Stick them with the pointy end

I meant to share some more writing news, but I think I’ll wait until Ticonderoga Publications comes up with the cover image for their April anthology *coughs*.

That said! I have a couple projects I’m hopeful to complete this year (including something book-reading-reviewing related to motivate me to devour more books than I did last year).

But first, onto the knitting!

For the last half of November and the greater part of December, I started to learn something new, which happened to be how to knit things. Granted, I’ve only started, but I actually am a bit more relieved that I’ve had to start over from scratch less times on each passing project. (I still mess up, but erm…it’s down to a minimal now? >>)

My latest completion? A belated Christmas present to my sister: long, fingerless gloves, themed a la Alice in Wonderland (the stripes do remind me of Cheshire’s tail, if anything). I used the pattern in Diana’s Knitandbake blog as a template, though the gloves themselves were too short for my concept idea. That, and my sister suggested I do an asymmetrical pair of gloves, so pink on black in one, and black on pink on the other. I loved the asymmetrical but symmetrical idea, so I went with it and lengthened the gloves.

Some Things I Learned About Knitting, and Needles, and Stuff Involving that Stringy Thing Called Yarn

1) I’m generally a hands-on learner when it comes to hands-on things (which is meant to say that reading technical instruction without images and/or people showing me the how-to methods tends to go one eye and out the other). So if I see a method, I start to mimic it. This means that whatever terminology I was meant to learn I ultimately eventually learned only after repetition. Well, and a little help from my sister and friends and erm…Youtube videos (I mean, come on, garter stitches? Ribbing? K2tog, C1f&b?! WHAT ARE THOSE? I just learned how to knit and purl!)

2) There actually are several correct ways in holding one’s yarn relative to the needles in order to maximize efficiency. Knitting books do not tell me this. Well, they probably do, but they can only go so far with finger positions. Numerous Youtube videos have opened up the terms “continental method” and “English method” to me. So I tried both.

I liked the continental method the best, but that was because I realized I’d been knitting in a similar way, only more like a Neanderthal than a savant. So obviously I had to remedy this.

3) Knitting in the round is a blessing and a godsend. Okay, so I did invest in some circular knitting needles, but I realized–to my consternation–that the needles were too long for most of the small projects I do. This means that unless I got another set of circular knitting needles–a smaller one–it would be more difficult to knit on them if you wanted to make, say, gloves. And socks. And iPhone cozies. Thankfully, I also invested in my favorite double-pointed needles, which, let’s be honest, has been my favorite needles of choice.

4) Most patterns are all a matter of knitting and purling. No, seriously. Almost everything is a combination of knitting and purling techniques, and for fancier patterns, there are tons of sites and places willing to load you on patterns (for free and not-so-free). I admit I immediately got addicted to Ravelry, because hey, it’s a source for numerous patterns, of the geek and not-so-geek variety. I’m still looking for more geeky knitting, but only some of my fandoms have been iterated onto the site. No matter, I’m learning steadily and eventually I will attempt at making simple, yet fandomy patterns!

So yes. Turns out after I finished the gloves, now my mother is clamoring for one, this time a red-and-black variety. So I have to put my projects for myself on hold again. Ah well, there’s always the baking aspect, too >>.