We'll make a knitter out of this one

Seeing the Yarn Harlot at four months must have inspired him. I looked down while reading my email today and saw this:



Just like Carolina, Arden loves yarn. I just have to untangle him from it every so often.



Before someone gets alarmed, I am right here next to him. He is not left unsupervised with yarn. And, considering the news lately, it's probably safer for him to put yarn in his mouth than toys.

Carolina turns 4 in a week and a half, and she's getting needles and yarn for her birthday. I received advice from a little girl at Asheville Home Crafts on which needles to buy, so I hope she was right. That was, incidentally, an excellent little shop in the Grove Arcade, with a selection of nice yarns and supplies, and a lot of knitted items for sale. My husband saw a hat he liked -- just a simple tight cap with an inch of ribbing -- and I wrote down the measurements to make it just the way he wants it. I already have yarn for it, but he's very picky about the fit, and this hat fit him perfectly. I hope I can duplicate it.

I did finally finish the back of the Sweater! I'm nearly through one side of the front. I have delusions of finishing it by Christmas, but ... well, I have two little kids. And I'm easily distracted, after all.

Toppings

I finally got around to doing a little finishing. Here's "Arden's" Marley and the pink hat I made for Carolina (as Big Sister shall henceforth be known. It's her favorite alter ego). Both were just waiting on their toppers.



Arden's hat has the marley topper my mom was so kind as to finish for me, and Carolina's has the fleece topper described at the front of the Itty Bitty Hats book. I thought her hat looked good without the topper, actually, but she insisted, and who am I to argue?

One finger and one ball of pink yarn

Inspired by Edison (scroll down), and in an attempt to get Big Sister to leave me alone with Ravelry for five minutes, I started teaching her to finger-knit today.

I loved finger knitting as a child, and my sister and I would turn out festive garlands of blue and orange acrylic. I can't remember us ever doing a thing with these. It was definitely an example of the process being more important than the product. I think we might have unraveled them and reused the yarn; it seems like we did more finger knitting than the yarn supply would otherwise have allowed.

I did some more finger knitting a few years back, when I was teaching kids to knit and crochet at the library where I worked. I would start them off with finger knitting, and most caught right on ... except one little girl who couldn't get the hang of lifting off the loops, and would end up cutting off the circulation to her fingers. She just kept wrapping and wrapping. I have bright pieces of finger knitting attached to all of my luggage, to make it easy to spot at the airport.

So I sat Big Sister on my lap, and we began. I started with her using all four fingers, but she said it was too tight, and quickly became distracted (must run in the family) by Baby Brother and the dog, who were both interested in why we were sitting on the floor. Then I decided to try it with just one finger -- finger crocheting, if you will. She liked that, and produced a piece about an inch and a half long. Then she said she was finished, but that she "will knit some more tomorrow." So I cut off the piece she had made (pink, naturally), tied it off, and strung a button on it for her. She's very proud of the bracelet she made:



I have promised to teach her to knit when she turns four. When that day rolls around, it will be interesting to see whose patience runs out first.

Oh, and the five minutes of Ravelry? Didn't happen.

I knit (one row) with the Yarn Harlot!

I've finally got a few minutes to write about our whirlwind trip to Atlanta to see the Yarn Harlot on Wednesday! My mom came along and we took Baby Brother with us, since he's happiest getting his breastmilk directly from the source. Between a late start and a couple of nursing stops, we didn't get there in time to visit the yarn shop before the event, but we were in line to get into the theater about 15 minutes early. Then a woman behind us asked the staff if we could jump the line since the baby was getting hungry, and they agreed. Everyone was so nice, and Baby Brother seemed to enjoy swaying in his front pack all through Stephanie's talk. She even put our picture in her blog entry!

Here we are before the Harlot started speaking:

I managed to knit one whole row of The Sweater That Will Not End while swaying back and forth with the baby. So I can truthfully say, as our event T-shirts proclaim, that I knit with the Yarn Harlot. The hat he's wearing is the Rainbow Marley from Itty Bitty Hats, done in Knit Picks Shine Worsted, as yet lacking its marley topper. I loved making the hat and finished it months ago, but didn't enjoy fiddling with the topper. It requires casting on 18 stitches, then binding off 17, casting on 17, and repeating this eight times. Essentially, it's all first row, and so not much fun.

My mom is really a quilter, but she gets the urge to knit for new grandchildren, and she's been working on a sweater for the little man. She brought it along on straight needles, and it wasn't suited for knitting in the close quarters of the Hilan Theater. Lucky for me, I had the marley-topper-in-progress along, so she finished making the pieces for the hat. Now I just have to attach them. Thanks mom!

This is the three of us during the raffle:

It was awesome to finally hear Stephanie in person. I wanted to go to Nashville for her visit there last year, but didn't make it. She is just as funny and insightful in person as she is in writing.

What was even better, though, is the new connection the trip forged between my mom and me. She really enjoyed the talk as well, and has been reading At Knit's End since we got home. She said that nearly all the stories are just as true if you substitute "quilting" for "knitting."

We've been knitting together for the past couple of days and discussing knitting, quilting and the power of craft. Some of her closest friends are in the quilt club she's participated in for over 20 years, and anyone reading this blog probably counts knitters among their best friends. Stephanie talked about the stereotypes of knitters as lonely old ladies and how the truth is very different. Knitting, quilting, and other crafts bring all kinds of people together. I guess that's why I call myself a distracted knitter instead of a person who sometimes knits -- I love the community that knitting brings together.

And speaking of that community, a big "thank you" to the staff at Knitch and all the very nice knitters who let us go to the front of the line, both to get into the theater and at the booksigning. Thanks, Stephanie, for making your signature "fish face" at a very tired baby, making him smile in spite of himself. Thanks for putting us on your blog, too! Finally, thanks to the nice woman at Knitch who recommended the Osteria restaurant down the street. We all had a lovely meal, and the baby slept all the way home. What a great event.

P.S. I almost forgot -- I got my Ravelry invite in the morning before we left for the Harlot. I have logged in but done nothing else yet; my username is distractedknit.

We're off to see the Harlot ...

... the wonderful Harlot of yarn!

Today, work. Tomorrow, Atlanta! I can hardly wait.

And, it's a red-letter week for me. I'm almost into Ravelry:

Found you!
You signed up on July 5, 2007
You are #14232 on the list.
302 people are ahead of you in line.
19254 people are behind you in line.
41% of the list has been invited so far

I must have done something the knitting goddesses liked this week. Don't know what; it didn't include knitting.

Maybe in a few weeks...

Found you!
You signed up on July 5, 2007
You are #14232 on the list.
2244 people are ahead of you in line.
17904 people are behind you in line.
37% of the list has been invited so far

I am very IMpatiently awaiting my Ravelry invite. Boy, what a marketer's dream that Ravelry is. The talk of the knitblogosphere, over 30,000 interested knitters, the distracted knitter's next excuse. Wish I'd thought of it. Can't wait to get in.

Greenville knitting group

LynnHB asked in the comments about the knitting group I mentioned that meets at Barnes and Noble in Greenville, SC. The group's regular meetings are at Panera Bread Company on Fairview Road in Simpsonville on Mondays, 7-9 p.m. Sometimes there are weekend meetings at the B&N on Woodruff Road. Locals can keep up with impromptu meetings by joining the Yahoo group. It's a great bunch, and includes knitters, crocheters and spinners. Possibly other crafts, too; I seldom make it to the Monday meetings, so I haven't met a lot of the members.

I. Use. The. Handknits.

Ann and Kay like to point out that handknits are meant to be used. I made a batch of dishcloths last year, and took a nice picture of them:



Here's what they look like now, after a year of hard use:



Now, granted, the pictures were not taken under the same conditions, because we've moved since then and I used a different camera. But it's clear they are well-worn and well-loved. I launder all my dish towels and warshcloths on hot, which has taken its toll along with the dishwater and the scrubbing.

I can't understand why some people, like my mom, consider knitted dishcloths too heavy and thick for washing dishes. I'm glad she told me that, though, so I don't waste time making them for her. I'm slow and distractable enough when I'm making things people actually want.

Distracted by local events

This is the USA Professional Cycling Championships, held here in Greenville this past weekend. It's one of the downtown laps of the road race, before they took off for the loops out over Paris Mountain. This event is a great example of why we moved to Greenville. We love that a smaller (than South Florida) community can attract world-class events like this one. Our weekend guests loved all the activity, Big Sister loved cheering for "the bikers," and we love that we live minutes from a beautiful downtown with all kinds of amenities.

Of course I didn't knit, but in going through my knitting pictures I realized how productive I was right around Baby Brother's birth! In addition to the hats featured in my first post, I made this:



It's a preemie hat for a friend's baby, made with three colors of KnitPicks Shine Sport. It's the smallest of the hats but also the one that took the longest, because of the fine yarn and the fact that I'd never started a project on DPNs before, nor knitted an entire project using them. My other hats have started on circulars and only switched to DPNs to decrease. Pattern is the Preemie Beanie from the March 2007 Creative Knitting magazine.

I have another hat that's almost done. But my production has greatly fallen off in the last couple of months.

Books distracted me this week

I've been plowing through books of late. While lots of reading isn't unusual for me, I've probably read half a dozen in the past week or so, which is a pretty quick pace considering I have two small kids and just started back to work part time. One of those kids is breastfeeding, which still affords me quite a bit of seated reading time, so that helps. Right now I have a couple of nonfiction books going, as usual, but I've been reading novels back to back. I've gotten into one of my husband's favorite authors, James Lee Burke, and have read several of his books, two books by his daughter, and several other mysteries and thrillers in recent weeks.

But it's a different kind of book that I just finished last night, and I think it's one that will stick with me for a while. It's called The Post-Birthday World, by Lionel Shriver. Irina McGovern is forty-two, happily all-but-married to her longtime partner, Lawrence, when she meets a dashing friend for a traditional birthday dinner. In years past they've been a foursome, but Ramsey is now divorced and Lawrence is abroad. When Irina is seized by the urge to kiss Ramsey, she must decide whether to resist temptation and stick with steady-but-sometimes-stodgy Lawrence, or go for broke with sexy snooker pro Ramsey.

In alternating chapters, the rest of the novel shows where each potential choice leads. As in real life, both choices have their good and bad consequences. Some parts are like watching a train wreck, but overall this book shows the results of decisions many people face at one time or another. I couldn't put it down, and I suspect it will be some time before I can get it out of my head. It would be great for book-club discussions; I just wish I were still in one.

No knitting to report.

Six rows or more!

Last night, I knitted! This is because I left the kids at home and met people at Barnes and Noble to knit. And unlike what often happens, I did not look at knitting books. I did not browse the latest knitting magazines. I knitted.

To be fair, I did have a cup of coffee and a slice of delectable Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake. I'm sure this did wonders for my postpartum weight loss plan, but since I'm relying on the Think System for that, it's not progressing too quickly anyway. As I said last time, it must have been the breastfeeding that helped me lose the baby weight, because it sure wasn't diet and exercise.

I knitted and chatted for nearly two hours, and lost count after six rows. Considering my progress of late, that's lightning speed.

In case anyone was wondering, the hats in the post below came out of Itty Bitty Hats. The one with the fleece topper is Simple Baby Cap 2, knitted with Mission Falls wool. The other two are Simple Baby Cap 3. The blue one is knitted with Manos del Uruguay, and the pink one is Mauch Chunky and Tahki Bunny Print. I have made several other hats out of this book -- among my favorite knitting books -- and they may turn up in future posts once I sort out pictures.

Finally, I blog

I've been meaning to start a knitting blog for quite some time. But I'm such a slow knitter, and I keep getting distracted by new books, my kids, new arrivals from NetFlix, and general laziness, that it seemed kind of weird to start a knitblog when I won't often have finished items to show.


I mean, Stephanie seems to have a new item to show every week. Lots of other bloggers seem to make progress. But, how many rows have I knitted in the past week? Three. And this on a sweater for my 3-year-old. And when did I start this sweater? Last summer. Luckily, the pattern seems to run big and she seems to run small.

Now, to be fair, I've made quite a few things in between, including warshcloths, hats, and -- oh yeah -- a baby brother for my sweaterless one. He got a hat:

Three hats, in fact, although one won't fit him for -- ahem -- a few years. Gauge was a bit off. Big Sister got a hat, too, in the flurry of pre-birth nesting/knitting:

And so did an Afghan baby, as part of the Mother's Day drive:

But this sweater kept getting put off, and so did the blog. One of the blog problems was what to call it. Everything I thought of turned out to be taken. Finally, yesterday, I hit on the perfect name: Procrastiknitter. Cute, catchy, descriptive.

Taken. Twice, actually, although the latter is out of date. But I was thrilled to find an interesting new blog in the case of the former. Most of my knitting tools, though not much of my stash, I inherited from my grandmother, so her August 10 post resonated. But, I digress. It occurred to me that I am quite a Distracted Knitter, so I'm going with that.

Here's the sweater I've been procrastinating:

It's Max's First Cardigan from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Kid Knits. This is the back. The first part to knit. Acres of double seed stitch, which might be why I keep procrastiknitting it. Before I get to do any shaping, it has to measure 15 inches from the cast-on row. It measures 8 1/2. Main color is Cleckheaton Country 8-Ply; trim colors are both Cascade 220 Superwash. I think.

Must keep knitting. But meanwhile, I've spent all this perfectly good knitting time figuring out how to use Blogger. Maybe tomorrow!