, too. Hmmm) while we were in the cold air, but once he got home and plopped it on in the warmer weather he announced that it itched. 

Oy. 

The same thing happens to me but when it's truly cold out, the wool doesn't bother me as much. Years ago, when we were in Lake Tahoe and it was a total blizzard I walked in knee-high snow to the LYS and marveled at how cozy the Noro mohair blend happened to be. The ladies sitting there around the table sort of looked at each other and then one muttered that there are burrs on wool that contract in the cold, so no wonder.

I swear. If I could wear fun caps in warmer temps, I'd carry a chest full of ice with me wherever I go, you know, just to make those burrs go away when it's time to plop the hat back on, just in time, before anyone sees me with hat hair.

Just so you know: It was 70 today and my Pilates instructor wore a cap indoors (and fiddled with the air conditioner).

And I wore Uggs (don't tell anybody).

I guess you have to do what you gotta do, otherwise, how would life be interesting?

I like this cap. I like the pom pom. Whenever I add pom poms to caps, I thread the yarn through the top but tie a nice, tight bow on the underside so I can:

1. Wash it without the pom pom attached.

2. Quickly remove it when pom-pom naysayers are nearby.

I'm testing it out in a finer yarn, this time with the Wollmeise. 

P.S. HWWV: If you're reading this, don't feel bad about your manpris. At least yours don't hit you at the thickest part of your calves.

California, Caps, Hanging Upside Down and Tapping Fingers.

Being a California resident, I never know what people in other parts wear on their heads.

All I know is, that people here will wear whatever they can on their heads for any reason at all. Like 72 degrees. Or for waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Girlfriend, when I went to pick her up at school yesterday, was wearing her water bottle on her head. I kid you not. (Balancing was more like it, but I had to squeeze that fact in.)

I am always surprised when I go to other places where cold weather during winter is the norm. I see all manner of colorful and inspired stuff. 

That is why I decided I needed to break out the needles and just cast on for something textured and different from my norm. Usually, I stick to stuff that I can wear to the gym during the summer, say, a nice stockinette slouch cap for a gig on the Stairmaster. Or, oh, a jaunty beanie to wear at the cantina when there's a cloud over there.

But seriously. I have no clue, folks. But I'm trying.

This one is an attempt and something that looks a little like polka dots but it is more like honeycomb. I'm using Madelinetosh Pashmina and another Madelinetosh that I have to identify that is in the same weight. I knit this much in about four hours. It's an easy and fun slip-stitch pattern. Right now, I'm trying to figure out the best way to close the top. This is bottom-up. 

Maybe that is why I'm having such a hard time figuring it out.

I'm not a fan of hats that have texture or color work and then the designer cops out at the crown, just sticking stockinette or stripes on top where are all the shaping happens.

Knitting top down, sometimes, feels like hanging upside down.

In real life, I don't like hanging upside down.

In this other life, I do.

I think it is sometimes easier to start at the top and work the design in as I increase. It's kind of like backing into math. I have a weird math brain. I tap my fingers when I do math. I touch my fingers together as if to count, under the table when no one is looking.

I'm too lazy to re-design this to be top down.

So I will try to figure this out.

Goodnight.

Making Gifts

I have a problem knitting for others. I am too worried about so many things when I make knitted gifts for others. I would rather knit gifts for other knitters than for those who do not knit. I don't know why. I think it might be because many people think that we "whip up" stuff. I don't whip up stuff. It takes me a long time to think about what the perfect yarn choice would be. I think about whether or not they would use the item. I think about whether or not it will fit them. I think about it all. I don't mind it if it takes me a long time to knit something for someone else. I just don't want my gift to become a burden for them.

Back in the day before I began to knit again, about 12 years ago, I crocheted a baby blanket for a friend. I went to the local big box store and picked out pastels. I crocheted little squares and connected them in a wonky, un-informed way, and gave it to her. She loved it. I remember, though, going over to her house when the baby was about six months old and spotted the blanket in the baby's bassinet. It was falling apart. Embarrassed, I pointed it out and said that I could fix it for her and the mom pushed it down here and there as if to hide the flaws on my behalf. I'm not sure if she thought she had mistreated it through use or if she was trying to save me from my own distress. I ran into her a few days ago and I still feel the sting.

But giving out of love is good. Even if it's a risk. Like this pin cushion I made for a friend. My stitches are wonky (and she's practically a master stitcher). I under-filled the thing with walnut shells (but he's still cute). She may never use it (yet it's okay with me, he'd probably fall apart if she did). 

So there.

BTW: I've knit my sis leg warmers (not a Christmas gift since we're not exchanging. I'll take her in the back room to give them to her when we have our Christmas gathering this weekend). I also made a headband for my niece and am thinking of making some fingerless gloves for Girlfriend. HWWV? He *might* get socks if he is a good boy. NEWSFLASH: He just emailed me from the next room saying he wanted a certain memory card. Therefore, no socks. Gotta love technology.

Productive Again.

Funny how this blog thing works for some people. I remember starting to write this several years ago and next thing I know I'm writing a book and then another and then another and then another. The world is a mighty interesting place to live.

My husband found a new career from this blog as well. He's now a working photographer (not full time though) and is doing nicely. I asked him to take photos for me and he discovered that he enjoyed it and everything happened from there.

Which brings me to the old addage about the cobbler and the fact that his kids and wife have no shoes.

He's so busy now that I'm relying more and more on my own photographic skills (none), not to mention, he's in a land far, far away and won't be home for another week or so, so you're gonna get pics from me via Instagram. All of them will be in front of or near my lovely, but gaudy, gold mirror, to boot.

So, I finished the cap. The Big Pom-Pom Vehicle. The one for Girlfriend. Notice her teeth. She yanked four of them out in the course of one week. All of them from the backseat of my car. This backseat is her favorite tooth-yanking spot second to her seat in class at school. In her fourth-grade year she pulled out at least three sitting there. But this last bout was so fast and fierce we had to put I.O.U.'s under her pillow. Do any of you have kids who don't ask others to pull their teeth out? I think her dad pulled just one out of all of the ones she's lost.

The fourth tooth that came out that week was different though because HWWV forgot about it and when she reminded him in the morning that the tooth fairy hadn't arrived, he just wrote out another I.O.U. and handed it to her. Kids who lose a lot of teeth at once are expensive these days. (I used to get a dime. But then, my mom would fold an entire origami house with furniture and hide the dime under the couch . . . . Girlfriend used to get two-dollar bills, but then when the molars started to come out, we upped it to fivers and wow. I know of kids who get 20 bucks! Don't get me started on that subject, please. Oh, and thankfully this is a knitting blog. Imagine if it were a parenting/breast-feeding/vaccination/insert-another-contentious-subject-here type of blog. Oy.)

I also knit myself a sweater. It was sort of an accident. I taught a class on top-down raglan construction without a pattern and the Berroco Remix was so fast and easy to knit with that I knit that sucker in practically 10 hours' time. The Remix is an odd mix of nylon, cotton, acrylic , silk and linen, and you wouldn't think it'd be soft or wearable based on that list, but it is. The put-ups are generous (I knit the entire yoke portion with just one ball!). So generous that I knit this in a reasonably generous (for me) 38" circumference with just FOUR balls. And you know me by now: Oddly, I hardly ever wear sweaters, but wish I could. This one, however, is fun and I'm all over it!

Cap info: Two skeins of HiKoo by Skacel Collection, Inc. Simplicity in blue and green. Just a basic top-down beanie that I did on the fly with stripes. Fun and easy.

BTW: Girlfriend just told me that another tooth is loose.

BTW2: She gets her cast off next week. Her arm is healing well. Thanks for the comments and notes asking about it.

 

 

 

Pom-Poms? Yes, please!

Ah, the perfect pom-pom! So round and happy. The bigger the better, I say. When I saw this yarn, I just knew I'd have to find a reason to make a huge two-color pom-pom and plop it on top a hat. It's good news that I have a little kid in my life who can still carry off a huge pom-pom and wear it with aplomb.

I mean, huge pom-poms on a woman my age? . . well, I may as well put on my old cheerleader outfit--another blog post entirely; I may as well never discuss the thankfully short jr. high phase--this was a long time ago before I realized that peppy isn't my strong suit, but get me started on the subject of pom-poms? The peppy in me just bursts to the surface.

So the pom-pom: I can make them with cardboard. I can make them with forks. Pom-pom makers? You bet. I even dreeeeammm of owning a pom-pom maker that makes heart shapes. The key is to liberally load the form/maker with yarn and after cutting, you have to tie a thinner and strong yarn or thread around it really, really tightly so the pom-pom doesn't shed. Then, the last thing you absolutely have to do is get a super sharp pair of scissors and trim it "just so." Actually, giving it a pretty thorough trim makes it look more compact, more perfect, more happy.

And when I finally attach a pom-pom to the top of a hat, I always tie it on. That way, I can remove it for laundering. Wet pom-pom = sad pom-pom.

But bobbles? Forget about them. . . they aren't even a fraction as happy as a pom-pom and they're a pain in the arse to knit. Not to mention, you have to be careful about placement if you get my drift.

Some links for you if you're inspired:

• making pom-poms with scrap cardboard 
• making pom-poms with a fork! 
• making pom-poms with Clover forms; cute blog post

Pictures of Girlfriend in her new cap will come after blocking as well as a sad trombone pic of my most recently failed infinity scarf wonder.

 

 

Sad Pile, Happy Pile

Remember that cowl thingy that I was happily knitting last week? Well, I bound off and **sad trombone** (that would be "wha wha wha" Debbie Downer, you-know-what-I-mean sound effect) let's just say that it didn't work out the way I envisioned.

Number One: When I converted the afghan stitch stitch pattern to in the round, well, let's just say I didn't do it correctly.

Number Two: I didn't put the thing on waste yarn and see how it was going mid-progress, which is fine, but I always tell knitters that they should so why shouldn't I? I guess it might be wise to follow my own advice.

Number Three: I just went to twitter (my handle: @KnitTonicWendy) and actually typed the following: "There are no regrets in knitting."

Number Four: Number Three is laughable because knitting isn't serious enough to warrant the "no regrets" comment. Sheesh. I mean, we love it and all, but to regret something about knitting? It's not like I purposely designed a man-thong. Whoops! I just found something about knitting that I'd regret! Not that I'd design or knit such a thing because, well, I just wouldn't and from what I can gather, there are plenty of willing knitters out there who will! (Not to mention, there aren't standards out there in terms of sizing.)

Number Five: Har.

So the Afghan Wonder will be no longer. But I do have a Happy Pile. Leg Warmers! Malabrigo Rios in
English Rose! For Dooze's (my sister) Christmas present! Nothing easier! Just 3 x 2 rib! Reversible! Washable! On my favorite needles! The Knitter's Pride ones! Dreamz! Dreamz for Dooze!

Insert **sad trombone** here.

That was, until everyone decided that only the kids are exchanging gifts this year.

But this Happy Pile still makes me happy. Knit on my friends, and be fabulous.

BTW: Guess who broke her arm?

After I'm gone my hope is that Girlfriend will encourage others to be fabulous. I mean, is there any other way around life?

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I am thankful for what I'm typing on, what I'm knitting on, who I'm kissing, and that my glass is half full despite all rumors that my knitting these days is something that I could regret if I wanted to but I won't, so there.

 

Knitting Medicine and Exercise and Sorry I've Been Away (Sick, Ugh)

Every once in awhile, I get this urge to knit something without thinking about it too much. You know, just crank something out and keep moving along in spite of niggling suspicions that it might not look quite right.

I think this urge comes from long-ago writing instructors and mentors who told me to just keep writing, to keep putting words to paper and worry about editing later. That, in essence, that the writing is what is important and not getting it right, right away is something to think about later, after the thoughts are there.

Problem is, with knitting, editing isn't necessarily as easy as it is with writing.

Oh well. We'll see what happens. I guess it is good to do this as a creative exercise every once in awhile. I think many knitters and designer-knitters have a tendency to over think and in the end, it all becomes an anxiety, a worry, a big weight on the shoulders.

I can't tell you how many times I read an email sent to me by a worried knitter who read through a pattern of mine several times and had a hard time casting on until every, single question/worry/concern/stitch count was thought through and answered to the "T" before they could let it all go and move forward. Almost every, single time, I write back, copying--nearly word for word--the exact instructions in the pattern, the ones they were concerned about, and they read it and reply: "Oh! I get it now!" (Sorry if this is you and you now feel tricked. Sometimes people just need to see the instructions in a different context for the a-ha moment to happen.)

I had five leftover colors of Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight Alpaca on hand and I've been intrigued by chevrons and afghan stitch these days. I have thought all along that chevrons have a tendency to be too structural and too regular for me and thought if I tweaked the stitch counts of the pattern repeats that I'd come away with some irregular chevrons that might be even more appealing.

I have a feeling I will be wrong but I will be diligently strong and just keep knitting. Whatever happens, happens, right? For me, it's an important exercise and dang it, I'll take my medicine.

BTW: I'm using these new Knitter's Pride Cubic circular needles. I've had them for awhile but never used them. I think they're quite nice, actually. The tips are sharp so lifting stitches over the others (as I need to with afghan stitch) is nice and easy. The fact that they're square doesn't seem to matter to me except I think the squareness makes it easy for me to hold the needles a little looser so there's less tension in my fingers. The jury is still out, but I think I can give these a thumbs up so far. (Not to mention, I absolutely love their Dreamz needles.)

Oh, and I think this thing will be a circular scarf that I can double up and use as a cowl.

Shrimp, Frogs, Swatches, and Eel, None of Which I will ever Eat Again.

So, I've told you about the Tank of Doom, right? Last I mentioned it, I think I told you how Godot the Frog and Jumbo the Shrimp jumped ship. We found Jumbo the Shrimp on Girlfriend's bathroom floor that next morning and Godot was missing for about a month until he turned up in HWWV's closet at the bottom of his dirty clothes hamper.

Since then, we set up a much larger tank but the drama continues. The most notable occurrence was the new shrimp, Dinner the Shrimp, when he was about two days in the tank, mysteriously fell dead (or played dead). HWWV fished him outta the Tank o' Doom and wrapped him in a paper towel and deposited him in the kitchen garbage. The next morning, HWWV looks at me with a wry grin and says, "Real funny."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, it's realllll funny, you putting Dinner the Shrimp in the wineglass."

"I didn't put Dinner in that wineglass. Why would I put Dinner in that wineglass"?

Then, holding up a wineglass from the night before with leftover wine and DINNER at the bottom of it, he said "So tell me; how'd he get in here?"

Discuss.

On other news, I have lots of knitting that I'm working on, but nothing to show except for a swatch I knit that turned out really well (yes, I do swatch. I swatch a LOT). I was fiddling around with some chevrons and the good ol' afghan stitch and came up with this. I used scraps of Blue Sky Alpacas sportweight
wool. 

Some knitters just don't swatch but I do. I swatch for the heck of it, in fact. I try to make them all about the same size and dream of a future afghan that I can make some day. Think about it: You could totally do that if you swatched for each project you make. The good thing about swatching is the part about getting to know the stitch and the yarn before taking the plunge and knitting something that's going to take you hours and hours.

It's like a first date, you know?

I like how both sides of this one looks, but I think I like the wrong side even better.

And do you see that bottle of Eucalan Wrapture there? My friend, Kristin Omdahl, her name is on it. Turns out she's been working with Eucalan and came up with a signature scent for them. She wrote me and asked if I'd try it out, and since I'm swatching like a madwoman these days, I figured it would be a good way to give it a try as I rarely have to wash sweaters. (The weather's in the 90's today, really? . . .)

This is another no-rinse wash that you can use on anything that requires hand washing (like swatches). That tiny bottle will last me for a long time because all you need is a tiny bit. The scent is nice (jasmine) and once my swatch was completely dry, it had only a faint scent left over. If you like jasmine or feminine scents that aren't overpowering, you will love this. If you don't like anything scented, I also have the no-scent Eucalan and it works just as well.

So with that, I'm off to check on Bob the Eel. Yes, we have an eel. This morning we found him in the filtering system.

Probably because there weren't any leftover wine glasses hanging around.

The Swagger and Some Honesty About the Knit Designer/Publishing World

I was driving home just now and it occurred to me that if one has a swagger, that it'd take a lot more calories to walk a mile than if one did not have a swagger. I do not have a swagger.

On other thoughts: I've read with interest different comments from knitters who say they won't pay for knitting patterns. I'm not thinking that all knitters feel that way. But, some do. I wonder why that is. Some knitters will pay oodles of cash for yarn (like, upwards of 12 dollars a skein for a sweater's worth of yarn) but put the kabosh on a price tag of five dollars for a pattern that's not a drive-by freebie. You know, the full-on pattern with all the bells and whistles including professional editing and photography. I will totally admit; however, that single patterns can and do have a range of quality. But that doesn't mean that people should expect that patterns need to always be free. Or, that someone who comes up with the pattern should not be compensated.

Speaking from experience, designing a knit pattern, knitting samples, and having it edited isn't a free or quick process. Some patterns, even patterns for hats, have taken me more than a month to produce. And in some cases--especially since a knitwear designer cannot predict the potential popularity of a pattern--it can take months, if not forever, to recoup the costs of producing it professionally.

When my brother Marc was in high school, his goal, other than making good grades, was to never wear anything but shorts and flip flops the entire four years through rain, sunshine, cold, warm and earthquakes (we didn't have sleet or snow). That was his goal and he achieved that goal. He even wore shorts and flip flops under his graduation gown. And when I see someone proudly announce: "I've never ever paid for a knitting pattern and I don't intend to!" I think of him.

So anyway, and in all seriousness, I have to hand it to Shannon Okey (Knitgrrl), the founder of Cooperative Press. Her goal is to find a way to ensure that all the individuals involved in producing a fiber publication will be able to share profits more equally than what we see in the "usual" business models when it comes to knitwear designers. When knitwear designers create a pattern for a magazine, what typically happens is that they get a design approved, they knit a sample from yarn sent to them and provide a pattern in a super-fast time frame . . . then the publication takes it from there. The publishing house edits it, they photograph it and then when they publish the magazine, several months later, they will pay the designer a fee. Sometimes the designer has the opportunity to make royalties on online single-pattern sales which get paid out twice a year. With books, it is similar, but not always the same. In some cases, especially when a book is an edited group of patterns contributed by several designers, the designer can expect to receive a very small one-time fee (way less than a non-luxury car payment) and absolutely no royalties at all. The editor of that book? I have no idea.

Yes, I have contributed to books and received either nothing or maybe a hundred or two hundred bucks for my contribution. It was my choice and I did it, but this is what people like me face, which is fine. We live in a world where we have choices. I'm not going to--and never will--complain because I also have it good. I am backed by a great publisher and have worked with a handful of wonderful organizations, too.

So, when I see a business model like Cooperative Press, I get excited. Cooperative Press differs from a standard publisher in that they pay four-to-five-times higher royalties, embrace digital as well as print and offer authors a greater degree of creative control than what they'd normally receive. The thing is, unlike a large publisher, they don't have the money or the publicity power that a bigger house has. So that's why I'm spreading the word.

I have copies of several of their publications, namely their recently published ones in the Fresh Design series which features books on shawls, men, scarves and sweaters. They are available as e-books as well as print. These are not super-slick coffee table books, but that is not what they are meant to be. They are edgy and reflect the aesthetic of many everyday knitters. 

Here are my favorites from each of the books:

Fresh Designs Scarves: Diamond Sampler by Sylvia Cannizzaro (It's Sanguine Gryphon yarn!)

Fresh Designs Shawls: Sea of Tulips Stole by Anna Dalvi

Fresh Designs Men: Gone Fishin' Sweater by Karen Bourquin (no wonder I love it; it's hemp!)

Fresh Designs Sweaters: Ziggy by Pamela Wynne

Wrong. Directions.

So I was teaching a design-your-own shawl class at Unwind today and I asked the group if they were pickers/throwers/etc and the group was pretty mixed. I then said that if you're someone who has knit a certain way for a very long time it may not be worth trying to make a switch. After that, I said that I was taught to throw but since the span of time between learning/quickly quitting and picking up knitting again (like, a span of 30 years) that I made the switch pretty comfortably.

"Not me," said one of my students.

"I guess you could have called me an Eastern Combo Knitter" . . . (not sure if I have the lingo correct) . . . "I was just a beginner and I was happily knitting for awhile and sooo excited that I taught a ton of people how to knit. Then, one day, I decided to incorporate some new skills and realized that I couldn't knit two together using my 'technique'."

"So, I showed someone what I was doing and they told me that I was twisting my stitches and doing some other things and the method I was following wouldn't allow me to maneuver my stitches and I had to completely re-learn how to knit."

And then she paused.

"But the problem was, I had already taught all these other people to knit. The. Wrong. Way."

Ooops.

Which reminded me of the time, at a gas station, a car full of nuns pulled up. The driver nun got out of the car and all shook up, she said:

"We're lost. How do I get on the Southbound 101 from here?"

"You'll be just fine, sister" I assured her.

"See that onramp over there, right near that tree? Just follow that onramp and you'll be happily heading south, I promise."

Then, I finished gassing up my car, got on the 101 heading north so I could go home and drove about a mile. Then, I looked to my right and there they were, all five nuns, happily driving . . . north.

Ooops.

And sorry about the hiatus. We've had some "life" happen to our family. We will be okay. : )

BTW: The other weekend, guess who sat near our table? I'm not usually a drooling fan, but we totally had to kinnear him.