Knit Something Already!

My interchangable needles are here! Or, they have beem since the 13th. I've been putting them to use since they day I got them, and have been knitting just about everywhere now. Originally I was suppose to receive a set for my birthday/Christmas. However, that set were placed on backorder without informing my incredible friend who had ordered them. So when they still hadn't arrived in February, I asked what had ever happened to them. He informed me that he called the company, told him what happened, and he canceled the order. Instead we went with the Denise Interchangeable Needles Kit, and I'm incredibly happy with them! I'll post a review on how well they work perhaps a little later.

Since I got my set of Denise Needles, there's been a familiar exchange between my boyfriend and me:

"What are you working on?" David asks, taking a break from whatever school project he's working on.
"Oh, I'm just practicing." I reply.
"Ugh."
"What?"

"Just make something already!" he says before he turns back to his work.

On some level, I find it all very amusing. Though I can see why it would frustrate him that I've been just sort of knitting swatches or practicing a new stitch. He's been waiting an awful long time for me to make him socks or a blanket, so I really do have to hop to it.

"It's not your average tweed"*

A fantastic evening** with Jared Flood, aka, Brooklyn Tweed. I couldn't have asked for a better injection of motivation to get my knitting, and surrounding life, into gear!

"What you see here are two very idyllic images."

Taking the stage at LBYS, Flood began the night by showing us pictures of where he grew up and went to school--the Pacific Northwest. Pictures filled with nature: flowers, trees and lakes. His goal was to demonstrate the differences between his influences from back home, and the very urban beauty he finds in New York City. His final photo of the Northwest was of a foggy road--the fog seemed to be easing in and dominating the road. This picture of light filled water particles set the tone of the evening for me.


"Artists' perception develops in the light where they grew up." I forget at times that Flood's training and background is that of a painter/draftsman. And as he continues to speak, Flood touches on the fact that when he designs his knitwear, it's images such as these that he goes to for inspiration. Not the patterns or pieces of other knitwear designers. As well, he explained that he uses mood boards when he works. A way to set the tone for the piece(s) that he is working on. I of course find this particularly interesting because his approach is incredibly artistic, but also how many fashion designers approach their work. 


In addition to explaining where his inspiration comes from, Flood shared that it is, as with many hand knitters, the texture of the pieces that so often catches his attention. "I think of light as physical." It is the textures that he saw when he was living in Rome and Dublin, the tangible light in the fog, that inspires him to create. A psuedo-hidden architecture fan, Flood showed us how the Seattle Public Library had a direct impact on his Koolhaas pattern. His approach seems both incredibly modest and direct. Quite humble in a way. How can someone not, in turn, want to go into the world and be inspired. To find their own avenue of creation.

Flood continued to fill us in on his adventures into knitting. Though he began to learn when he was about 5, it only lasted for a week or so before he left it behind. He started creating an online presence for himself because he had fallen into the 9-to-5 rut (something that I think we can call commiserate with) and wanted to have a way to hold himself accountable. "This is a good thing to do with my work computer" he said. And thus a sort of 'hobby' that he did, over the last 7 years, has become a career that he never expected. 

"You're designing a garment. But you're also designing an experience."

Flood's designs are keen on simplicity. "If you have the right materials in your hands, the simplest thing can be beautiful" noted Flood, as he showed us a lace shawl. "I just really love lace because it gives you an excuse to play with shape." Its no surprise then, that one of Flood's future projects is a book of lace patterns. The evening moved along very quickly, with Flood showing us his work and explaining what his future projects would be. Common through his pieces are miles of garter stitch with just a simple twist to add that elegance that has become so associated with Brooklyn Tweed. 


If any of you have been to Flood's blog, you will have seen the gorgeous photos he takes of his work. So it was no surprise that during the Q&A section, Flood was asked for some tips for those aspiring to take Brooklyn Tweed worthy pictures of their knitting:

1. Always approach your piece from a perpendicular angle to where the light is coming from. Doing this is what allows your pictures to have depth and not become flat.
2. Create a secondary light source. You can use a white pillow, a sheet of poster board, anything that will reflect light back onto the piece you are photographing.
3. You are only responsible for what is in your field. Kick the dirty laundry out of the way, and you're picture will have the right focus, and compliment the rest of your space. Apparently he receives regular questions about how large his apartment must be, when in fact, it's just 650 squared-feet.

I'd like to end this by touching on how Flood chose to end his presentation. The final photo was of where he knits when he is home. A large, well-worn, brown leather chair is seated in the corner, next to a wooden table. On the table their are a couple skeins of yarn, and a large potted plant. Behind the table is a large window with an unbelievable amount of sun streaming in. He included this image because, though his online presence has given him so much, "If you never left the house it would all be in your head." I know I was glad to have left the house tonight.


Just make sure you bring your knitting along for the ride.

*Yes, he did say this at some point, and I was immensely amused by it. Though perhaps only I was.


** I would like to say that this evening was made possible by the kindness of a knitter that I had never met before. I'm not sure how she found out--I believe she saw my post on Ravelry lamenting that I was too late to RSVP--but she had a opening in her RSVP, and decided to reach out to me. I, of course, jumped at the opportunity to go see Jared Flood. So thank you so much, Kimberly, for inviting me out to what was such a great event.

Speed

It s really frustrating to realize how quickly time goes by. Mostly because when I log on to compose a new post, and realize that a month has gone by, I can't help but get incredibly annoyed with myself. A part of this is because there has been very little actual knitting in my life over the past few weeks, since I completed the sock I was demo-sock I was working on (photos to follow below).


Not without projects to complete, my knitting has been out aside because of (a) the lack of funds to get new yarn for some specific projects and (b) waiting on some circulars I should be getting soon. When someone in my organization saw my Kindle Kover recently, they complimented me on it and asked if I could make them one. Another person then reminded me that I was to make her a scarf. So right there we have two projects I need to jump on top of. Perhaps next month: I expect that certain things will have settled down greatly by then.


The demo-sock was a truly interesting experience. I finished off the foot and closed the toe during this years Grammy Awards. Note about closing the toe: I do not enjoy the Kitchener Stitch. In all of my knitting-related reading, the Kitchener Stitch is only discussed to if there is an opening disclaimer:


Dear Knitter, 
I am very sorry to talk to you about this closing stitch, I know it has a bad reputation, but really it isn't that bad. Just follow my written instructions with a few images to guide you and you'll be fine. 
Sincerely, 
Knitwear King


I should have known better. After fighting to weave my yarn tail in and out of the loops in what seems an odd pattern, I understand why people protest it so. The Three-Needle Bind Off that I taught myself for the Kindle Kover was by far easier than this method. I'm not certain that I'll be using it again in the future. In fairness of the technique: I did not use the aide of any online videos in learning how to do this sewing. Usually I used a mix of book instructions and online video instructions in order to learn a technique. Not the case for the Kitchener. Perhaps I'm just not there yet.

Here's a close up of the heel. I'm rather pleased with this part of it. 

And here's the entire thing. I have one real mistake that can't be seen, which is that I dropped a stitch when making the leg of the sock. Didn't realize where it was until much later. But that's what practice is for. As well, I had trouble spotting which where the edge stitches of the heel for creating the foot at first, but caught on in the end. Overall, I think it was a successful project.

Tension

It's a rainy and cloudy day in New York City today. I was foolish enough to leave my house with a hood-less jacket and no umbrella, with a large box handicapping me from my usual walking speed. But a fairly decent cup of coffee once I got into the office brighten the mood--that and knowing that my knitting, kindle and iPod all managed to avoid getting wet.

So though I'm nearly at the end of the demo sock, I'm a bit fearful of picking up the needles again to finish it off. I avoided knitting for most of last week, but when I tried to pick up the DPNs yesterday, I still felt the stiffness in my wrist when I got my hand into position to do Continental. It wasn't as strong when I switched over to English, but was definitely still there. Perhaps after a couple more days of rest, I can pick it back up again?

I've been doing some research on the boards at Ravelry, and it seems that such occurrences (elbow, wrist, finger pain, etc.) among fiber artists in general is not rare. Though it seems to manifest itself differently in everyone, and each person has different methods. Whether it's knitting with different size yarn and needles, or taking a break every 20 minutes, there seem to be as many approaches as there are cures for hiccups. I've been thinking of getting myself a wrist brace. Though I still feel that a large part of it has to do with the sheer amount of knitting I did from the 14-18th.

Back to knitting. As requested by one of my previous readers, I've attached below a photo of the demo sock, with its still unfinished foot and toe:

As you can see, I'm using the spare yarn from the Kindle Kover. I think I've gotten a hang of the idea of making a sock. Now there's just the finishing of it.

Double-Edged

This entry will have to be a combination entry of sorts:

Occurring mostly from the evening to Friday, January 15th 2010 to Sunday, January 17th 2010.

1) I have kicked Continental knitting butt! It's humorous to think about the fact that last week I was feeling so defeated by the entire experience. However, I spent the long weekend knitting away and somewhere between all the stitches and episodes of Xena on Netflix, I found my flow and it finally clicked.

If you asked me how it happened, I'm not sure if I could tell you. As I kept on knitting, I seemed to realize after the fact that I wasn't concerned about messing up every stitch. I knew that though the yarn did not feel the way it normally did, it would not magically fall off my finger, and if I did lose it, all I had to do was put it back. There was no reason to hold my pinky and ring finger so close that they were white. As I eased up, my knitting pick up both in ease and speed, and I was rather enjoying the entire experience.

As I continued my now very long practice swatch, I felt confidant enough to try my hand at doing a purl Continental-style, and after reminding myself how it was suppose to look, it was easy! I did a practice square of stockinette and rib, and moved right along.

What amazed me the most about it all, was that my hands were not tired after everything. I knitted for just about all of Sunday, and my hands weren't the least bit tired by the end of it. Something I found that would occur after doing English for a long period of time.

Occurring mostly from Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 to Thursday, January 21st, 2010.

2) Make sure you consider the fine print. That is, try to see not just what is going on right now, but what may happen because of it three steps in the future. After my success with Continental knitting, I have been working on what has been kindly titled a "demo sock". Wanting to make socks in the near future, I figured it would be nice if I understood what basic construction of a sock was. So since about Monday night (when I missed a knitting group meeting) I began work on the demo sock. So that is now nearly five days that I have been doing knitting of some form.

Well, the piper has come. I started to feel it last night, and confirmed it this morning, that my hands are tired. There was a stiffness and an ache in the back of my hands that made me think that perhaps knitting should be placed on for at least a day or two. And such a shame! I'm nearly up to the toe of the sock...

Continental Divide

While I was in bed trying to beat a cold before it fully developed this Wednesday, I decided to learn Continental knitting. Just about since I started knitting, I've been told about how superior Continental knitting is to English. You will never reach your full potential until you learn to not have to pick up your yarn. Continental knitting is much faster; it's the EZ way. English knitters have no idea what they're doing or missing out on! (The last one was provided by a particularly dramatic friend over gchat).


Knowing what my goals are for the future, the first and a half statements really stuck out to me. So, I grabbed a set of clover needles and Wool-Ease Thick & Quick and got to reading and surfing. I found what seemed to be a very detailed video about Continental knitting and definitely had to agree that it looked pretty damn quick. But when I watched my own mirrored motions, I felt stiff and clunky. As I struggled to get the needle in, grab the yarn and come out triumphant with a new loop, I was reminded of just how much progress I had made over the past year. It's like learning to knit all over again, friend consoled. Well then, perhaps I do not want to learn it all over again. It took a lot of stitches to get at the somewhat level of comfort that I have now, and like many things in life, the details of how exactly you arrived are just a bit foggy at this point. And I'm not sure if I want to clear the air just yet.


But then again, nearly all my ventures into the fiber world have been with wooden needles held with conviction, if not exactly with complete understand. I didn't know how to knit originally, but managed to make a damn good garter stitch scarf. Knitting with four needles instead of two? Why not. Five? Just an extra one to stick into my beard. Cables? Those involve twisting things about. I always thought they were nice. Gimme. That's right, gimme those Continental stitches.


So, I kept researching. I read Domiknitrix's section on it, which while giving me a new option for where to wrap the yarn, seemed to miss what to do with the yarn that hung over forefinger and dangled. So I turned to Stitch 'n Bitch and found an option for how to hold the yarn. My stitches seemed to be becoming more even, but this was certainly not completely from my own doing. It must have been a combination of luck and getting so fed up with a row that I would finish it off with English and start again. Either way, come this morning, my swatches were not so tight that a pin would have trouble pushing through. I practiced a bit more on the train to work, and thought little of it.


When a trip to Lion Brand Yarn Studio just happened to come up in the middle of the day (we went for a co-worker, I swear!), I mentioned in passing that I was trying to teach myself Continental. Immediately, a worker at the store commiserated with me and asked me how my purls were coming along. "Oh, I haven't gotten even close to that yet. The knits are still giving me trouble". And thus began a 5-minute tutorial on what I should consider when doing Continental knitting. What a godsend! We agreed that: there is no clear 1-way-to-do-Continental vs 1-way-to-do-English. That I don't need to keep my pointer finger aimed at the far heavens. And we ended with one piece of advice: Chunky yarn is the worst thing to try and learn with. When I told her this, and she realized what I had been using, the pity with which she looked on to me could not be contained.


I came home after work, pulled out some Vanna's Choice I had left over from my Kindle Kover and got to work. After feeling a little comfortable, I figured I should time myself. In order to knit 26 stitches on size 7 needles (4.5mm) it took...

Continental      English

    1:53.7          1:25.3

Maybe I don't need to have any more tools in my arsenal. Maybe I'm just too Owen Burnett to ever be Preston Vogel.

Venturing Out

With little to do after work, I decided to attend a knitting group I found on Ravelry. While searching about the groups, I found one that meets on Monday night pretty close to my job, so yesterday evening I headed up to Houston from my job in Wall Street for an evening that I hoped would be filled with knitting, meeting new people and a pleasant ride home after. I was delivered on all three.

For the first time I got to meet a group of icons and forum posts on Ravelry in the flesh, and I was glad to have the opportunity. Everyone was very amiable, and my initial concerns of walking up to people I've never seen before, my hands full with a sandwich and water, were quickly allayed. I spent the evening working on my swatches and enjoying from delicious garlic bread, while we all talked about different knitting techniques, where we were from, our likes and dislikes of trains, transfers and the boroughs we have, and currently do, call home.

A point that was particularly interesting was listening to one of the knitters who is originally from France talk about the idea of circular needles in France. She said that the needles are so closely associated with Germany that they are often referred to as German needles. And are not easy to find in France because of this. For knitting in-the-round, your only option are DPNs. Makes me pretty glad that I became such a fan of them when I was working on my Kindle Kover. Though when I'll be in France, I do not know. But it is nice to know I'll be French knitting prepared.