Chest hair pull tab.

I can't explain it. It brings back too many memories. You just have to look for yourself.

Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Meador Shayne

I just read this book, and I thought I'd share my take on it. It's basically a book that was written by two internet pals who met through a knitting board. They are funny in kind of a silly way, so if you are a "let it all hang out" type person, you might appreciate their sense of humor. (I did.)

The patterns in the book are simple, although I thought it was odd that they recommended various cast on methods for some of the patterns without explaining how to do them, but then explained that you had to bring the yarn to the front to purl (or back to knit.) I think of the latter as a basic thing you should know, but I don't know how many methods most people know for casting on. (I know two well, but maybe I'm slow.)

Many of the patterns are for home accessories -- rugs, linens, dish cloths -- although there are also wearable items, including scarves, a nightie (yes, really!) and a baby kimono (ok, that one is only wearable by babies.) I thought the patterns were attractive, and definitely not typical of the average knitting book. I think the first thing I make from the book will be the baby bibs (my sister just had a baby.)

If you want to get a better feel for their writing style and what sort of patterns appeal to the authors, definitely check out their blog, Mason-Dixon Knitting. They have some cute free patterns on their website as well as the errata of their book patterns.

It's time for an update

I can't believe I haven't posted in so long. I had kind of an exciting time. My BFF, Carmen (from a previous post), came to stay with me for a few days. That was SO nice. I haven't seen her since 99, when she was in my wedding! It was like no time had passed, and we had just stepped back into our old friendship like a warm blanket.

My daughters love her. They've been asking about her almost every day, and tell me that they are making art for her. It was actually a pretty awesome connection between them and her. She's not much of a kid person, but she corrected herself, "I only like well-behaved kids like yours." They loved her! The superstar did embarass me properly by asking Carmen when she first got up in the morning, "You have new hair? Why you have new hair?" Poor Carmen had to explain that it was a product of sleeping on it funny!

I also frogged my ISE5 scarf. I love it now. I'm doing it JUST as the pattern describes. My knitting teacher looked at it, and had never seen the pattern. She loved it and asked where I got it so that she could make it as well. I think I'm going to have a hard time sending it off!

The engineer's "so-called scarf" is almost finished. It's so easy and great for night-time tv knitting. She is so excited about it and has been going on about it.

Now I have to come up with another pattern for the superstar.

hurrah

I promise not to show more of this until I finish, but I'm really pleased with this now. That dark spot in the lower right is just a shadow.

I've completed three repeats on the mock cable, and it has flow now. I'm trying to figure out how I want to do the double twist section in here as a chunk. I think maybe just as I did in the beginning, because I want the focus to be on the cable part, not the break.

We have cable!

I'm sure this is incredibly boring, but I finally made it into the repeat of the mock cable. I'm pretty happy, and I think once it's blocked, it will look good!

Just call me Crabby Patti

Ok, if you don't have little kids, you probably don't get the Sponge Bob reference. (I actually don't let my kids watch that much tv, but that's the one show that they watch that I'll actually watch a little.)

Anyhoo...I posted a photo of my scarf progress over on ISE5, and I decided I was mad at it, and pulled it out. Either a.) the pattern is much tougher than I think, or b.) the flow between faux-seafoam and mock cables just doesn't happen that well. So I started again, and I'm happier with the flow. I'm going to make the cable chunks longer, with this as an occasional separator. Hopefully it will continue to go well, but right now, I'm happy. I have faith that with some washing and blocking, it will actually look ok, and not be an embarassing thing that someone gets in the mail and immediately frogs to use the yarn.

Evil Seafoam Pattern

So I've been working on my scarf for ISE5. If everything that I knit were a part of this scarf, I think I'd be almost finished. I knit a swatch and blocked it. There were some minor problems, but I consulted with a friend who is a master knitter, and she gave me some tips. Unfortunately, that didn't help. I think this pattern was not meant to be with this particular yarn (even though it's recommended for the pattern). So I changed the seafoam portion to a twisted drop stitch for the rows with the yarn-overs, and that kept the lacy look, but it just looked cleaner. I'm going to keep the double-ribbed mock cable section.

Let's hope this works, because I'm getting tired of starting over!