Simple Knitting Tips: Knit for Others

Found these cute labels at Nice & Knit

If you're new to knitting, you may be a little unsure of the suitability of your finished product as a gift to another.  Let me dispel this doubt.  Give!  It is an incredible feeling to knit a scarf and give it to someone and actually see them wearing it. (This is the *only* reason I stare at my children when they are wearing knitted items I made.  Honest.)

Here, in random order, are some reasons why it is so important to give your knitting away:

1. It gives you an excuse to knit more, just in case you feel like you need one.
2. It wraps that person in a tangible expression of love.
3. It can often motivate the recipient to purchase more yarn for you. (!!)
4. It prevents the dreaded I Own Too Many Scarves Syndrome. Once you have given half of what you've knit away, you own Just Enough Scarves.
5. Knitted items make great gifts.
6. Knitting for charity is always in style, but that's a whole 'nuther blog post!

I love getting gifts that were made by hand--all that time spent, making something for ME!  It makes me feel appreciated and special.  I never look at a handmade gift and think, "Wow, they haven't quite mastered that skill, have they?"  Maybe I'm just unusually nice, but I'm guessing that MOST people don't think badly of the skills of the crafter when that crafter gives them a handmade gift. 

So, go ahead, give scarves this year for Christmas.  Or dishcloths. Or whatever you have learned to knit. Be proud of your accomplishments and then go start a new project!  I'm fond of green, in case I happen to be one of the lucky ones on your list...

Needles matter: Why I'm switching

For years I have been a tried and true Bamboo Girl.  I used them, I recommended them, I hated having to use anything else.  I even contemplated planting bamboo in my backyard so I could make my own needles, until my best friend from childhood warned me against it.  ("Remember when we were younger?  There was an actual yard behind my house.  Now, bamboo. Everywhere!  Don't do it!!!")

Then on a recent trip I borrowed a set of size 9 circular needles.  They were metal, but I was desperate. I used them for a day on a scarf, then transferred the stitches to a holder to return the needles, knowing I would be much happier when I got home to my bamboo needles and could finish the project with them. 

Imagine my shock when I was not happier.  The difference in the stitch gauge and tension was freaky.  It was flat out ugly, which, in a project using high quality luxury yarn*, you reallllyyyy don't want to see.

Can you see the bit in the middle, where it's not as smooth and lovely?  Sadly, knit with my bamboo needles.

I have heard over the years that knitters who prefer to knit fast use metal needles of some kind, almost exclusively.  As I've told my kids since they were small, though, it's not a race--at least not for me.  I knit for enjoyment (even when I knit for business) and if I take all the fun out of it by racing against the clock or some other knitter, then I may as well take up Nascar (not. ever. happening.). 

The warmth of bamboo and the feel of something from nature have always been more important to me than speed or even cost.   It turns out that the thing that trumps all the other issues is how good (or bad) your garter or stockinette stitch looks. 

All of this means that I broke down and bought a set of circular needles--the Options Interchangeable Nickel Plated ones from KnitPicks.  I love how my knitting looks when I use them (which is all the time now) and I also love how the tips will stay sharp (bamboo has a tendency to lose some pointy-ness over time).

At the same time, however, I also purchased a set of the Nickel Plated sock double points.  I tried so hard to make them work.  The combination of them being double-pointed and so darn slippery made for some tight gripping in sock knitting.  This, my friends, simply will not do.  Having heard rave reviews about KnitPicks' exchange/return policy, I sent them back and ordered the Sunstruck Wood set instead.  I love them. They are smoother than the bamboo needles I've used for years and the points are just sharp enough without feeling like a dangerous weapon. OK, slightly dangerous.  A little danger is exciting. But I digress...

My point (heh, heh) is that sometimes it helps to try new things and to be open to change.  I think I may drive my family a tiny bit crazy, always trying to improve things and make things better/cleaner/more organized/more cost effective/more efficient.  (Don't ask them about how I tried to re-invent Christmas last year.  They aren't really ready to talk about it yet.  It's still too fresh.)  Some improvements work out though, and those are the ones that give me hope.  I love how my knitting is looking with both my new Nickel Plated and my new Sunstruck Wood.  I'm no longer strictly a Bamboo Girl.  And I'm ok with that.

*high quality luxury yarn = LYDIA Yarn. It's wonderful!

Summer Knitting: knitting vs. the doldrums

Designing knitting patterns is tough sometimes. Sometimes it feels like "trial and error" is all error. Combine that with summer days that are either scorching hot or raining cats, dogs and assorted farm animals, and you've got doldrums, big time.

Even if you aren't trying to turn out the next big spectacular knitwear design, you may find yourself listless and lacking the motivation to deal with knitting projects that are misbehaving.  If this happens to you, please don't give up on knitting altogether.  What is that saying about not making snap decisions when it's too humid?  OK, maybe there isn't such a saying, but there ought to be. 

My solution, which of course I HIGHLY recommend, is to knit a dishcloth.  It doesn't even have to be complicated. (It also doesn't need to be visible from space, but I figure, why not??)

I'm almost finished with this doldrums dishcloth--the Moderne Log Cabin from Mason-Dixon Knitting.

If you find yourself in the doldrums this summer, I want you to know two things:

1. You're not alone.

2. Summer is halfway over, so hang on!

If you happen upon a knitting friend in the next few weeks who has a glazed look, a sheen of perspiration across his or her forehead, and a rebellious, obnoxious, knitting-pattern-gone-bad on the needles, hand him or her a ball of cotton and some size 6 needles and reassure them that everything's going to be alright.  Bonus tip: take your friend out for ice cream, too.

Lovin on Bloglovin

I know y'all think I'm some kind of tech-savvy goddess, and there are days I suspect that this is an accurate assessment.  Then there are other days when I want to move to a remote wilderness completely off-grid with no internet, phone or satellite. 

Just kidding.  I can't see myself EVER wanting to live like the Unabomber.  Not even on the really bad days.  We can safely just stick with the tech-savvy goddess part and then I'll go charge my phone in the air-conditioned comfort of my suburban, wi-fi enabled, electric-powered home.

One secret I have found to being tech-savvy is to cheat a little.  There are so many things that I come across in my social media travels that leave me as confused as a cow at a new gate.  Sometimes I dig deeper and try to solve the mystery, and sometimes, well, I just wait it out.  I skip it altogether, with or without solid plans to return to it later.  The cheating bit I mentioned comes when I stumble across the answer and then, Lo and Behold, I am tech-savvy without ever having spent any real effort on increasing that savvy.  I literally fell over it on my path, picked myself up, dusted myself off, and said, "Hey! I now understand this concept and can share it with the world!"

For years I wondered (but not too much) about "RSS feeds".  It sounded great and useful, but for the life of me I couldn't tell you how to partake of such a thing. Somewhere I read that an RSS feed would give you updates from blogs, but how to set up such a thing was never explained in easy words with few syllables.

Today, as I took a morning stroll down a social media woodland path, I found the answer. 

To the question: RSS? How in the world do I use that??

The answer is: Bloglovin'

Bloglovin' is what you need, and you need it now.  You know how you've got your Facebook feed and you log in and there are the people you've friended, sharing their latest corny Friday joke (if you're friends with me on FB, you know what I'm talking about).  Bloglovin' is like FB for blogs.  Anyone with a blog you enjoy reading (and you have no idea how much I hope this is one of them!) can go on your list of blogs.  Then when you go to Bloglovin' and log in or pull up the handy app on your mobile device, you get a news feed of blogs.  You can even "like" them! 

Part of what makes Bloglovin' great is that you can enter any blog in the search box--not just those using a certain platform.  So you can follow folks on Blogger, Wordpress or even me.  Also my friend Stacey, who cracks me up and is an amazing cook, my friend Dianne, whose blog posts always leave me feeling the peace of the countryside around her farm and about a gazillion knitting blogs, for lots of fiber-y inspiration.

It's easy to find blogs you're already reading and add them to your feed and you can also get suggestions of new blogs to discover, on a multitude of topics.  Add as many as you want to follow then whenever you sit down to read, you will have all the new posts from all the blogs on your list, all in one place.  It is as simple as it sounds, without a lot of buttons to push.  I think I have discovered the Next Big Thing in social media--that one thing that will keep blogging alive and relevant.  See? I told you I was a tech-savvy goddess.