New York Minknit

I found this blog dlittlegarden that had a funny tagline: “Ugly things: all made by hand.” I’m like, hah! That should be the name of my blog.  Recently I’ve been thinking of knitting a dickey, and I realized that I may have totally lost my mind. I wish that I, like Brooklyn Tweed, only knitted beautiful and elegant items, but instead, I’m like ooh! Loud sock yarns! A hat connected to a scarf! Maybe a dickey! Knitting makes me weird, lose all taste, and turn into a granny living in the 1970s. I’m like a werewolf of tackniness; when I’m exposed to knitting, it turns me into a lover of weird shawls and other useless items.

This sock progress shot is actually from last week, I’m almost done, though not quite finished with the second sock. I have been watching a ton of Olympics and I think the commenters’ style of announcing is drilled into my head: “She’s approaching the heel turn, look at that precision! The picking of the stitches! Oh no! She’s dropped a stitch. A HUGE mistake, easily 8/10ths off. This may cost her a place on the medal stand.”

I’m watching the Olympics and knitting, but not joining Ravelrympics. Since knitting is a hobby, I try not to get all deadline-ish about it, because I would probably get stressed out (and not finish anything). I’m also trying to only knit from stash, but not go on an Absolute Stash Diet, because things like that also tend to be stressful. (I went on one diet in my life, when a doctor told me to cut out all acidic things for a month and I nearly broke down…kim chee! mustard on pastrami! tea! It was tough.)

I spent all day yesterday taking down wallpaper, which is a boring and time-consuming project. I did knit a few rows on my new project though:

It’s Anne Hanson’s “That Little Scarf” (started on vacation, as you can see above).

It’s interesting because I’ve been reading Anne Hanson’s blog, Knitspot, for a while now, and I’m very inspired by the work she does. Yet at the same time, I felt that a lot of her scarf patterns were essentially a stitch pattern picked out from a dictionary, and sold as a pattern. I found an interesting discussion on Ravelry [registration required] about this–is it really a fair  to charge $5 or $6 for a pattern that’s just a stitch pattern?

I thought the discussion was quite interesting, and one that made me rethink her patterns. Seeing a finished version of some of her projects–even those in a simple stitch pattern, like her Luxor socks–has made me consider using certain stitches (like a simple knit and purl triangle) with certain patterns (like socks)  that I wouldn’t have before. But is the pattern worth the price? I know for me, I didn’t have the stitch dictionary that had this stitch, and more importantly, it was the matter of convenience. I was heading out on vacation, I had the yarn, and I just wanted to know how many stitches to cast on and instructions. For me, it was worth the $5. I also was very inspired by her use of the yarn color (I have problems picturing patterns in other colors, which is why Ravelry has been so great) and fingerling weight yarn–I’m not sure I would have pictured a finished product just by looking at the stitch dictionary. (The Walker Treasury Project is a great way to see the Barbara Walker stitches in color, if you have the books…which I don’t, but am considering buying.)

What do you think?

We went to the Jersey Shore for a week, and I did a little knitting.

Here is Zoltar, the magical fortune teller who transformed Tom Hanks into Big. Well, or one of the Zoltar’s kind. He is skeptical about the sock. “But how can I grant your wish, sock?!?”

The sock appreciates the view down to the beach.

Keep out, sock!