Architecture and knitting are two things that I find continually delightful. So you will understand my interest when I came across the Knitting Site. Make sure that you do not miss the gallery pictures of the work in progress and the finished house. Anyone wanna knit a house with me?

        

After staying healthy almost all winter, things have changed. My James is down for the second time in two weeks with a nasty fluey thing. The dreaded flu has come to our house, and the only thing to do is to take our Oscillo and  Emergen-C, get lots of rest, and rent some movies.

Speaking of movies, this week I got the Left Out Knitter DVD in the mail. I'm so glad I ordered it! I can always eventually figure out how to reverse instructions properly, but just seeing Diane demonstrate it even once and it is cemented in my mind. I am thrilled. My increases improved overnight.

I got a package from Office Depot (or was it Max? I can never remember...) which included heavy duty top loading page protectors. For my Master Knitter Level 1 swatches which don't exist yet. Now that I have the page protectors though, I have no excuses left. I need to stop being nervous and start knitting them.

I'm almost done with the cabled toddler socks that are my current project. And I plan on finishing the Socks That Never End this week, too. I should know better than to make predictions about the Socks That Never End, though.

        

I want to post a picture of some baby socks, but my camera is MIA. I know it is in the house somewhere. When it precipitates out of the house mixture, I'll post them.

Until that happy moment of camera discovery, amuse yourself by clicking this link to an indescribable website that explores the connections between knitting and computers. A cup of quirky, a dash of artsy, and a healthy handful of knitting, it's BUGBEAR.

        

KNIT 'N STYLE - 1 YR - $ 18.95
From: Best Deal Magazines
CREATIVE KNITTING - 2 YR - $ 16.95
From: Best Deal Magazines I've gotten magazine subscriptions from Best Deal Magazines before when they are running some great Deal of the Day (like Midwest Living for $3.89 a year). But I hadn't realized that I could get a really cool deal on Knitting magazine subscriptions. Look what I did today!

I ordered from Best Deal Magazines:
Creative Knitting         12.95 (or get 2 years for 16.95)
Knit 'N Style                  18.95
Total                             31.90
Total after $5 off
Coupon code
MNDCJ210               26.90

Okay, this is pretty cool. But to make it even sweeter, you have to go here first. (Sign up for Mr. Rebates if you don't have an account yet). Mr. Rebates gives you 10% cash back on purchases you make at Best Deal Magazines. So the grand total for the 2 knitting magazine subscriptions is $24.21. Since regular subscription price for Knit 'N Style is 24.95, I got 2 subscriptions for the price of one! Hence, I dub this my pretty sweet knitting magazine twofer deal. If you want to duplicate the deal, make sure you go to Mr. Rebates first (login or sign up), search for Best Deals Magazines, put the 2 knitting magazines in the cart, and use coupon code MNDCJ210 (expires 2/10).

I'm so pleased. Must go knit something.    

        

Voila! My new KnitPicks yarn, oh so beautiful! On the left is some Peruvian Wool. This is destined for a project making indoor, felted, bouncy, snowballs. I haven't finished designing them yet. I think they will be mostly traditional white, but I make no guarantees.

On the right is Risata, a blend of cotton, wool, and polymide, with a touch of elastic. I am loving working with this yarn! It is so delightfully stretchy, with a slight sheen, and a soft touch. I couldn't resist casting on a sock to try out a pattern that has been percolating in my head for the last few days. It will be a knee high toddler sock, for Margary, my knee high toddler.

        

I'm not going to tell you how long I have been working on this pair of socks. If you knew, there might just be an awkward silence, and then you quickly change the subject. And you'd stop coming around so often, and slowly fade out my life. Or something. So it's better not to mention it. Yes, I have been working on these socks for a shameful amount of time. I know that they are worked on 0's for my James dear's big feet, but still...




However, I finally realized why I dreaded working on them. It's the toe. I love knitting socks. Love, love, love it. But...I've messed up Kitchener stitch every which way I possibly could. So I knew, if I finished the socks, I was just going to ruin them with an ugly toe. But no more! I am freed from this bondage! I have heeded the words of TECHknitter, and successfully grafted the toes of a pair of baby socks (pics coming soon)! My burden has been lifted, and I am turbo knitting away with renewed vim and vigor, looking forward to a toe worthy of this work of art.

I am woman, I am mighty, and I HAVE CONQUERED KITCHENER! Of course, if I finish this sock, then I will have to go rip out the toe of the former sock to make them match. But, I refuse to be concerned! I am mighty, remember? If you can remember, then you can remind me when it comes froggin' time.

        

Here is the knit stitch. Perhaps you are familiar with it. The person who makes a fabric composed of stitches like this is called a knitter. This seems obvious to me, but the evidence presented to me recently shows that there are some who disagree.

I believe that if a knit stitch is made, it doesn't matter if you made it with your teeth and it took you two hours. You are a knitter. It doesn't matter if you prefer to form it in complete darkness under an elderberry tree on the night of the new moon. You are a knitter.

So it further follows that I don't ever want to hear one knitter say to another, "You're doing it wrong." Twice in the last four days I have heard a story containing that phrase. Twice my blood has boiled. The first story was told to me by a young lady who seemed to hold no ill will for what happened to her. That's okay, I mustered enough ill will for the both of us. She had learned to knit from a book, and was finishing up her first project, a scarf. She went to dinner with a friend of hers. The friend's mother, a knitter, came along. This woman took one look at the scarf, declared "You're doing it all wrong!" and ripped it out. Yup, you heard correctly. Then the knitter proceeded to teach her how to do it "right". My guess is that the young lady was twisting her stitches (she couldn't tell me what exactly was wrong, only that now evidently, it was right). The other story was from a left handed knitter who knits by moving stitches from the right needle to the left, just like I do. She was told that she was doing it wrong (I could rant about this in particular, but Diane already has), and was very embarrassed as all the other knitters in the room looked at her as if they had suddenly discovered she had two heads.

If someone ever says to you "You're doing it wrong.", you have my permission to spit in their eye. And if you ever see someone knitting differently than you do, don't you dare tell him/her it is all wrong. Try something like this. "That looks uncomfortable to me. Do you find it comfortable?" "Your stitches are twisted. Did you know that?" "I've never seen anyone knit with their needle between their knees before. How did you come upon that method?" You could learn something intriguing instead of being rude. And the truth is, the knitter who is rude is the one that it doing it all wrong.

        

It's here! The Noro is destined for an entrelac beret, using this pattern from Millinery Workshop. The colors are just as gorgeous as I had hoped. The Cashmerino will be my Master Knitter program swatch yarn. (It more subdued in real life, not as limey). Sorry the picture is so blah! I have to learn to be a better yarnographer.

        

What kind of yarn am I? Turns out I'm mohair. Makes me sound alright, but I still can't help thinking I might be a bit scratchy and hard to care for.

        

I have been meaning to set up a blog for the purpose of knitting news for a while, and now here it is! If you have ever heard someone chortle, it is a sound to remember, and it's what I was doing when I discovered that yarnivorous.com was still available. It's a peach of a domain name, and all mine, mine, mine!

Not a moment too soon either, for winging their way to my door are TWO packages containing yarn. One is from Skein Scene, the other from KnitPicks. I hope that they are more than satisfactory so that I can gush all over my new blog about them. Til then, knit on, friends!