Future knitters!

Sunday, I was sitting in the lovely lobby at the SF MOMA waiting for my family members to finish salivating over the Calder exhibit there. (I'm allergic to modern art, unlike the rest of them.) Of course while waiting, I was knitting, and a little girl peered at me around the corner of the round bench we were both sitting on. She was about four. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Knitting!" I said.
"What is it?"
"A scarf." (That's usually the answer.) She fondled the folds of the ribbing.
"I don't know how to knit."
"When you're a little older, you can learn," I said.
"I do know how to make a pillow," she said proudly. "I even got to hold the needle."
Mom appeared then, and we chatted a moment, and I found that, once again, knitting was a sort of ambassador.

Recently, it was knitting on the subway in NYC, apparently an unusual activity, that got me TONS of stares and a few questions or comments as someone was headed out the door. Careful! Might have a conversation with a stranger! But no matter, it was still fun, and kept me from being bored on the No. 1 to Columbia. :^)

One-Skein project

Try this out if you would like to participate in One Skein:

http://www.oneskein.com/secretpal.asp

It involves sending one skein to someone (assigned to you) in June, and then again (different person) in July. Meantime, you get to knit something for someone else, and you will receive yarn and a knitted project too!

(I think I have this right. It's a bit complex.)

Go for it!

And yes, Sophi, I will make you a scarf in mistaken ribknit. Choose your yarns!

My first published knitting projects!

Hello, fellow knitters!

I learned to knit "English style" as a girl, promptly gave it up as too difficult, and then took a class in the early 90s in the German pick-knitting style (European?). At that time, I made one pink striped hat, a horrible vest for my then two-year-old, and assorted little wool pixies for the girls to play with.

The girlies grew up, and now I'm revisiting knitting. After probably 50 scarves of all sorts of yarn and for just about everyone in my family and work community, I am finally starting an archive of the work I do. I wish I had pictures of all that previous work! Some of the wools were so divine. And a few of the scarves were even well done. ;^)

So I just finished a mistaken rib scarf (as you will see, I was careful to include the mistakes) in a gorgeous blue Donegal tweed. Last week, I did a hat in the round (woo-hoo!) that has a stripe of that tweed in it. Easy and fun pattern. Gave it to a newly head-shaved teacher friend who lost a bet.

You can rely on my future work, as I am always thinking, "When can I go knit?"

Here are the hat instructions, which were recommended on the Knitting Novices blog:

http://alison.knitsmiths.us/pattern_beginners_hat.html

As for the scarf, well, take worsted weight yarn and cast on 17 stitches (size 10.5 needles). For mistaken rib knit, you always do multiples of 4 + 1, and this is a good width, I think. K2 P2 and repeat until the last stitch, which is K. Do this every row. I knit until the scarf is approximately 4' long. Bind off in the pattern. Weave in ends. Smile widely. You did it.

Navel Contemplation on the Web

I have started a weblog, and this in itself is a scary thing. I know my teenaged daughters will be afraid, very afraid, since it seems like a middle aged mom grasping for youth. Never mind. I'm just going to blog about my knitting, something they might not be interested in anyway. So they won't even be here!