Best Quote I Heard All Day

You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.--Pablo Picasso

Knowing what you want to do and getting there are two different struggles entirely.

With a houseful of fiber, there's plenty that I want to do with it. Ideas run rampant. But the discipline to take an idea to fruition. Ah, therein lies the rub.

Look Out, Kid. It's Something You Did. God Knows When, But You're Doing It Again

The past week was spent finishing one project and reworking another design idea. Quite a fruitful few days, all in all.

The redo of the Leaves of Grass socks is now over. Charted. Directions almost formatted. This picture is not the final--I just shoved them on my feet this morning in lieu of dragging Corinne out of her room to be my foot model. Good thing I shaved my legs the other day.

It's funny how even redoing a design that dates back to 1997 was a struggle. Other than the Wallaby, I have never knitted anything twice. And the Wallaby only because both Ian and Liz loved it when they were little and kept asking for it as they grew.

So, remember this from last year?

This was the Diamusee that I had been fooling around with, trying to get this design to work.

It just didn't. Nohow.

But since I never let anything go to waste, last weekend I took the existing chart, refined it considerably, and came up with this:

Not a great picture, granted. And since this was the design prove-out, I took some KnitPicks sock yarn, this tweedy stuff, and knit the sample sock from that. Of course, the pattern doesn't show up that well, but I wasn't concerned with that.

The entire sock consists of 8-stitch repeats, every single motif. The challenge was to make it flow properly when dividing for the heel and to make sure that the sock's leg could be shortened (you can leave the first motif out) and lengthened/shortened in the instep (only shorter motifs used there). With only one small adjustment to the chart I had redrawn, the whole thing worked perfectly.

The final sock yarn, Regia Stretch, is ideal for this kind of Guernsey-esque design.

When I design something, it's because I'm searching my skull for something that I know I want to knit but that either doesn't exist or does exist, but isn't quite the thing.

This sock is really a sampler of raised stitches. And I like change in my knitting, lots of it, otherwise I get bored. By next week, the first sock will be done so there will be a picture.

The Doltdrums of Winter

You know, this time of year brings out the KnitDweebs in droves, probably because what else is there to do but knit? Yeah, maybe ski and skate but winter arrived late in some parts of the lower 48.

Now, will someone please tell me why there is now a plethora of fingerless mitt-knitting taking over, wherein every KnitDweeb has jumped on the bandwagon and is unfinishing gloves?

Sorry, the only use I can find for these is if you work on a computer in a cold office. I liked the ones in the last IK--those I could see making for work because inevitably I've always worked in chilly buildings. And as a dear friend of mine, who knows who he is but shall go nameless this time, says they're good for organists playing in drafty churches.

But fingerless mitts from Noro Kureyon? (And why do people refer to Kureyon as Noro? Noro is the brand as well as the name of the artist who creates the colorways, if you didn't know.)

I'd just as soon make fingerless mitts from a Hefty garbage bag. Probably would be more practical. Besides the fact that Kureyon pills like a bitch, it's not exactly a material I would choose for handgear.

And WTF happened to ponchos? That bandwagon seems to have lost its wheels, thank God.

Please. Don't even ask me to predict what the next lemmings craze will be. Knitted silk parachutes with which to jump off the cliff? I can dig it.

More Me

It would appear that I will be telecommuting from now on. This is a very good thing. So it will give me the opportunity to write the blog entries more frequently, I hope. Not that I would ever neglect my work. Sorry, gang, but that does come first. Gotta pay the bills.

Nevertheless, telecommuting also means a certain degree of isolation that has to be addressed. So I guess I will be getting my fat ass out to the gym finally.

About time. Because the M&Ms and Diet Coke snack has to go. It's a rare and handy combination but one that increases the adipose tissue, not to mention the avoirdupois. You know what I mean.