My Life of Crime

A bulletin from the lifehacks department:

Last night I was with a friend and we got locked out of an office building with most of our stuff still inside.  Since woman cannot possibly survive without cell phone, we had to find a way back in.  Luckily I still had my knitting bag with me and we were able to break into the building using a bit of yarn, some old-fashioned elbow grease and the cable from my set of Knitpicks Options needles.

Although it was slightly frightning to realize how easy it is to get through a locked door, I’m pleased to report that the cable stood up to being pretty badly abused and is, today, still as flexible, functional and (almost) as smooth as ever.  Go Knitpicks!

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Knitter on the loose in San Francisco: Part 1 – Knit Stalking

This weekend I headed north to San Francisco and ended up having a very yarny weekend.  I wasn’t feeling well on the plane, so no actual knitting got done, but nonetheless it was a weekend full of fiber and inspiration.

The kickoff was a Saturday morning trip to the Ferry Building downtown.  The market is a pretty big one and the empty-on-a-weekend downtown that I remember was completely replaced by good sized crowds of people milling around checking out the market, wandering along Embarcadero, checking out the spectacular views of the bay and just generally enjoying the beautiful sunshine.  My friend and I were minding our own business, chatting together and heading for the apple stand when we spotted the most beautiful sweater ever.  I mean really, this was a total stunner.  I’d been teasing her that she is next in line for a knitted gift and she pointed out the sweater in awe.  “Can you make that?” she asked.  “Sure,” I replied, “But I’ll need a photo.”

We tried to snap a sneaky picture but it was way too far away and fuzzy, so we swallowed our pride and just asked for a snapshot.

Here it is:

If this is you, thank you for sharing your sweater with us!  Someday I hope to be able to re-create this pattern.

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So proud

As we speak, Glamorous is in the air above us, heading to the midwest to spend the next several weeks working on the presidential campaign.  I won’t say which one (if you know me at all you already know anyway) because that’s not the point.  The point is that she’s actually doing it.  Her job (she works on a contract basis) finished, she had a few free weeks, so she called a campaign office, booked a flight and is on her way.  I could not be more proud of her!

There is a lot of talking that we do.  I hear so much talk these days . . . political talk around the office, talking heads and pundits on TV, indignant statements thrown around online.  It seems like there are many many more people talking than there are people doing.  Going out into the world, interacting with others, taking action, having an impact.  I am just SO PROUD!

I’m so inspired by what she’s doing that I’m going to do some phonebanking next weekend in her honor.  Whatever your inclination, whatever your passion, stop talking about it and go do something!

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Design challenges, part 1

Although it’s been quiet around the blog, I have been knitting.  I drew an actual sketch for what I’m calling Levi’s Baby Blanket and now I’m just trying to figure out how to make my giant scribble into an actual knitted thing.

So far, so good.

I’m thinking of using Knitpicks Swish Superwash in the bare (ie, undyed and natural) colorway, in either bulky or worsted weight.  Of course, it stands to reason that I’d be swatching with DK weight, right?  Yes, yes, I’ll eventually swatch with the actual yarn I plan to use.  But in this case I’m making design swatches, see?  It’s a whole other process!

Anyway, the concept or theme for the blanket is “three” — three being the number of people in a family when the first new baby arrives.  (In the case of our friends, three also has other special significance.)  Of course thrown into the mix is a dash of “new life” and soupson of “love” so I feel like I have plenty to work with.

Design-wise, I’ve started with the most basic three-part unit I know of: the braid.

I played around with it a bit once I’d worked a pattern repeat, but my favorite part of my swatch is still the traditional-looking braid at the right side of the photo above.    I think the 4-stitch reverse stockinette border looks best. On the left side of the photo, you’ll notice that the reverse stockinette starts to look a little funny.  Well, that was me trying something . . . a teeny tiny braided cable on the wrong side of my swatch.

A cool idea, right? But in practice a big mess. That’s why we swatch right?

My next step was to create a cable of my own design:

I am kind of not digging it. The cable looks kind of snake-like and pointy to me. I also don’t really like the way the bobble placement came out, but I struggled with it and I’m not sure how to correct the problem. Even with a smoother cable and better bobbles, I’m not sure if I’ll use this cable. It looks a little bit plain to me, especially next to the plain braid.

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