Swatch 1: K2P2 ribbing with garter stitch

For all you non-knitters, we've arrived at vocabulary.  K2P2 is a sequence of stitches that makes the ribbing you find on the bottom of your sweater, or at the base of the sleeves.  Garter stitch defines what you do each row, in this case you knit.  (Put the right needle from front to back, wrap the yarn and pull thru).

Here's a closeup of Swatch 1.  You can see the ribbing at the bottom and then the rows of knitting.

Close-up of the ribbing and the garter stitch

Each swatch will be a combination of stitches and techniques.  All of the swatches will be worked in the same yarn -- BORING, very BORING.  I wanted to use pink or chartreuse but, no, it was suggested rather strongly that natural is naturally the color that any natural born knitter desirous of the designation should use.  Okay, I'll play.

Here's what it looks like against one of the colorful placemats on our dining table.

This is the finished swatch.  About 6 inches from top of the knitting to the bottom of the rib
About 4.5 inches wide

More swatches are calling my name ...

Yarn Bombing with Crochet Interlude

The Bamboo plant again -- this time with the shawl draped over it.  I think they call it yarn bombing.  (It will be a test of readership if someone corrects me via a comment.)

The yarn is alpaca and silk and very soft.  Fits nicely just around the shoulders.  I will fasten it with a brooch or something.  Excuse to buy a shawl pin?

Crochet shawl, alpaca/lace blend, lace weight yarn with size G crochet hook.

Crochet Interlude

Started knitting swatch #1 last night but meanwhile . . .

If you're a project person, you know what it means to have several things 'in the works' -- some folks call these UFO's  (UnFinished Object)  You do not want to know how many of these are secreted in my yarn closet, inside tote bags, stuffed into boxes, and otherwise hidden so that I can be surprised when I run across them.

So every so often I take a solemn oath that goes something like this:  "I will finish two UFO's before I start something new."  The project pictured below is one of the solemn oath projects.

Read the title of this post again -- it doesn't say anything about knitting.  Maybe you don't play with fibers using needles or hooks or thread.  A little clarity might help -- the project pictured is a CROCHETed scarf. This means I used a hook, instead of the clacking wooden needles that you see knitters working with.

The yarn was a gift from friend Fiona, during her US Labor Day visit from Perth, Western Australia.  She bot the yarn at Churchmouse Teas and Yarns on Bainbridge Island, WA, USA and presented the yarn and a pattern as a hostess gift.

Well knitters are all rebels at heart so -- i didn't knit it, I didn't use the pattern she gave me, and I didn't use the crochet hook that might have been recommended for the size of the yarn.

I like it a lot.  I will wear it on November 9 to the Glitter Gala where I will be the guest of colleague Cathy Gibson and her Evolve Partner Group at the annual benefit for Goodwill of Seattle.

The Bit of Leftover Yarn -- just squeaked by on finishing

Leftover yarn with small brooch

Here's the shawl wit a pin to show you relative size

(But before I block it -- more later)

Another close-up so you can see the colors

Lumps -- wet and lumpy and ready to apply cold water

Wet, heavy, drippy and draining

Squeezed gently in the Sham-Wow (can you see the words)

Ugly orange color, quite obscene but they serve a purpose

And finally on the blocking board -- damp wool, stretched and anchored with pins.

I'll let it dry overnight.

Next project will take me back to knitting.  Swatches await.

Supplies in the Sun

I have everything I need -- yarn, needles, my own know-how.  No reason not to begin.

Was thinking the other day about the way I get work done.  I like to have a plan and goals.  That's just me. So what do you think about this:

1. At least three days each week, early in the morning when I am best and things are quiet, I will work on swatches and prepare my answers for the questions that accompany each swatch.
2. I'll post something as I make progress -- with pictures
3. I'll work to have everything in the mail -- swatches, research, my notebook of replies -- by January 15, 2012.

Yes, I like a plan.  And having written it down, I reckon I'll have to stick with it.

Here are a few pix of my supplies, taken under the new and flourishing bamboo on our back deck.  And yes, it's in a pot -- the bamboo, not the supplies.  I haven't yet found a tree that grows yarn, though I have a closet that seems able to multiply the yarn that I store there.  Every time I open the door there's more yarn!  How does that happen?

So here is my bag from Yellow House Yarns, with one of the two nicely wound skeins (balls, to non-knitters) of natural Cascade 220.

Yarn looks especially grand next to the bright bamboo.  

Oh, I hope to use the bamboo theme background for all the pix, but who knows.  The weather here in the Pacific Northwest is wet, gray, gloomy, and monochromatic (unless you like shades of gray).  These conditions might dictate that I find a substitute background.  Stay tuned.

Too nervous to knit

Where did that come from? I have been knitting since I was 15 and not just scarves and hats. I've tried most everything, including color work, lace, cables, knitting in the round, even entrelac.

So where did this anxiety come from? I've picked up the cream colored yarn in worsted weight and my favorite wooden needles in US 7. I've cast on three times, split a stitch, redistributed the ribbing pattern as if I were making the back of a sweater, something to be seamed to another piece of the intended garment.

It's 20 stitches, for crying out loud! It's a swatch and not even a very big one.

So from whence cometh the stall?

Oh, I know, I do. I'm a self-labeled over-achiever (even the type that can use two hyphenated words one right after the other!) and this numbing and tiring fact of my make-up has now brought me to inaction as I face the next major step in the hobby I dearly love.