Yo La Tejo

Actual Knitting Content.

Whelp, things have settled down somewhat here at Chez Yo La Tejo, after a month of frantic writing, scrambling to make deadlines, and running around the entire Eastern half of the country. Not that there still isn't plenty to be done, school-wise, but at least I'll stay put for the few weeks before I leave for the Christmas holidays.

I forgot to blog last time about a new knitter...my friend Jen (the one I was visiting last week)! When she expressed the tiniest bit of interest in the sock I was knitting, that was all I needed to pack her off to Michael's so that we could pick out some yarn and needles. We found some soft Paton's chunky tweed yarn in a nice cream color and some Clover bamboos, and I bought her one of those Learn to Knit in One Day for reference.

We sat down that night, I showed her how to do a longtail caston, and then she was off! I was amazed as she took to it like the proverbial ducky to water. She almost made some mistakes wrapping the yarn or inserting the needle into the stitch, but always, always caught herself and corrected herself before I needed to say anything. Momma's so proud! She even confessed the next day that she'd dreamt about knitting. Don't you think that's a sign? I definitely think she's on her way to becoming as yarn obsessed as the rest of us.

Anyway, here at home there isn't much on the needles right now, but it is the holiday season, after all, so I don't suppose anyone expects a complicated Alice Starmore sweater emerging from the knitting blogs right now. I'm really wanting to try Eunny's new Endpaper Mitts (and with that name, how could I not?). But here's what I've actually got:

Mistake Rib Noro Chenille Scarf



I've talked alot about this yarn already, mostly in terms of what to do with it. I attempted the Opera Scarf , thinking the open lace would look interesting with the chunky chenille. It's a simple pattern, and I knit a few rows of it--it's a simple slip one purlwise, yarnover, knit 2 together. Wrong side and right side. Over and over.

I put it away for a while. Uh, big mistake. Because when I picked it up again, I couldn't remember how I'd been doing the yarnovers. You know what it's like when you look at a word for too long and it doesn't make sense anymore? Something that comes second nature and you never think about it while you're doing it, but if you're forced to pick it apart....it just falls apart.

What kind of a knitter am I? I couldn't figure out this yarnover! I ripped out the whole thing and started the Mistake Rib, which I found in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (it's the child's scarf), but is a pretty common stitch pattern. I like the way this looks, and I've made progress beyond what the picture shows. The funny thing is that the part on the bottom lies pretty flat because I ripped out that yarn so much trying to figure out what I wanted that it's all chewed up and scraggly now. But the fresh yarn produces lush, soft ribs.

And then there's my leftover Longhorn socklet:



Yay! I finally finished one, and it's so cozy that I can't wait to finish the other. The pattern is Alison's, and I think I finally figured out the short-row business. Yay! I even figured out how to purl 3 together through the back loop, although it took a lot of swearing and almost breaking my Brittanys to pull it off. The only downside here, in my opinion, is that if you decide to do a short-row toe, you've got a gajillion live stitches to Kitchener together. I did it this time just to learn the technique, but I think I prefer decreasing at the toe.

And that's about it, folks. But here's a gratuitious picture of a pretty hand-wound skein:



Look, ma! No swift!

posted by Olga @ 9:31 AM