Taming the Double Pointed Hedgehog: The Knitzi

 Alrighty sock knitters this one is for you.  How many of you find traveling with a WIP sock on double pointed needles interesting to say the least?  You know what I’m talking about, the snagged yarn, the holes in the knitting bag, or worse yet, that needle that slides out of your project when you aren’t looking.  There’s something out there that stops all of that and I’m in love with it.

I travel quite a lot for work, and I am pretty infamous from traveling with a knitting project.  Ask the TSA folks across the country  how many strange looks they’ve given me when they’ve x-rayed my carry on bag.  I’ve avoided bringing socks along, despite them being the perfect size to travel with, because of the DPN (double pointed needles) problems.  Yes, I know there are other ways to knit socks besides DPNs but I really do still love using them.

So, meet the Knitzi.  I stumbled across this doo-hickey when I was knitting a pair of socks the other day.  The pattern I was using was actually created by the makers of this product.  The Knitzi is essentially a wooden tube, with an open side, and two end caps that screw on and off.  This configuration allows for the sock in progress to hang from the slot, and the needles are protected, and snug inside the tube.  All in all, it sounds like a practical design, but the best part is the artistry behind the Knitzi itself.  All of the options available are made from beautifully worked wood.  I’m really happy I ordered one, I’ve got a sock in progress hanging out in the backpack I carry daily.

The Great Sweater Adventure: the Beginning

 After a decade of knitting, with a ravenous appetite for the clicking of needles over the past two years, I’ve finally leaped over a huge hurdle I’ve been dreading and ventured into my first sweater pattern.  I’ve held off on this feat out of fear of putting so much time, effort, and cash into a project and not have it fit in the end.  It would be traumatic for me and could quite possible land me in the loony bin for a few months.

After being teased for a while that I hadn’t made a sweater I realized I finally do have knitters in my life that are more than willing to dive in and help me out if I get stuck, and they’ve actually knitted entire, fitting, sweaters before.  I’m typically a stubborn ass that hates to ask for help, these knitters know that too, but if I walked in the door with a project with a glazed-over look in my eyes they would just take the needles from me and walk me through it.  So, that began to start the wheels turning.

I found a pattern I fell in love with the moment I saw it.  It’s on open front sweater coat with raglan sleeves called Adventurous.  I’ve been told despite the massive amount of cable work that this is actually pretty forgiving when it comes to fit.  So the wheels began to move faster.

After pricing out the yarn for this project the breaks where slammed into the floorboards.  The yardage I needed, plus the quality of yarn I wanted made this adventure cost prohibitive. Even if this is my first sweater, good yarn really makes a difference in a project, and of course I fell in love with Malabrigo’s Arroyo.  $140ish in yarn for a project I’m terrified to start…yeah….ummmm….not right now.  I put a smart-assed post up on Facebook saying if anyone wanted to fund this project I would actually start it.  Not five minutes after the post was made, and before I had even left the yarn shop, their phone rang and a gift card in my name for the cost of the yarn and then some was called in.  I not only pooped a kitten right there in the floor (it’s meowing at me and has been named Severus, and that’s a story for another day) but now I had absolutely no excuse to not start this project.  The wheels on the bus to sweaterville where speeding down the on-ramp to the interstate.

The yarn has arrived, it had to be ordered to get all of the same dye lot, the first two skeins have been wound into cakes and the first of many, many cable repeats was completed this evening.  Wish me luck folks – so far it looks good – but I’m still terrified.

Plymouth Yarns – Gina…The Review

Plymouth Gina 12

Being more than 600 yards into a project using Gina I’m pretty comfortable throwing up a review for this yarn.

This is a variation on the Sheep Wagon Shawl on Ravelry it’s still pretty chilly in the mornings down here in Georgia so I wanted to make a piece that I could just wrap around and go.

I picked up a few skeins of colorway 12 and got to work.  I’m a huge fan of long color change, self striping yarns but I’ve not been a fan of some of the price tags associated with them *cough Noro cough*.  Gina is 100% wool and amazingly soft and 100% not itchy for those folks that have dodged wool because of the itch factor.  I forget it’s a worsted wool most of the time I’m working with it.

It’s entertaining to see the yarn transition from one color to the next with several yards between each transition.  It works up quickly and slides nicely on and off the needles.

Plymouth made this yarn as a competitor to Noro Kureyon. After using both yarns I won’t be returning to Noro for long color changes. Having knit several pieces with Noro over the years I think it feels scratchy and almost stiff at times.  I really am amazed at the feel of Gina and it’s considerably more affordable than that competitor I mentioned in that previous sentence.  I’m dying to finish this project up and hoping it will be off the needles by the end of the weekend and get this shawl into service.

Update! 2/10/15

This made it off the needles two days after the original post.  Blocking went well and it’s happily in service.  I finished off the final rows in Malabrigo’s worsted wool in Tortuga. I’m still very pleased with Gina and will use it again when the opportunity comes up.

Hey There!

WIP Late January 2015

Let’s go ahead and get the first post thing out of the way.  These are usually introductory, right?

I was one of those kids that had to stay busy all the time.  If my nose wasn’t in a book, I was making something.  I learned to crochet at 7 by watching my great-grandmother and my mother teaching me the basic stitches.  Knitting was introduced to me in my early 20’s by a co-worker.  Both fiber arts, past learning the basic points, was largely self-taught by spending hours in books and on the internet to learn techniques. At this point in my life, hanging out in my early 30’s, I really can be called a crafty bitch.  Fiber arts aren’t the only modes of creation but by far are my favorite.

So here’s the deal, I created this blog so I could stop talking about my projects on Facebook all the time.  I’m sure at this point it’s beginning to annoy the ever-loving-shit out of my friends.  Over the past few months my need to create has been intensified and has no sign of slowing down, and I’m learning new tricks and techniques with every project.  So there you go…and here it is…hang around long enough, see what I’m up to, see what I’m working on, and if you’re good I’ll throw up a pattern here and there.