As The Yarn Turns

Potter Mania

Last night we decided to go down to the local bookstore for the Harry Potter festivities. Now we like Harry Potter but we're not huge fans. Mostly we just like to see the kids and adults in their costumes having a good time. So we went down to the local bookstore and I came armed with my "sock in progress". Rick got roped into helping with the magic show which meant that I had a lot of quality knitting time. (Don't worry, Rick loves any opportunity to get in front of a crowd.) I got a lot of the usual comments, but the most fun comment came from a women there with her son. She saw me knitting the sock and "I wish had the patience for something like that." I gave my usual response, "That's why I knit. I don't have the patience for just sitting." So the night wore on and the store was packed with hyped up kids and wearing parents. She came back by as her son was racing off to another activity, laughed and said, "You know maybe I should take up knitting." It looked like a long night for most parents. The kids were having a great time, though, and I had a great time watching them. Plus the sock made some significant progress.

No new Harry Potter books here but I'm sure we'll pick them up at some point. I didn't have the patience to stand in line and no time to read them right now anyway. Until then I'll just live vicariously through everyone else's excitement.

by Sydney  |

Sweater Design

Last time I promised to give you my thoughts on Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti. I can't say enough good things about this book and I haven't come close to reading all of it yet. There is a huge amount of information packed into this book. Just about every question you might have on sweater design is covered here. It starts with the basics - avoiding costly mistakes, getting ideas, understanding different types of yarn, understanding different body types. My favorite in the section "Know Thyself" in the chapter on avoiding costly mistakes. Much of the book is spent on choosing the right colors and styles for the person, choosing the right yarn and stitches for the garment, and the calculations needed to design a garment that fits. After this, she takes you through some design examples for a variety of people, garments, and body types. If you've always wanted to try your hand at designing a sweater or you always have trouble getting sweaters that fit you properly, take a look at this book.

I actually have been doing some knitting too, although not as much as I'd like. My cotton socks are moving right along. Apparently the sock enjoyed its night out last week. I've been knitting on the mohair wrap too but not as much since it's been too hot and humid to do much on it. I'm about halfway through the increases on the front of the Shapely Tee. This is going slowly because it's stockinette and I hate knitting with cotton. (See comment above, "know thyself"). Here's my progress so far.

I'm using safety pins to mark my increases and decreases. Most of the time I don't mark them at all but this time it just seemed like the thing to do. I'm off to try and knit a few more rows before bed.

by Sydney  |