Sunday, May 27, 2012

Love in Wool

I normally don't knit outside of a very small circle of immediate family.  Not even my one set of grandparents get knitted gifts every year.  I like to think that the reason is time constraints, that I wouldn't be able to knit anything for myself if I knit for a lot of birthdays, Christmases, and Mother's Day every year.  Deep down, though, where reality lives without blindness, it's probably selfishness.  I don't want to spend that much time and money every year for more than a few people.  Sometimes I wonder if this is normal and healthy.

This year, or at least so far, has been different.  I've actually knit things for my brothers and had them well received thanks to the techniques of colorwork and cables.  I've got a new nephew on the way this September, so I've discovered exactly why baby things are so dang cute.  Some yarns actually spoke the names of my grandparents to me, and I discovered my grandpa has wanted a knit beanie for awhile.  This wouldn't seem too strange as it fits into the 'strictly family' rule, except it's spilled over into my friends as well.  I'm leaving Madrid in two weeks and will study in Ireland in the fall.  I don't plan on coming back except for a weekend.  Given the nature of grad school, I don't know when that will be, and so, I feel the need to give some kind of memento to some of my friends.  I have to say that yes, I was here, please do not forget me.

I'm making Paraphernalia socks out of Regia for my friend Rachel.  Currently, they look something like this:


I've finished the gusset today, although I really should be doing more things in preparation of leaving.  I'm enjoying these socks, though; the k3p1 rib is relaxing now that I am so stressed.  The cables give me just enough complexity that I don't think too much.  





The story of these socks is the story of my friend Rachel.  She came here about the same time I did, although we did not meet until later when we both worked for the same third rate academy.  Being as chatty as two birds, we got on well and met sometimes for tea outside of work.  When I had some roommate trouble earlier this year, she offered me her floor to stay the night and an extra hand when I decided to move out.  Her bad luck started in February, when she met me at Knit Night.  While we were chatting with the other knitters, someone stole her bag, which held her wallet, mobile phone, teaching books, and house keys with the address attached.  I went with her to the police commission to make the report and hold her cold hand when she cried.  A few weeks' later, our academy was told that a major client wasn't renewing their contract, and Rachel lost most of her classes and income.  Now she is looking for another job, but she is having a lot of trouble due to the financial crisis here.  I can't do anything material to help and I worry about her.  I did what I reckon most other knitters would do in my position: make something.  She had picked this pattern back in January when I offered to knit her socks, but I think she has forgotten about it by now.  They won't win her an interview or a job contract, but I like to believe that they will provide her with love, luck, and warm feet in winter.  I hope this is true.


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Near-death by finishing

I'm a sweater knitter.  I can knit socks, I'm awesome at doing shawls, and I can still pull off the odd scarf or two, but if I had to choose one kind of project to knit for the rest of my life, it would be sweaters.  Perhaps it's due to the sweater's practicality or some primal urge to clothe oneself, but I can never go long without knitting a sweater.  I went on a mad stash enhancement last year just to ensure that I would always be able to satisfy this urge and now I happen to own enough yarn for at least 18 sweaters.  I may be a sweater junkie.

This habit became very obvious a month ago.  I had gone on a gift-knitting binge and finished four presents for family and friends.  Why, of course my Mom needed her Mother's Day socks a month early!  Of course I had to finish my older brother's hat two months before his actual birthday!  Of course I had to finish everything before I met my Mom and younger brother in Berlin!  After banging those projects out and sending them home with Mom, I found that I had reached my gift knit limit.  With nothing but Blathnat socks for me in all that time, I felt the rise of my selfish knitting beast.  I wanted something FOR ME.  I wanted something big FOR ME.  I wanted it RIGHT NOW.  I already had a huge, alpaca laceweight shawl on the needles (Carmen Oliveras' Winterchild), but it was behaving badly after nearly a month on The Shelf.  I was nine rows into the knitted-on border, yet I couldn't get it to work.  I couldn't read the lace and kept dropping stitches.  It's been awhile since I've had this much trouble with lace and that's normally a sign.  Although it was FOR ME, it wasn't ready for me to work on it.  I needed something else and Winterchild went back to The Shelf.

Looking at the Rav queue, the sweater Arisaig beckoned.  It's an early pattern of Ysloda Teague's that is knit in fingering weight yarn.  That was enough to give my selfish knitting beast pause.  The last time I knit a sweater in that weight, it was Zora and it took me four months.  I still had two gift knits to produce before mid-June, so whatever I made for myself had to be finished in a month or less.  I suggested other options to the knitting beast.  A lacy cowl?  A nice shawl?  A cabled hat?  The beast rejected all of them.  It wanted a sweater.  It wanted Arisaig.  I cast it on mid-April, noting that we had plenty of holidays in May this year and I could always send the project to The Shelf if I had to return to my gift knitting.


It went surprisingly quickly.  Perhaps the selfish knitting beast had friends pulling night shifts, but the back was finished in nine days, the right front in four, and the left front in three.  This was strange because I had lengthened it by two inches in the ribbing due to fellow Ravelers complaining the cardigan seemed too short.  I sat down and guesstimated how long it would take to knit the rest of the sweater.  My bob, I thought, I could actually get this done in a month!  That's got to be a world record of some kind!  Thank bob for Spanish/MadrileƱo holidays!

Then I hit a bump.  It turns out that I can't hide myself away in my yarn fort for long as I used to.  I had dinner out, went to the park, and spent time brushing up on my patchwork quilting skills with one of the wonderful ladies from my knitting group Madrid Knits!, Anita Dinamita.  (Her blog is here, but all in Spanish.  She is a mistress of many crafts and much patience.)  Although I was enjoying myself, I had to admit I was getting close to my deadline.  I sat down and hammered out the rest quickly.  Yesterday, all that remained was the finishing.  You know, side seams, shoulder seams, sewing the border on, sewing on hooks and eyes.  I figured it was a day's work and then it would be done.  I turned on CraftLit's Frankenstein and dug in for the long haul. 

10 hours later, I came out of the Wool Zone.  I was so dazed and bewildered that I took photos without the ends woven in.


I immediately loved it so much that I had to take more pictures.


Then I had to model a bit.  After listening to both Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I was feeling a bit romantic and swoony.


In retrospect, the swooniness was probably due to staring at tiny stitches and not talking to anyone for 10 hours straight.  I strangely felt a bit like Marianne Dashwood.  I was so shell-shocked I couldn't pick up the needles for an hour.  Never again will I do so much finishing at a single go.  I love the sweater, though.  It is a gorgeous piece of knitting, if I do say so myself.  It was nice to work with a Rowan yarn; this is 4Ply Soft.  I just wish the sleeves hadn't blocked out so long and it didn't have so much blasted finishing work!

So now I am back to the gift knitting.  I'm working on a pair of Paraphernalia socks for friend as a goodbye present.  At the moment, they look like this:


Ducks will not be included.  After that I have a shawl to knit for my Mom's birthday and then I would like to make a few things for my nephew due in September.  I have learned a lesson here, though: do not neglect the selfish knitting.  It just might kill you.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Hello World!

     So, for my first post for this blog, I thought I would write a short introduction.  My name is Jaclyn and I am a crafty fiber addict.  It all started so innocently back in August 2009 with a family trip to Canada.  We had gone far enough north in British Columbia that things like quilts and knits were necessary in the summer.  We had stopped in the town of Jasper to get some food before going to the hotel when I saw a quilt and knit shop.  Having fond memories of quilting while I was in high school, I went in to 'just look.'  The wool fumes got to me after about fifteen minutes and I walked out with two kits in ribbon yarn and a pair of plastic needles.  My mom tried to teach me, but she gave up after five minutes and gave me a book to teach myself.  Since then, I've expanded my knowledge to include lace, cables, and colorwork.  I've also started spinning with a spindle and gone back to quilting.  They will all be featured on this blog, but mostly it will be about knitting.  Or so I think.  Maybe with occasional odes to my favorite fiber, alpaca.  We shall see.