alisonknits

More Christmas Knitting

In addition to the mittens I posted about yesterday, I also knit a pair of socks recently, as a Christmas gift for my dad.  I was so good about knitting gifts from stash this year, I'm quite proud of myself.  (It wasn't that hard, since I only knit two gifts.)  These were knit out of some yarn that I knit into an ill-fitting pair of socks several years ago.  How silly am I that I knit the first sock, tried it on with difficultly, because it was done in a cable pattern with these weird wrapped stitches that caused it to only go over my heel if I tugged and tugged, and then went ahead and knit the second sock anyway??  But I did.  They actually fit fine once they were on my feet, but I decided I was not interested in battling with my socks to get them onto my feet, and so I threw them in the sock yarn bin to recycle someday.  And then I actually did!  Eventually.  Isn't it amazing when "someday" actually comes around?

I started to believe the yarn was cursed, because I started these many times before finally getting them right.  First I was going to knit Ann Budd's Mock Wave Cable socks from Favorite Socks, but knitting the large size, they were coming out ginormous, even though I was using much smaller needles than the pattern calls for.  And the small size was going to be too small.  I tried various ways of adjusting the size, but wasn't satisfied with any of them.  Then I mucked about with some improvised patterns, but none of them panned out either.

Finally I settled on Thuja, which I think is a perfect Dad sock pattern.  Interesting enough, but still quite understated for conservative Dad taste, and super easy to work.  Since I was using fingering weight yarn rather than the DK called for in the pattern, I knit the sock on 64 stitches and adjusted the heel & toe accordingly.

Dad reports that he likes them very much.  I actually had never knitted him socks before.  But before you start pitying my dad, keep in mind that he owns two whole sweaters that I knit for him, and one of them is Henry VIII.  And a cashmere hat.  (Do I sound defensive?  I feel defensive.  I guess I'd better knit more socks for Dad.)

Happy New Year!

One of the many downsides of posting on a blog infrequently is that when I come back, it's hard to know where to start.  Often in the intervening time between posts, I've composed posts in my head, only to never write them, because by the time I get around to it, the time has past.  (For this reason, you will not be getting my post entitled "Present Tense" about my anxiety around giving and receiving gifts.  Maybe next year.)

We could talk about the knitting... I finished these wonderful mittens, oh, two or three weeks ago.  (click for bigger.)  They were well-received by my sister, who happens to own a hat I knit for her in a similar purple.  How fabulous is Kate's pattern?  I have to admit I'm a little envious.  (Jealousy is probably my greatest sin.  And I'm a UU... I don't use the word sin lightly.)

I love these so much, I've already started a second pair, this time with royal blue as the background color.  I'm knitting them ultimately for myself, but they'll likely spend some time modeling at my LYS, A Loom with a View, where I'm hoping to teach a class on how to make them.

Want a close-up of the birdies?  Sure you do.  The embroidery was a little tricky for me, as that's not my native language, but I think it came out well enough.  For the second one, I did the embroidery before closing the top of the thumb, and it made a huge difference.

Stats: yarn - Cascade 220 in #8885 (plum) and Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in natural; needles - size 2.75mm bamboo double-points; mods - none.
 

One of my goals for 2008: either be more attentive to the blog, or just quit.  I'm sick of doing things halfway!  So, I'm going to stop this post here, and save the rest for tomorrow.
 

Had Myself a Merry Little Christmas

Like every year, I struggled through the holiday season, only to have a perfectly lovely holiday.  This year, I was especially blue for most of December, but starting on Saturday, became especially content.

Sunday was my last day at my main church job, and in the couple weeks leading up to my departure, I became rather sad to be going.  But I couldn't have asked for a better last day.  Staff and congregants said nice things about me.  They gave me gifts.  We had a carol sing.  It was lovely.

Last week I had a little pity-party about not getting to host either Thanksgiving or Christmas, and was bummed out that Scott & I were going to make a very quick trip to NYC to spend Christmas day with his family.  I was upset that I wouldn't be able to do many of my own holiday traditions, and was stressed out that we were going to have to drive for 4.5 hours only to turn around and come back the next day so that I could be back at my temp job today.  But in the end, it was all very relaxed, we had a nice time with my in-laws (I have to try and remember more often that I actually like them), and even got to spend some time on Christmas Eve with a friend I rarely get to see.

And, because we're celebrating with my family later this week, I have some extra time to finish the socks I'm knitting for my dad, which I didn't start until last Wednesday.  (In fact, I started them about five times last Wednesday before finding a pattern that I liked and would come out the right size.)

All in all, I'm counting my blessings this Christmas and New Years.  I'm so thankful to have wonderful friends, new opportunities, a fabulous spouse and a loving family.

Happy Boxing Day!

Christmas Meme

Terry posted this meme on her blog, and in the absence of any knitting pictures to show you (hopefully later this week I can show you a Bird in Hand mitten), I thought I go ahead and do it too. 

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  I love fancy wrapping paper with elegant designs, and I usually try to buy some of the nice stuff when it goes on sale after Christmas.
2. Real or artificial tree?  Real tree all the way for me.  I've seen some beautiful artificial trees, but my favorite thing about a Christmas tree is the smell.  In fact, one of the things I miss about living in NYC is that after Thanksgiving, vendors sell Christmas trees on the street, and walking past them you get to inhale the wonderful scent of evergreen.
3. When do you put up the tree?  It varies... usually mid-December.  We're doing it this Saturday I think.
4. When do you take it down?  Too late... not until the pine needles are all dried and falling off.
5. Do you like eggnog?  Love it!  I may try to make some from scratch this year.  Anyone have a favorite recipe?
6. Favorite gift received as a child?  When I was around 4 or 5, I got a giant cloth doll named Sally.  She looked sort of like Raggedy Ann, but with black hair, and she was bigger than me.
7. Do you have a nativity scene?  Nope.  I'm not Christian, and celebrate the secular and pre-Christian aspects of the holiday more than the birth of Jesus part.  Although Jesus is pretty cool, he's not my personal savior.
8. Hardest person to buy for?  My dad, hands down.  He doesn't have any hobbies that are really gift-able (we've exhausted the golf-related gift possibilities), and never seems to need anything.  Lately I like to get tickets to something we can do together, like museum passes and that sort of thing.
9. Easiest person to buy for?  I can always come up with many options for the husband, and my sister is always a good recipient of knitted items.
10. Worst Christmas present you ever got?  My grandmother, bless her, used to do all her Christmas shopping at church bazaars and flea markets. and came up with some amazingly tacky knick-knacks for my sister & I.  They had a certain hideous charm in their way, and I look back on them fondly.  But not to the point of wishing I had kept any of them.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards?  If I get around to sending any, mail.  But many years I don't get to it.  I do like sending them, though
12. Favorite Christmas movie?  It's a toss-up between It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  Anywhere between Thanksgiving weekend (online only, I hate crowds) and a few days before Christmas.  Most of it gets done in the last 2 weeks.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  Not that I recall.
15. Favorite thing to eat on Christmas?  My aunt used to make these things called "Forgotten Kisses."  They are kind of hard to describe, but a recipe is here.  (God bless the internets.)  They're called "forgotten" because you heat up the oven, turn it off, and then leave them in there overnight.  They have an odd texture, they're kind of... squeaky?  Mint-flavored, with chocolate chips (or a single Hershey Kiss in the center, but we used to have them with chocolate chips inside).
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?  Colored.  But white lights for outside and for the candles in the windows.
17. Favorite Christmas song?  "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (the original sung by Judy Garland)
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?  I much prefer to stay home and play host.  But this year we're going to the husband's fam in NY.
19. Can you name all of Santa's Reindeer?  I think so.
20. Angel or star on top of tree?  We have an angel, which was my mom's, but I'd probably prefer a star if I could find a really nice one.
21. Open presents Christmas Eve or morning.  Christmas morning, but we had a tradition when I was growing up (actually, even when I was in college), that we would open one gift on Christmas Eve, which was pajamas.  I loved wearing my new pajamas to bed and waking up in them Christmas morning.  I will definitely carry on that tradition when I have my own kids.
22. Most annoying thing this time of year?  As much as I love Christmas, a lot of things annoy me about this time of year.  Top annoyances for me are the crowds, and the relentlessness of it all.  The assumption that everyone celebrates Christmas, or at least should put up with the holiday pervading everything around us.  The commercialism.  And when "the season" starts before Thanksgiving.  (For example, a local radio station started playing exclusively Christmas music in early November.  I wrote them an e-mail stating that I would miss the classic rock, and that I might not remember to tune my dial back to them on December 26th.)
23. Do you decorate your tree in any theme or color?  Definitely not, it's a hodge-podge of ornaments, old and new.
24. What do you leave for Santa?  Um... pine needles?

Being Where I Am Now

I'm still having a pretty stressful week, but I am taking concrete steps to make things better.  I no longer have five jobs - I have told my temp agency that I'm not going to do the Saturday assignment at the shoe store.  (An assignment which Sara, aka Haydenmumma, accurately decribed as "suckass.")  It doesn't seem worth the couple hundred dollars I would make there to not have a day off until Christmas.

I'm still getting used to my new schedule - today I was almost late to two different jobs, finding myself running down the street sucking figid air into my lungs both this morning and this afternoon.  I'm thinking about ways to keep myself on schedule better.

But to keep my head on straight - and my blood pressure down - I am adding something new to my schedule: a daily meditation practice.  This is something that I've been wanting to do for a long time, and now I need it more than ever.  I was also inspired by Terry's post about creating new habits.  The ironic thing is, I find the more I am in need of meditation, the harder it is to do!  But I will keep trying.

Also, in an effort at frugality this holiday season, I've decided to knit a couple of Christmas gifts.  Kate Gilbert's new Bird in Hand mittens are just too lovely to resist, so I'm knitting them for my sister out of stash.  In the same color as Julia, it turns out.  It's so nice to be knitting colorwork again.

Happy Channukah.  May your days and nights be filled with peace and light.

Where I Am Now

Okay, I gotta vent.  Warning - lots of whining coming up, and little (if any) knitting content.  Consider yourself warned.

No really, if you don't want to hear my kvetching, turn back now.

Still here?  Okay

So, I'm finally leaving my main job, a half-time job at a church.  It's hard to be leaving, even though there has been a lot about the job that I've struggled with.  I worry about what will happen to the congregation with many staff having left this year, and many members of the congregation leaving or getting burnt out in the wake of the various controversies and increased volunteer workload.  It's hard to see an institution with so much potential to be a great church struggling and falling prey to a scarcity mentality.  It makes me feel angry and sad.

I will stay there until Christmas Eve, but meanwhile to pay the bills have taken on some temp work.  Last weekend I started one weekend gig at a shoe store greeting customers and asking them to sign up for the store's e-mail list.  It's very boring, very cold (I stand in a vestibule with just a space heater - I bundled up much more for my second day than my first), and sort of discouraging that few customers want to sign up for the list.  (And I can't say I blame them - who wants more e-mail from stores??)

This afternoon I also will start another part-time temp job, this one at a really great AIDS organization.  I'll be doing mostly reception area coverage, with some other light office work.  They warned me that I might have to deal with some belligerent drunk/high people.  Sign me up.

And I also still have my youth-related church job on Sunday nights, with a couple hours of work I do during the rest of the week.  And I will teach my twice-a-month Tuesday night drop in knitting class. 

So that's five jobs I'm working in December.  Five. Jobs.  What the f*** am I thinking!?!

I'm thinking I would rather not continue my downward spiral further and further into debt.  I'm thinking I would hate not buying my family any Christmas gifts this year, and I don't have time to make gifts for people as I'm spending all my knitting time trying to create samples for my knitting pattern business.

But holy crap.  I don't have a whole day off until Christmas.  I'm only working afternoons a lot of the month, but still.

I'm not looking for advice (I have plenty), but thanks for listening.  I'll be okay.  I will be okay.  Soon it will be a new year.  I'm just writing this one off.  Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?

Cable Kick

I'm on a big cable kick lately.  A couple weeks ago I started an Aran sweater for the husband, using some charcoal-colored wool that I bought at Rhinebeck.  I can't remember the name... something like Chaco?  Anyway, I'm designing this Aran myself... here is the main cable.  I found this cable in Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting, and have been wanting to use it in a sweater for years.

But a heavily cabled, husband-sized sweater takes a wicked long time to knit!  And my hands were cold while I was doing a work-related task in a cold vestibule recently, so I decided to make some fingerless mittens as a break from the sweater.

Sorry for the crappy picture (click for bigger).  I'll probably publish this pattern, so I'll be taking more photos later.  The cable I used in this mitten is a little bit tricky - every 10 rows you have a maneuver that requires two cable needles (or at least one even if, like me, you usually cable without a cable needle).  It's a fun little challenge.

I also have in mind another cable hat in the same style as Charleston, and have a few cabled designs that I need to write up patterns for.  If summer is all about lace for me, apparently fall/winter is all cables, all the time.

New Pattern: Charleston Hat & Scarf

Here's my latest pattern - it's actually several years old, and I'm so happy to finally be offering it for sale.

This hat & scarf set was named by my friend Judi, in tribute to its rather flapper-like appearance.  It is knit out of Aran weight (heavy worsted) yarn with a recommended gauge of 4 sts per inch.  The samples were knit in Karabella Supercashmere (the white version) and Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal (the fuschia).  It takes about 400 yarns for the set (approx. 120 yds for the hat and 280 yds for the scarf).

Techniques used include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, picking up stitches, cables, and reading cable charts.  The cabled portion of the hat is knit flat in a long strip, and ends are joined to form a headband shape.  Stitches are then picked up along one edge and top of hat is knit in the round.

This has been my favorite hat in the last few winters, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

The "buy now" button below will take you to PayPal, where you can purchase a PDF download of the pattern for $5.95.

Artemis Stole - it can be yours!

We're in business!  The pattern is now available for Artemis. 

The stole is knit in two identical pieces which are grafted together.  Requires approximately 1000 yds of lace weight yarn; sample used J. Knit Lace-A-Licious in the colorway "Nebraska."  Size 3 needles.

ETA: The "buy now" button below will take you to PayPal, where you can purchase a PDF download of the pattern for $7.95.

Meet Artemis

  artemis stole 
  Originally uploaded by alisonknits

I designed this stole and finished knitting it the night before Rhinebeck.  I'm really pleased with how it came out... so pleased that I got right to work on the pattern.  The pattern is now completed and I'm this close to getting it up on this blog for sale - check back in a couple of days.  And I'm also much closer to having my very own website with even more of my patterns for sale.

It's been a really interesting couple of weeks.  A couple people had recommended Barbara Sher's book Wishcraft to me, which is all about figuring out what you really want to do for a living and how to get there.  It's a fantastic book, and I've also been reading her book I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was.

And the upshot is, I think I need to give knit design a real shot, as well as go back to some other artistic pursuits that have fallen by the wayside.  (One of these is mask making.  Anyone know of any mask makers in the Northeast that I should apprentice myself to?)

All my life, I imagined that I would be some kind of artist or artisan when I grew up.  But somewhere along the way, I internalized the message that I would never be able to make a living at artistic pursuits, and that I should be doing something more "worthwhile."  Where did I get those messages?  My parents were always supportive of my dreams of a life in the theater, and kept me well-stocked with art supplies.

I'm not quitting my day job - yet.  But I do plan to get a different day job, some work that I can actually leave at work.  (Temping is actually looking pretty appealing right now.)

Life is too short not to do what you love, right?