PDXKnitterati

Today’s question on 2KCBW: “Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. ”

Looking back over past couple weeks, here’s where I’ve knit:

• On airplanes. I got a lot done; it was a cross-country trip.
• While teaching a class at the LYS (waiting for students to get to the next instruction point).
• In the chair at the ophthalmologist’s office. (I thought about asking her to take my picture, but decided that she already thinks I’m odd enough.) Also in the waiting room, and while waiting for my vision to return to normal so I could drive to work.
• At knit nite. This is the best!
• While watching Castle with the Teen, or watching Glee on my laptop
• In church…(it really does help me focus)

I find I tend to knit more when I’m waiting, or traveling, or doing something else, as it keeps me from being impatient and helps me to focus. If I’m just home, I tend to surf the internet instead. But when I really need to get something done, I’ll pop in a dvd and that’s just enough to get me to sit still and knit. I watched the Tudors series from Showtime on dvd, and that was highly productive for knitting. Knit nite is fun for knitting, but there’s a lot of distraction there, too. It’s good to have the time set aside, though.

My favorite knits are not quite mindless, but not projects that take a lot of concentration, either. I like a good multi-tasking knit project. I can even knit and read on my Kindle! I find that stitch markers are a great help; I can knit along until a marker lets me know that I need to pay attention for a moment. Here’s the current knitting:

Yes, it starts with a ruffle!

What’s your favorite kind of knitting?

This is the last of the Second Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week posts. It’s been really fun! I think I’ve knit less this week because of all the blog reading and writing, but I’ll catch up next week. Big thanks to Eskimimi for planning this, and for all the fun topics!I hope you’ve enjoyed reading along.

2KCBWDAY7

Do you know everything there is to know about knitting? Probably not. Do I know everything about knitting? Definitely not! Today’s 2KCBW topic asks us what pattern or skill we’d like to tackle. For me, that skill would be steeking. Yes, I want to cut my knitting. With scissors. Really.

I have a plan for this, though. I’m certainly not going to start with an Alice Starmore Fair Isle sweater. That would be foolish. No, I’m thinking of something much smaller. Teddy bear sweater? No, smaller, still. A swatch. Just a swatch. Because no one will feel bad if things go awry. (I teach a class on fixing mistakes, and I have students bring a bulky swatch that we can torture. Much less threatening than trying to learn to fix mistakes on your current beloved laceweight project. The techniques are the same, but the anxiety level is quite different.)

I’ve started my research. The second Mason Dixon Knitting book has a good hand-holding walk-through of the process. And Rick Mondragon discusses reinforcing steeks with crochet in Knitter’s magazine, Spring 2002. (Yarn pictured is from the aforementioned underbed boxes of leftovers. No new purchase here!)

(I’m still thrilled that I met the MDK ladies and got my book autographed!)

Have you steeked? Does it require reinforcement with crochet or machine stitching? I don’t see a reference to reinforcement in the MDK book…Discuss!

Also: How do you learn new techniques? As you can see, I go and read up on things. (I did this with parenting, too. It worked pretty well.) I google search and YouTube. Taking a class would be good, but my LYS doesn’t offer one in this. Hey, maybe I should teach it…after I learn how!

2KCBWDAY6