KnitOasis: The Ravelry Group

I think most of us who use it will agree: Ravelry is an amazing resource.  I call it The Font of All Knowledge.  If I have a question about knitting, blogging, iPhones, Dr. Who, local happenings, even world events, I can find someone in the Rav forums discussing it, or post a question to be answered by the amazing bunch we call Ravelers.

Recently, I asked my daughter if she thought it would be useful to start a KnitOasis Ravelry group.  Her response?  "What? You don't already have one???"

And so I started one.

Why join another group on Ravelry? And more specifically, why join the KnitOasis group on Ravelry?

Well, technically, you don't have to join ANY groups on Ravelry to get a lot out of it.  As a database for patterns and projects and yarns and designers, it's probably the top website out there.  There are others, but I have yet to find one that offers everything Ravelry has and is as easy to use as Ravelry. You can live your whole life without joining a group and you will most likely be happy enough.

But, if you take the step of joining some groups (your local yarn shop's group or a group that discusses your favorite TV program or even one for knitters with cats) and participate in discussions in those groups, you will find a new level of involvement in your knitting (and crocheting, etc) life.  Back in the old days, before Ravelry, when we wanted to find other knitters, we had to either bump into them in real life (True story: I was stopped by a woman one day as I walked into a grocery store because the bag I was using as my purse was something I had handknit and she could TELL that it was handknit and she and I had a lovely chat about knitting and patterns and yarn.) or find them via the webrings we joined our blogs to. (Remember webrings? Do they still have those??) When Ravelry came along, however, it was like, "There are knitters EVERYWHERE! My people! I have found my people!"

The point is: Community. I can't tell you how many times I have been reassured of my sanity because it wasn't just me having a problem with a pattern/garden bug/movie plot/electronic gadget; there were others and sometimes there were helpful solutions and sometimes there was just company in our misery.

I'm not afraid to embrace the Shameless Plug right now and ask you to join our little group. It's free, it's painless and it will (hopefully) add dimension to your life as we discuss...well...whatever! Patterns, yarns, entertainment, history, pets...you name it! To join, all you have to do is 1) Be a member of Ravelry and 2) Click "join this group" on the group page. That's all! Then join in the conversations that have already begun or start a new one. Ask questions, post comments, tell us a joke! (I love jokes!) (They don't even have to be good jokes.)

Why can't a bicycle stand up on its own? Because it is too tired! Get it? Too/Two tired?? (See what I mean?)

On that note, I'll stop before my kids throw things at me (they hear my jokes a lot). I'll see you on Ravelry!

Simple Knitting Tips: The Knitting Bag

Those of you who have been knitting since the earth was cooling will find this pretty obvious, so you want to go find a brand new knitter to read this to. Go ahead, I'll wait. 

Find one? Great!! 

This Knitting Tip is indeed super simple, yet vitally important.  If you are a new knitter, one of the first things you need to add to your equipment, after you've mastered the knit stitch, is a knitting bag.  Please, please hear me when I say this knitting bag cannot be a plastic grocery bag.  You have embarked on a journey of fibery fabulousness.  You have learned a new skill.  You have joined the long proud history of People Who Make Things.  You are a Knitter!  You deserve a nice sturdy bag to carry your knitting things around with you to knitting classes and knitting groups and in the car on trips. In knitting, as in so many things, you can spend a lot or you can spend a little.  So it goes with a knitting bag.  It doesn't have to be a $300 Brahmin tote that you have converted into yarn and needle storage (but it can be, because, Brahmin!).  It can be $5 canvas bag from the craft store that says "Crafts".  It can be anything in between.  

One of my first knitting bags <3

Some things to look for in a knitting bag:

• Not flimsy plastic grocery bag!
• Solid construction. No holes that knitting needles can fall through. Or poke through!
• Either many pockets or none at all. This is a matter of preference.
• Size is not crucial.  Once you've been knitting awhile, you will acquire larger bags into which you will stuff the smaller bags that you use for one project.
• Quantity is not crucial. I started with one.  Now?  Let's just call it "less than 100."
• Can be handmade: knitted, crocheted, or sewn are all lovely. If it needs a lining to make it solid, be sure to add it.
• It should make you smile when you see it and use it.  Knitting is your new, exciting, rewarding hobby.  Enjoy it, enjoy your knitting bag(s) and welcome to the family,  you Knitter, you!

Finish for Fall, part 2

Finish for Fall makes me want to dance for joy! Or at least find a dancer to model a finished project: The Charleston Indigo Scarf

So it's been a week since I admitted to the world the appalling state of my yarn stash/unfinished objects/knitting storage.  I will now further humble myself with photographic evidence of my progress:

I found 14 projects tucked away (2 not pictured). That's a lot of unfinished business!

My progress was slowed by the constant need to stop and untangle yarn balls.

By the time I was through getting it all organized, I had one bag of yarn to put away, one bag of knitting projects to finish and a basket of odd-ball yarn to make decisions about. And a head, but that's a story for another day.

Since that first day of digging it all out, I have frogged 6 projects, bound off one where it was (it was a swatch)(sorta), and completed the knitting on both a random dishcloth and the Charleston Indigo Scarf.  14 - 9 = 5!  I now have a very full tin of stitch markers, several more sets of needles and an abundant supply of row counters that had all been "in use" for years in some cases.

There is still much to do, of course, and I know I will be casting on new projects (for new designs I'm writing) long before I finish my Cold Mountain shawl or some of the other projects still on needles.  That's why my list is coming in handy.  The next step for me is to develop my time-table for finishing that big project and even more importantly, to stay "solvent". My plan to Finish for Fall has given me a new resolve to not let things languish or get pushed aside into a dark closet or drawer.

I started this beaded wrap several years ago. Frogged!

I started this random dishcloth (what were those eyelets all about??) last spring. Finished!!

How about you? Did you start this Finish for Fall project, too?  How is it going?  Is it helping? I'd love to hear about it. If you feel brave, share with us in the Ravelry group. If you're too mortified by how much you found lurking in the shadows, post an anonymous comment and know that you're not alone.

Wading in the pool, the murky pool of pooling colors

Just so you know, I am fully aware that today's topic might be controversial.  I am prepared for the dislike mail, the ugly comments, the disdain from knitters and crocheters who disagree with me.  Being fully aware of the stir I'm about to make, I am plunging in anyway, into the murky waters of color pooling.

There are some who adore pooling.  I get that. I really am open minded about this and I hope you can find a way to be open minded about what I'm about to say.

I am not a fan.

I tried, I really did.  I have seen projects pool that did so in ways I could live with ("it's artistic, yeah, artistic. That's it...").

This block from my Flying Geese quilt has some pooling of sorts that works.

A little pooling on this border between the green sections.  This I can live with.

But there are way too many that turn out much less artistically. Much less.

See the section at the top? Where the brown turns all muddy?  Looks like, well, a pool of mud.

And then there is this. It was supposed to be a sock. It's sock yarn even.  But the splotches of color were so disturbing, that this yarn is now on its way to becoming a scarf. (Will post link to pattern when it's published FREE on Ravelry. Stay tuned!)

When good socks go bad, or something like that.

I realize there are those of you out there who love it when yarn acts this way.  There is a Ravelry group for you and even a website that will (somehow) tell you how to plan your pooling. (Thank you, Desiree, for that tip!)  My friend Dianne tells me that SAFF will have a class on working with variegated yarn, but I think it's too late for me.  I tried, with the sock yarn above, using two skeins and switching every row to "break up" the pooling and it looked even worse.  I also hated having to stop and untangle the two working yarns all the time.  Fighting the pooling to make a sock was sucking all the fun out of sock knitting, and y'all, that just ain't right.

It probably shouldn't have surprised me.  I prefer Baroque music and Georgian architecture for their symmetry, so yeah, the vagaries of variegated yarn and its issues with pooling are difficult for me to embrace.

My lesson here is that I might be happier sticking to solids, self-striping, tweeds, hand-paints and tonals. And I'm ok with that.  Remember, life is too short to knit something you hate.

What has been your experience with pooling? Are you a fan? I'd love to see what you've done. Either post in the comments below or in our KnitOasis Ravelry group.