[QUOTE=davenportavenger]
CJ, have you been to Knit.1 in Squirrel Hill yet? Their grand opening is on Saturday but they’re open now, so I took a look inside. The selection is really great; more 100% wool than I care for but some nice blends too. Not too much eyelash (I don’t like that stuff either). They also have a big lounge area with lots of magazines you can just look at. They have at least twice as big a selection as the other yarn store in Squirrel Hill. You should check out the opening if you’re free.
< /pittsburgh-specific >
Not yet. Will they keep evening hours and is Pittsburgh Knit and Bead back to being open on Sundays yet? If they’re open this Sunday, I might stop in on my way home from church.
I’m working on my first sweater, Banff, a giant thing with ribbing from knitty, in baby alpaca. It is going to be very very warm and snuggly. It’s very soothing to knit, and relatively quick.
My current on-the-go project is a scarf knit in the round, green and black stripes, the stripes started out 10 rows each and slowly grow to 18 rows each by about the middle of the scarf which is where I am now, then I’ll decrease them back down. It’s my Op Art scarf. It was inspired by a long, skinny stripy scarf streaming out behind one of the characters in a comic book. It’s so much fun to knit in public (on the subway) as people seem truly boggled by the narrowness and length of it, not to mention the contortions of doing magic loop and knitting in the round… OMG, a giant tube! Run!
Sierra, if knitters elsewhere are innundated with novelty yarns and suffer a paucity of f’in worsted-weight wool, they would do well to heed my words and spread my message, but I don’t aspire to be an International Spokesperson; I’m just looking after my own knitting interests!
Hee! When I was knitting supervenusfreak’s brother a Harry Potter scarf in the round last year, I heard, “You’re knitting in a circle!” so many times it wasn’t even funny.
I’m just amused by the idea of knitting a tube on the tube!
Actually, you don’t even have to get as fancy as lace, cabling or colorwork to make something gorgeous with plain yarn. One of the best looking things I made was a cowl for a friend to wear while skiing. It was knit in a simple knit 3, purl 3 rib, offset one stitch to the left each time. Charted out, it looked something like this:
I learned to crochet in August, and since then knitting has been dead to me. I’ve aslready completed:
A scarf for my mom – single crochet on an N hook with a thin varigated red boucle that created a lacy effect. (Jo-Ann brand yarn – 750 yards for $8!)
-A scarf for my dad - double crochet on a H hook worked in the back of the stitch and stitched longwise for a ribbed effect. Cobalt blue merino wool (I de-stashed for this one!).
-A baby Afgan - double crochet on the N hook made with 2 skeins of Lion Homespun “Tudor” varigated yarn, with a cream-colored border.
-Currently working on: a scarf for my brother - single crochet worked in the back in zig-zag pattern on a K look. Lion brand Chenille in steel grey with black stripes.
Next project is prbably a grown-up person sized afgan. Does anyone know how to make zig-zag go around corners?
I don’t know about PKaB; I don’t work there anymore. But I think that was just their summer hours, with all the students coming back (and knitting being such an “in” thing now) I bet their hours have changed. The card for the new store says they’re open from noon to four on Sundays, ten till eight on Tuesday and Thursday, and ten to five the rest of the time.
I actually got the idea for knitting it in the round from the harry potter scarves… plus… well, frankly I hate weaving in ends. Now they’re all on the inside. And someone kindly (finally… after many stripes) pointed out I could just carry the contrasting yarn through instead of snipping and changing each time… I’m a moron. But even fewer ends that way! The weirdest thing is that people feel compelled to put their hands INSIDE the tube. I want to smack their dirty little fingers. My yarn!
EZ was a proponent of knitting everything in the round. I’m trying to figure out how to do the start and end of Crime of Fashion from the current issue of MagKnits in the round.
I’m okay with in the round as long as I can magic loop or two circ it - I hate dpns.
Yeah, I get tetchy about people touching my yarn without permission, too. But I think in your case it’s that they can’t believe the object has an inside and an outside. You could really mess with them and knit a Klein Bottle Hat.
I have finished about three inches of the Hourglass sweater since my last post. I decided to make it with Silk Garden (#84). The neck is so big that I am sure I will always wear this sweater with a collared shirt underneath, so I guess that the scratchy Silk Garden is okay–it won’t touch my skin. Boy, it is nearly impossible to frog this stuff! Better get everything right the first time!
The yarn for my “Brambly Hedge” scarves arrived, too. It is elann Highland Wool, in some of the pretty Fall-ish heathered colors. I love it.
I’m working on the Miss Dashwood baby hat from the February Knitty surprises – it is the cutest thing! It’s for my husband’s cousin, who just had twins. I did the puritan-style baby hat from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts for the boy twin. And my hubby’s co-worker is due any day now with a little boy, so I did some booties for her.
I’m also in the middle of a shawl (I’m just sort of making it up – started with a couple of stitches, garter stitch, increased by one every row, and every 8 rows I’m doing a row of k1 Yarnover, k2tog to 1 rem. stitch, YO, then k last stitch. Then the row after the eyelet row I don’t increase). That’s in cashcotton, and it’s for my shawl-knitting group at church.
Then there’s the bag I’m doing for my mom. It’s the Daybag from knitkit.com. I started it back in April, and had a problem with it (it doesn’t knit up as large as it should – it’s the size it should be after felting, even though I haven’t felted it yet. My gauge is correct and everything.) so I put it aside. Then my busy season at work started, and I haven’t had a chance to figure out what I’m going to to about it. My mom bought the yarn (Manos – YUM!), so I think I’m going to frog it and adjust the pattern so it comes out the right size and uses all the yarn she bought.
Last month, I finished the Tie One On (easy version) from Knitty – very fun! It’s only the second thing I’ve knitted for myself, and it’s so pretty – I did it in this gorgeous yarn, Rittrato by S. Charles, and it’s mainly blue with some pink and peach and purple and metallic silver running through – it’ll go with everything. And it will shed on everything, but oh well.
Once I finish these projects, I don’t know what I’ll start on – probably Christmas presents.
I’m currently frogging the Berkshire Pullover from Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick. I chose the second-largest size (for finished measurements, not body measurements), based on an existing jumper my boyfriend had, and advice from someone else who’d made one for her hubby. But when I tried the tube on my guy, it looked enormous. I measured it and it actually came up 2 inches smaller than it should have been! It turns out my gauge is about half a stitch too tight.
But the next size down would (in theory, but who knows really) be an inch smaller than my boyfriend’s chest size. I dunno, it’s all pretty weird. I might just chuck it in and make a Ribby Cardi from www.chicknits.com for myself instead.
You never have to wait for a group or spend 15-20 minutes traveling somewhere? I crochet, which means I can pop off half a row while my groupmates are arguing about where exactly we ought to go, F2-follow and finish the other half of the row. (I’m currently making a stripey hoodie sweater.)
I play WoW with my husband and so I can’t really get away with knitting and not paying attention since he’s right there in the room if I just happen to be finishing up that row I was working on while he’s finished running us (with me on follow) where we need to be. :smack: So I keep those hobbies separate. Also, I am spoiled as all hell that he does all the running and I just have to smack on /follow, because I do have time to browse the 'dope while he’s hauling us around.
I finished felting the Sophie bag I made for my daughter, but I need to make a lining for it. I don’t have a picture yet, but maybe later. I used black wool and added a stripe of a blue, purple and black novelty yarn near the top…just little tiny flags of color.
And I finished a pair of Ruby Red Slippers for a coworkers baby, more as a decorative thing for her room, since the family is big Wizard of Oz fans. Don’t tell her, but I’m also making a Wizard of Oz baby quilt for her, if I ever get around to sitting down and working out the pattern.
Today I’m heading out to an LYS to get some wool for another Sophie bag for me. Maybe brown, maybe blue. I have the novelty yarn ready, just need to see what goes with. It’s Flora, which gives just the tiniest little tags of color.
Speaking of scarves knit in a tube, does anyone here know anything about antique circular knitting machines? My 8-year-old daughter saw one at some event she attended with her grandmother…and now she wants one! Apparently, the machines were primarily used to make socks…a homemaker could make a little extra cash by setting this thing up to crank off a few pairs of socks in her spare time. They were also used to make socks for soldiers in WWI. The one she saw was being used to make scarves, and apparently it was the neatest thing she’s ever seen. (“My friends and I could make scarves and sell them!” She’s quite a little entrepreneur.) I’ve Googled, and gotten some information, but I was just wondering if anyone had any first-hand knowledge. I’d never even heard of one before.
I don’t knit, but I do crochet, and I’m making the “Crayon Ripple Throw” off the Lion Brand site for my niece, who was born this Tuesday. I expected to have it done before she was born, but…well, I got a new job where you actually take breaks with other people, so that cuts into the crochet time a bit. I’m almost done…I have one and a half colored stripes to go! It has beautiful bright rainbow colors, and it’s big, too…I thnk it’ll be about 3’ x 4’ when it’s done. Next, I’d like to make a hat and scarf to go with my new black wool double-breasted jacket.
My mother has seen a sock-making machine in action. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know details… but my local hobby store does sell machines that knit i-cord. I imagine the sock machine is just a bigger version… and I assume that one hand-knits the heels and toes?
