My Own Long Project: Finito

I'm inclined toward the massive knitting project on small needles. I'm not sure where this comes from.


Many of you have seen me toiling for the past few years on the miniwrap--it is a sock-yarn version of the Knitting at Knoon pattern, Wrap Me Up. I loved knitting it. It takes a little longer than the original wrap, but that's because you need to adjust it to make it longer when you go to the small needles. Doing that was no big deal. I added a few random squares that we had been doing in our Zimmermania class--killing two birds and all that.

This weekend, I went so far as to line the wrap with cotton fabric, attaching the lining by hand around the edge. Then I used a sewing machine to sew the fabric down around the blocks, in the ditch, as if it was a quilt top. (A walking foot is crucial for this job.) That kept the whole thing straight. Knitting gets crooked easily, especially when you are making patches of different stitch patterns.
 
And then, this evening just before dinner, after I had spent the entire weekend with all this sewing of the wrap, along with almost 2 years of actual knitting, the whole thing was suddenly finished. I sat in disbelief for over 5 seconds, and then Kevin said he was hungry and wanted to get going. Since it is summer and we are a little safer from college students and their pedestrian-and-driving ways, we went downtown to eat dinner and take pictures of the wrap. Here are a few of those pictures. I have lived in State College all my life, so let's add in a little town history while we're at it.

The first picture was taken in at the side of the Tavern where they're doing some remodeling.





When I was a kid and went with my family, I always got the lasagna. I think that their recipe has not changed in 40 years. It is still terrific.

Next is the scarf on the famous State College Pig statue. You see, apparently 100 years ago in State College, pigs were allowed to roam free in the streets. (Now it is just college students who roam free in the streets.)

Then 100 years later, in 1996, we in State College decided to remember the free-range pigs and build a statue in homage. The mother pig was named "Centennia" by a committee of townspeople, who thought that the name was appropriate for the "centennial" of the town. The piglets were named "Ed" for the education that completely surrounds us here in State College, and "Hope," for the hope that we all have that we are going to finish the rest of our projects soon, so that we can start new ones.

That dear little Hope seems to be hiding under the scarf does not bode well.

Or is that Ed?

In any case, we will all start new projects.

Finally, those of you who live in State College will instantly recognize the mural. It is on a side street that has been beautified with Famous State College Important People that are Not You. Or at least they're not me.

Until today. Heh.

You may not know the back story of this particular section of the mural. It looks a little puzzling, I admit--but I can help you out because I am a native of State College, and therefore I know what's going on because of those important circles I'm always running around in.

Here is what is going on:

The couple on the left is kissing because they are so overjoyed that I am finished with the mini-wrap.

Then below to the right, the man has put a dog on his head so that the dog can see the wrap better. But the the wrap is at the wrong angle for the dog to see, so the dog is feeling rather distracted and looking the other way. That is the way dogs are, you know.
 

My Mother's Progress

 

My mother looks pretty normal, but I have a sneaking suspicion from all my years of knowing her that on the inside, she is just a teeny-tiny bit loco. For those of you who do not know, she is knitting a bed cover in strips using size 10 crochet cotton on size 2 needles.

She began the project about 3 years ago. With only a helmet liner in between, she has worked on this project steadily, taking only a few short breaks. When she was at full tilt, she knit on it 3 hours a day: an hour in the morning, an hour after lunch, and an hour in the evening. 

She has calculated how many stitches it is--almost 1.4 million. 

I have been asked many times how it is going. As of this month, the knitting part is finished.The cover is made of 15 strips, each with 20 diamonds. That was 300 diamonds to make.

 And the 15 strips are sewn together. Do you see the seam in between the cables?

 

After the bed cover was assembled, she washed it in the washing machine. (She told me that she never left the washer's side.) It was dried on a bed, not the dryer. Do not even think that it went in the dryer.

And now the only thing left is the fringe. The fringe is quite an undertaking. (If you don't believe me yet that she's crazy, you will soon.)

Mom worked on several versions of the fringe before choosing exactly how many strands it needed, how it was to be knotted, and how long it would be. The final contenders are below, and the winner is the longer one on the left.

She chose a book specifically for the size she wanted to wrap the fringe. (Or maybe for how you are supposed to feel about her bed cover.)

 

 

And she is making hundreds of pieces, each exactly the same length with exactly the same number of strands. She puts them in a box, tied loosely, so that she can just pluck them out to attach them. This is my Dad, plucking one of them to show you:

(I have a strong suspicion that he is particularly impressed with this undertaking.)

A fringe pile:

She bought a comb that had teeth with the proper spacing she needed to comb out the fringe as she made the loops:

And that is where she is. Cutting and combing.

Mom has promised me that when the bed cover is done, we can have a big party for her in the store. I suspect it will be in the fall. Look for the day and time in our newsletter. You are invited. But be warned that this will be one party with no food or beverages.

Crochet Come Lately

Kim has tried to convince me for years that crochet is "relaxing," "fun," and "logical," but I never took to it. Oh, I've made a couple of crocheted sweaters, and a few dishrags, but that was about it.

Until now. I think I'm hooked.

It started last week when I wanted to play with a yarn. It is Skacel's Shari, a yarn that has a strand of silver shine running through it. Who could resist such a thing? I wanted to knit it into an open, lace pattern, but nothing worked. I didn't feel like garter stitch, which is where this baby was going.

Then I realized that maybe the yarn would work in crochet. It did.




 


Oh, for fun, let's let the camera do something that our eyes would never bother with--go in even closer:



Weird.

Anyway, as you can tell by the fact that I have several "artistic" views but no pictures of myself modeling the scarf, I'm planning to make it at my leisure, just for fun, and without deadline--so when you stop by the shop, there's a good chance I'll be working on it--or at least that it will be nearby and you can see it. I'm really enjoying this project.

And my new-found love of crochet? It's actually all due to this little baby:



This is one of our new Tulip crochet hooks. Our crochet teachers swear that they help new crocheters learn faster and better. One of our knitting teachers started using them, and now she wants to teach only crochet classes. Another knitting teacher has dropped all her knitting and begun using it to crochet a series of Angry Birds characters. Misty, one of our crochet teachers, even went so far as to write a major hook comparison on her blog: The Tulip came out ahead. And I've never seen her use another hook since.

All because of this hook, I've started looking through crochet books to mull over my next project. Feel free to join me in my new obsession, and shout out ideas for projects. Kim, I have to admit that you were right all along.

I hate when that happens.

 

Kim is a Knitter, I am a Quilter

Kim and I suffer from a persistent stereotype: that she is a "quilter" and I am a "knitter." Indeed she does quilt and I do knit. But we couldn't have gotten this far without knowing how to do both. You need to be able to help people--and besides, all the crafts are fun. We both like to knit, crochet, and quilt.

I won't talk about her yarn stash, which is as big as mine. But that should clue you in that Kim always has a yarn project going.

When Kim knits, she tends to do it in the evenings at home while watching TV. She rarely brings her projects into the shop to show people. She is a close-to-the-vest kind of knitter. But today, just a little, I am going to force her out of her knitting closet.

For some reason, she tackles only large, crazy projects. I'll show you a few of them here.

The Crazy Huge Bag

Early on, when we first opened, along with a bunch of scarves, Kim made this felted bag. She wanted a very large bag, and in order to do that, she had to make it ginormous before felting. It was as big as a laundry bag, or maybe even a dress. After felting, it was still large.

Look how pretty the colors are close up:

Even the i-cord on the handle is colorful:

When we went to yarn market one year and Kim carried it, yarn-shop owners from all over the country stopped us in our tracks and remarked on how much knitting that bag took.

The Crazy, Huge Scarf

Kim has a penchant for Fair Isle. She loves working with yarn in both hands and says that it soothes her to do so. So she usually has a Fair-Isle project going. She has made several bags--this one:

(She thinks I should weave in the ends--for some reason, I haven't done it yet.)

And this bag, which she made with a beautiful lining and leather handles (and sewed in her own ends):

But the craziest Fair Isle project of them all was this year's Giant Scarf.

She made the Giant Scarf in the round on a 16" circular needle. It took 16 skeins of Noro Kureyon in many different colors:

It is very, very thick, and she will never be cold again.

The one side is a stripe...



the other, a checkerboard.




So what's Kim's next project? Rumor has it that she has taken home yarn and a pattern for another large felted purse.

Ask her what it is!

Writing

Even though this is prime knitting season, where nothing feels as good as wool on one's lap, I have not been knitting (or for that matter, quilting) much for the past few weeks. I have been writing. This isn't in a sudden change in career. For a long time, I've been writing my Really Clear patterns--actually, ever since the store opened. But I decided that 2011 was the year to get serious about them.

Now, anyone who has ever taken a class with me knows that I never leave a pattern alone. Unfortunately for me, that includes my own patterns. So as I reformat the patterns, I am also revising them. I am fortunate to have a fantastic editor, Tina Hay, working with me. (She thinks that editing these patterns is "fun," and I would appreciate it if you did not tell her otherwise. I plan to set her to work hemming pants soon, and I'm sure she'll think it's a ball.)

In the fall, I connected with a wonderful photographer, Tamar London, and I had my first photo shoot in December. 

*****

For the past week, I have been revising my top-down mitten pattern. (Tina, another draft is coming your way soon.) Today I ran across photos that I took a long time ago for the cover of the pattern. I thought you would enjoy seeing the before-and-after shots.

Here is the first one I ever took, about 7 years ago:

 

 

"Mitten on Notebook Paper."

 

I knew it wasn't very good. I thought that maybe if I did a little photo editing, I could improve it. What do you think?

"Black and White Mitten on Notebook Paper surrounded by white haze in Pebbled Frame."

Since I knew that the photo wasn't working, I thought that maybe drawing it instead would improve the situation.  

 

Maybe not so much.

*****

Over the years, I did become a better photographer. Last year, I took this photo of a top-down mitten. It is actually not horrendous. But it still wasn't what I wanted.

"Purple Mitten Floating in Space"

I told Tamar that I wanted photos that looked alive, as if people were wearing and using the knitted items.  I didn't want what I call "sweaters on a stick." 

She came through.

 

I am thrilled with Tamar's photos.  I'll be showing them to you over time, as I write up the patterns.  

You can also follow what I am doing on Facebook, by becoming a fan of Really Clear Instructions.

But in the meantime, I must get back to work.

The Blue Sweater

When I first met Kevin about 12 or 13 years ago, we went to a knitting store near his parents' house.  There was a lot of yarn there.  I told him to pick out yarn that I would use to make him a sweater. He picked out his favorite color of blue, and I set to work.

I was going to make the best sweater known to the planet. It was going to have cables and embellishments, and he would wear it proudly.  I started designing and swatching to make it perfect. 

And then I started my dissertation. The sweater got put on hold.

I graduated.  I picked up the sweater and started working on it. Then Kim and I started our shop. I kept trying to make the sweater, but frankly I didn't have time for the most beautiful and elaborate sweater ever made. I didn't know what to do about this because I wanted the sweater to be glorious! The sweater got put on hold.

Finally, about 2 or 3 years ago (who can keep track of these things?), I got tired of looking at the swatches.  I knew that if I didn't start the sweater, and just make it plain, it would never happen. Besides, I figured something out while I was working at the store: Men do not like fancy, elaborate sweaters anyway. They want boring sweaters. They are guys.

And so I began the sweater in earnest. 

I made it plain stockinette.  The fabric seemed to look best on size 4 needles. So it took a while. The sweater went with me to every show I attended, every movie, and lots of knitting and quilting classes. Many of you got interested in the sweater.

After a few years of dragging around the sweater, I decided that it needed to be finished in 2010. Sometimes it's good to have a goal. Some of you, at my request, even nagged me to finish it (here's lookin' at you, Nancy). I worked to get it done for Kevin's birthday this past December. It was not an easy task.  Two days before the birthday, I was doing the final embroidery on the hem of the sweater.  Elizabeth Zimmermann suggested that the knitter should put her initials and the finished date in the hem of sweaters.  I liked this idea, and kept saying that "2010" was a great year to embroider.

I had looked forward to making that 2010 for years now, but if I wanted to have it done in time for Kevin's birthday, I had no more time; the sweater needed a few days to dry after blocking.

I was sitting there, dejected, when Kim said to me, "Why don't you put ears on it?" 

"What do you mean, ears?" I said.

"You know," she said, "above the initials, like Mickey Mouse ears." 

Kim had unwittingly reminded me about something that I had been planning to do, but had forgotten:  Kevin and I like Disney, and I had wanted a Hidden Mickey in Kevin's sweater.  There was still time in the day to do that rather than 2010. So I got busy, and made a little Hidden Mickey after my initials:





That seemed to suffice. I blocked the sweater, and, with the help of a fan that Kim brought into the shop, it was dry by Kevin's birthday.

To celebrate his birthday, we went to Rey Azteca that night with friends.  I had the wrapped sweater hidden in my bag.  After Kevin opened all his other gifts, like his sheets of duct tape....

and his Mad Scientist book...

I got out the sweater package.  He said he didn't know what it was till he held the package and it smooshed.  Then he wildly ripped into it:



At least that's how I like to tell the story.  We may have had low-light conditions in the restaurant that created camera blur.

Rey Azteca was a little too messy and crowded for trying on sweaters, so that part waited.  But he's been wearing it on cold days.

 
 
I was relieved that it fit and looked good. 

Now I do admit that the neckline is a bit wide, but Kevin won't let me fix it.  He claims that it makes getting the sweater over his head easier.  I'm not sure if this is entirely true. I suspect that after over 10 years of watching me work on it, he can't bear to let me continue.

Helmet Liners

The helmet liners are on their way to Afghanistan. Thanks, everyone, for all your help.