Knitting Teamwork!

A group of us at my library all pulled together to make this baby blanket for a co-worker. Between knitting the squares and sewing it together, I think there were 15 of us who took part. It's a very simple pattern - just garter stitch squares - but the combination of colors and the whipstitching gives it a great patchwork look. The edge squares were left unsewed to give it the fun flaps, which I think look great. We gave it to the new mom-to-be this week and she seemed to love it!

For those about to block, we salute you

Despite the amount of math and swatching and blocking of swatches I completed before beginning the St. Enda sweater, I began to doubt myself about the size and fit. I'm almost halfway through a sleeve and it just doesn't look right, though I've checked and re-checked the pattern schematics and my gauge. I knew that I was erring on the small size with my knitting and planned to block the sweater to size, but still I worried.

To allay my fears, last week I washed and blocked the back piece. The difference is amazing. The front and back were the same size, but look at them side by side now!



The back looks really fantastic and finished and boyfriend-sized!

It is only recently that I began knitting items on the too-small size, and blocking them larger. It's a great way to control the finished size of your garment. Knitted items tend to grow when washed so you can always block something to a larger size, but you can't make them smaller (not without felting anyhow). Eunny Jang taught me this in response to a question I posed on Craftster a few years ago.

There are different methods of blocking including steam blocking (which is terrifying as it involves an iron near knitted items) and spray blocking, but I use the simple wet blocking method as described in Stitch n Bitch. I wash the garment by hand, roll it up in a towel to remove excess water, then lay it out on my blocking surface and pin it in place. This seems like the most logical way to block because eventually I will have to wash the garment and I don't want there to be any surprises. No doubt that whatever the results of steam or spray blocking, they won't predict how the fabric will behave when it is washed.

As for the surface on which I block, that is another whole subject worthy of an entire post. Suffice it to say that I don't have a professional blocking board but I may end up buying one. Though many say they're not worth it, I haven't found a good substitute yet.

The St. Enda is ahead of schedule right now. My goal is for one sleeve to be done by the end of September but I think it will be done a week from now. Let's see if my prediction comes true!

September: Change

I have not ever finished the BAM Challenge book this early in the month, but I had been dying to read Uglies by Scott Westerfeld so I started it on September 1st and finished it today. I may have previously mentioned my love for YA books, and this book did not disappoint! I only wish I had planned better so I could have started the second book in the series immediately, but alas, I need to wait for a library copy.

Uglies takes place in a future society in which everybody is made pretty through surgery when they turn 16. The idea is that if everyone is pretty, nobody will feel bad about themselves and because of this equality society will be peaceful. Tally is just a couple of months away from her 16th birthday when she meets Shay. They have both been left behind by friends who have already turned 16 and moved to New Pretty Town. As they become friends, Tally learns that Shay does not want to undergo the operation to become pretty. When Shay runs away to join a band of outlaws, Tally is forced to go after her and expose their settlement to the authorities so it can be destroyed. If she doesn't, she cannot undergo the operation herself: she must either forego becoming pretty, or betray her friend.

Though this book was a very quick read considering its hefty size (425 pages!) it touched upon a number of great themes, such as beauty, friendship, sacrifice, and environmentalism. The characters are likeable and the premise is fascinating. It is fast-paced, vivid, and completely enthralling. The next books in the series are Pretties, Specials, and Extras. I can't wait to read them!

Still no goals

If you know me, by this point you just laugh when I talk about life goals and not having any. It is a source of stress to me, which has not been helped by Brian Souza's book Become Who You Were Born To Be, subtitled - like an ad in the back of the National Enquirer - We All Have a Gift...Have you Discovered Yours?


To answer that: no, I have not discovered my "gift," even after reading your book, which I think was supposed to help me in this arena. Never trust a book if the cover has a picture of a smiling guy wearing a suit. You know they are smiling because they now have your money (presumably to buy more suits.) Thank goodness I read a library copy and have lost nothing but time.

In all seriousness, it wasn't all bad. The first part of the book actually gave me a lot of food for thought. In this section Souza talked about identifying your "burning desire" or "burning discontent" and turning it into a goal by making it more precise, visualizing how you want your life to be, and examining your life patterns that prevent you from moving in the right direction. He talked about brainstorming and trying different things out, and exposing yourself to new experiences and new interests in order to find direction.

Other than that, it was mostly filler. The topics covered included having a postive attitude, committing to excellence, dealing with change, and facing your fears, as well as reminders of how lucky we are to live in America compared to many other places in the world. I can't argue with anything he said, but he didn't really say a whole lot. It was fluff. Each chapter also contained an inspiring story of someone who overcame their life circumstances to be successful and (usually) famous. Though these stories were meant to illustrate the concept of that chapter, sometimes I couldn't see the connection.

Aside from how insubstantial it all was, I had a bit of a problem with the generalizations he made about his readers. Much of it seemed to be based on the assumption that we are all caught up in a rat race, we have all lost our core values and are completely materialistic - there are actually several chapters on these themes. But it is SO not where I'm coming from. I mean, I'd love to give up my 6-figure income and sell my yachts and discover what is really important in life but, you know, I have to do some shelf-reading in the fiction section and clean the cat's litterbox and whatnot.

Most of the book is encouragement and not helpful if, like me, you don't have some childhood dream you are still waiting to pursue. Despite the promises of Smiling Suit Man, I finished this book no closer to discovering my true purpose in life. In fact, I'm even more convinced that there is no such thing. Sure, some people do have a calling, but not everyone.

Luckily, when I found this book I also grabbed a copy of one called Living Without a Goal. This one feels more promising since I'm already doing what the title suggests. I'll let you know how it goes!

St. Enda back completed!

Sorry for the sideways-ness, but it looked funny when I rotated it. I have achieved my goal of finishing the back of this sweater by the end of August. For some reason I'm very surprised by this!

Just to prove that it's not just another picture of the front, here are both pieces together:


I'm happy to be on track with this project. Now I only have to do the sleeves, which will undoubtedly be the most complicated and time-consuming part. The front and back are just big rectangles but the sleeves, of course, are narrower at the cuff and the top has to fit in the armhole.

To complicate matters further, these appear to be what is called saddle sleeves, which I've never made before. I thought this sweater was drop-shoulder and that's how I measured, but there will actually be a strip of fabric from the sleeve separating the front and back of the sweater. I think. I clearly need to figure this out soon.

Ravelympics: Over

Ah, the sweet sweet taste of failure!


I did not finish my scarf by the time the Olympics were over, but I've made so much progress that I can't be disappointed. During the Ravelympics period I managed to go kayaking for the first time, went boating, planned and hosted a party, finally saw the Dark Knight, and read a couple of books. All in all, it was a very productive time.

My greatest accomplishment, however, was this:




It would be appropriate for my Ravelympics event - WIP Wrestling - except that it's not knitting, but as far as I'm concerned I won this one. I bought the pattern and fabric back in November of 2005, according to the receipt I found in the bag. I cut out the pieces of the pattern, and then got stuck trying to figure out how to lay them out.

I used Simplicity's It's So Easy pattern 4909 which is not, as the name proclaims, so easy. I'm sure it's a piece of cake if you are an experienced seamstress used to following poorly written instructions but if you have never made a bag before, it's completely bewildering. I cannot tell you how many people I went to for guidance on this, just on the layout. Confusingly, this pattern has you lay a piece on the fold, but then says "cut 2." I couldn't tell if you were actually supposed to cut 2 separate pieces, or just cut one (two pieces attached together at the fold), or cut 2folded pieces. So unclear! It turns out that you cut it on the fold, so it's two pieces attached together, and then cut them apart. How much sense does that make?

In addition to the difficult instructions, this is just not an appropriate project for a beginner. It requires outer fabric, lining, and interfacing, which must all match up, not a particularly easy task. Ironically, I really wanted to make a skirt but thought I should start with a bag as it doesn't have to fit me. I really, really should have just made a skirt.

As far as the instructions are concerned, this bag isn't actually done. It's supposed to look like this:


I was never happy with the stiff square-ness of the bag in the photo, and was happy to find that a few confusing steps from the end it looked pretty cute. So that's how it's staying!

Despite my setbacks on this project, I'm very happy with the result (which may replace my plastic iPod bag as my new knitting bag) so I'm planning to do more sewing. I'm on vacation at home all this week so it may happen quite soon!

August: Cold

The idea behind this month's BAM Challenge theme is that we must all be sick of the heat and want summer to be over. I happen to like summer and the heat, though this August has been unusually cold and rainy and distinctly unsummerlike. Not in the mood to read about cold weather, I went with the bone-chilling meaning of "cold" and read a horror book, 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill.

This collection of short stories range from creepy to vaguely unsettling to merely odd. None of them, however, were the sort of story I wanted to read late at night in bed. The scariest story was the first one, "Best New Horror" in which an editor of an annual horror anthology tracks down the author of an outstanding submission (a terrifying story within a story) and his visit to the author's house was weird and scary and has stuck with me like the final scene from Blair Witch Project.

In "Pop Art," a great example of a surreal (but not scary) story, we meet Arthur, an inflatable boy who must be constantly vigilant as he is vulnerable to an array of dangers that could cost him his life.

The collection ends with the 50-page novella "Voluntary Committal" in which an autistic boy builds elaborate structures out of cardboard boxes in his basement, structures which are very different on the inside than the outside. Though I'm not usually a fan of longer short stories, this one was worth every word and I did stay up late reading in bed to finish it. It was a bit creepy, and it was late, but despite myself I couldn't put it down.

There was a hopeful aspect to many of these stories, as some ended on a more positive note than horror stories typically do. Joe Hill is not only creative and original, but his writing is solid and effective, not relying on gore or sheer terror for momentum. He far surpasses most of the horror I grew up on (with the exception of his father, Stephen King, whose style is so different I won't bother to compare them.) This isn't genre reading really, it is just great storytelling. Hill has also written a novel Heart-Shaped Box which I'm putting on my list to read.