lwood

I have steeked.

My sweater is now a cardigan.

Go me. 8-)

-- Lorrie

Thanks to a tip from zoe_me, I found the right yarn at Purlescence, in beautiful downtown Sunnyvale. While they're not ordinarily open on Sunday, they are today--for an anti-Super-Bowl party, where all yarn is 25% off. Oh, and in sufficient quantity that I needn't fret about a run on the stuff in the next couple hours.

IT'S ON SALE IN MY HOUR OF NEED REALLY OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD WANT! IT MUST BE A SIGN!

*!grin!*

dpaxson is willing to lend her wheels to the effort, which is nice as otherwise it's not likely I'll have the sweater by Pantheacon. One knows, however, that "done by Pantheacon" is sufficient inducement in her world, as it would be in mine, and so.

For during-con knitting, I shall have lovely, talented, very portable, non-bulky...socks. They may be the only non-bulky thing going to the con in my luggage, unlike, say, the several devotional shawls and other things for my Show and Tell Pagan Fiber Arts panel at P-Con.

-- Lorrie

PS: "Q'pla!" For the scanty handful on my flist who are insufficiently fannish (...!?), it's Klingon. For when one wants an enthusiastic ejaculatory interjection for "Success!". Also usable as a parting statement, like wishing someone good luck. I find it a satisfactorily heathen (and unashamedly modernist) sort of thing.

I was knitting away on countgeiger's Diamond Waffle Sock, a Present of WinterÞing delayed by the tag-stonewalling-team of countgeiger and dpaxson--he didn't want his socks 'til I was done knitting a sweater out of the yarn dpaxson bought me for WinterÞing, thankyouverymuch.

Of course, there are times when one cannot knit a sweater as it grows toward its end, and for this, one takes a more portable project--which is why I had a sock in hand, and a sweater in the bag...( WiP Pics and knitting geek digression inside--the real sheep here is outside the box. )

---

In a nearby seat, a lady pulled out a rosary and began, silently, to pray it. Not something you would notice unless you knew what a rosary looked like in use (said the former Catholic). I caught her eye, smiled, and nodded.

While I'm not a fan of rote prayers, I admit I have a soft spot in my heart for the Rosary. Perhaps it's the stories we were told, back when I was a good little Catholic girl in good little Catholic school, or perhaps it's that now I can look back on it and see it as a lengthy meditation, not unlike a mantra, syllables sliding over one another until meaning is lost, and only mystery remains.

A good while later, I thought the lady next to me was looking at my sock--no, she was just zoned out.

But.

The lady with the rosary emerged from her meditations as I made my apologies. "Oh! You work very fast, very pretty--I see you with your sweater, and now with a sock!"

I handed her the sock. "It's for my husband."

"He's very lucky!"

I grinned. "Would you like to see the sweater, too?"

"Oh, yes, please!" The disinterested lady has made her stop and leaves, swapping it for someone with more interest, who doesn't mind wool passing before her eyes.

Rosary Lady coos even more. "Such pretty patterns! How do you follow them?"

"Oh--one stitch at a time, like anything else."

"Ah--I cannot do anything like that. I just pray."

I'd always had trouble getting through a whole rosary. "Ah, well, now, we could use more of that, too, I think."

"Pfft!"

"No, really!" I gathered up my work and began knitting on the sweater, then winked. "I'll tell you another thing: sometimes, knitting is a prayer, too."

We shared a grin, then went back to our labors as the BART rolled on.

She must have seen me before, to remark as she did, and I'd not noticed.

Do you know what others you touch as you spin your thread behind you, crossing the spaces?

All of them?

Does anyone?

-- Lorrie

So, I realise that when I asked with crazy ASCII markup in place of oh, pictures, that really...I should have pictures. I finished Sleeve Two over lunch, and had co-worker Steve take the pics--I now have it on good authority that the iPhone's craptastic camera sucks less than several other phones' craptastic cameras. Yay?

( There are pictures back here, which are low bandwidth but tall, so behold my lj-cut. )

So I was knitting merrily along on Sleeve Two, a broad expanse of handsome stocking stitch (that's "a buncha V's, right?" to the non-knitters, like the outside of a sock) interrupted along the back of the forearm by a twisting overhand knot, made a little pointy on each end to better complement the main body's knot.

By the way, tanyad wanted a WiP photo--which I think are a bit silly, but all the cool knitbloggers are doing it, so, just for her, ( I will put one behind a handy cut. )
--but you can tell the knotwork, and so I am happy. The stuff of which I babbled in the more technical post on these sleeves can be compared to this picture and theoretically make sense. Translating for, um, anyone else, it means: "make a narrow cuff bit, make it poof a bit, then straight to where it would have been had it tapered instead of blousing, then taper normally to shoulder.

However!

At the end of lunch, I noticed...a purl.

In the middle of all that beautiful knit. ( Closeup behind cut. )Actually, this book is the source of the first cabling I ever did, so actually using it to make a sweater instead of just yanking its motifs as inspiration for unwearably-warm-for-California scarves and rune bags that have been amusingly misidentified by drunken heathens (there are stories, oh yes) is an interesting bit of coming 'round again, and that always appeals.

I'm also making this because I am proud of my skill--and, frankly, of all the things I'm good at, this is among the easiest to show off. I will see that thing, know that thing, and then probably not want to wear the sweater. I would just quietly fix the damnthing and not blogrant about it except I have students, and when I see medancer get flummoxed by King Charles Brocade, I figure she could probably benefit from seeing what makes me tear my hair out. So.

The hackers of my flist appreciate this, whether they hack source code, fabric, yarn, cameras, choice mental states, whole organizations of social experimentation, souls, fabric, or whatever. It is for me and I will know, forever and ever amen. I could, perhaps, talk myself out of it if it were, say, to be consigned to my underarm, but sadly NO, it is right there on my upper forearm, and it's pissing me off to look at it.

( Two ways to fix this, included for instructional and talking-it-out-to-myself purposes. )One supposes that the instructional purpose would be best served by leaving the bad little purl to sit until I have medancer in for a private lesson tomorrow, but I'm not inclined to do that; if I can fix this purl promptly, I can finish the sleeve tonight, and think about uniting sleeves and body.

So, Gentle Readers, a question that involves only aesthetic taste and not technical knowledge( behind the cut )

This is to take notes on what I'm doing for the first sleeve on this sweater, to be edited as needed. If that fascinates you, great! If that's boring as spit, ( don't click. )