Paean to My Rosewood Needles

I love knitting, and I knit pretty happily with several types of needles, including my new Denise Interchangeables. But for sheer happy project knitting no matter what, it's these rosewoods, no contest.

I got them from eBay last year, and I have them in every size up to something like 30. Those are strange actually, like knitting with broomsticks, but they do the job. I don't have problems with different types of yarn not working well; everything knits up great on these. You will see the dangerously sharp tips--as long as I am careful, this is a huge plus. Even the Denise needles and some of my metal circulars aren't as satisfying as these.

I also have never had to sand them or wax them or anything--the finish is perfect.

Recently finished projects

I have finished a few things lately but not had the time to post them. First, remember that felted purse that I mentioned a few entries ago? It turned out great! Most of it is Paton's soy silk, with some plain brown wool for the bottom. I did three strands of I-cord for the handle and sewed them together and to the purse before felting. After a serious trim, the felted purse came out looking less like a psychedelic Malamute and more like a spiffy purse! I've even had a serious request for one in a series of teal shades. [Hey, requests? I'm ON it.]

I made a baby washcloth last week for a friend's shower in yellow Cotton Tots, and it was the perfect tie-on for the gift bag. I wish I'd taken a pic of it, but I did it freeform with the basic pattern I'd used for that tea cozy last week. I liked the feel of Cotton Tots and have some left over for future baby items.


Still working away at the baby blanket for Angelina, who is due around the first of April I think. It's an easy pattern but I still mess it up sometimes and have to tink a partial row (usually on the K1P1 row), but fortunately I haven't done anything worse. Got major progress done on it last night while watching an interesting foreign film (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis) which it turns out is old, from 1970. It was an early Nazi/Holocaust movie in that genre, so I think it was just beginning to touch on all the issues therein. But I was mesmerized and managed to knit without looking at my work much more often than usual. I had to be careful though (see above re: tinking).

My history with knitting

My grandmother taught me to knit when I was a child, on a car trip, but I was impatient with anything I wasn't instantly good at. Both my mother and my other grandmother were/are cham-peen knitters of the cables/bobbles, fancy edging, duplicate stitch, etc. school, and there was no competing with that, either.

In the early 90s, my MIL was visiting and working a sweater for a friend's grandson, and I got the hankering, but with no other needles save the ones she was using, I was stuck. I realized I did have some yarn that my daughters had been using for crafts and "finger weaving," so I pulled a pair of lacquered chopsticks out of the buffet and put them to better use as knitting needles, at least for that first night. I made a few dolly blankets for the girls (Rachel used to call things like this "softs") and then signed up to take a knitting class at a LYS now closed. The ladies were all business about teaching, and some were pretty impatient actually, but I learned Continental and started to get pretty good. After making the girls some small dolls and animals, and one very rudimentary vest for the baby, I drifted away.

Cut to two years ago, and I don't know what bit me, but I was knitting again, and BIGTIME. This time I didn't take a class but I have been learning steadily, all sorts of techniques, and while I am not an advanced knitter, I can see real progress since I got back into it. I love visiting my newest LYS, Purlescence, because when the yarn is so inspiring it pushes me to try new things.

Here are the latest things I've done
successfully: pick up stitches and knit them from the edge; a simple "cable" pattern that just involves knitting two stitches in reverse order and then slipping them off together; I-cord that looks right and works for various purposes; increasing and decreasing (still somewhat rudimentary on the increases but great oaks . . .); and felting various projects. Things that seemed impossibly beyond me just stop seeming so after a while, and I go at again and find that I can do it.

So that's me and knitting, a match made in heaven. Now I'm about to proclaim my love in traffic:

♥KNITNG! ~Stacie