I'm still drugged and not very lively (I, the dumbass, forgot to take my blood pressure medication - I remembered when I woke up with a migraine) so I'm gonna respond to comments. Try not to get too excited.
There have been some questions about the proposed jacket knit-along. Mainly, what yarn to use. The idea is, I'm going to take you guys from gauge swatch to finished jacket and show you how to MAKE YOUR OWN PATTERN, so you can use any yarn you want. Two suggestions to keep in mind, though; we are steeking so it's wise to use wool or a wool blend (it's possible to steek anything, but if you're steeking silk, I'm not going to be much help to you) and also, get worsted-weight or heavier yarn. I suggest DK. It's a jacket, so you want it to be heavy. Plus we don't want to be working on this forever. I will be using Reynolds' Lopi Lite, on size eight/5mm needles. Regular Reynolds lopi on size ten/6mm needles would work nicely too. The wool blends at Elann are very suited to this project; if they had more colors available at the moment I might be using their llama/wool blend myself.
Most knit-alongs bother me in that there's not much lead time; "Let's all knit socks, starting next week!" or whatever. And I'm left going "sounds cool, but I don't have any sock yarn and payday's not until the end of the month". This way, not only will we all have three months to decide on what yarn we want (that may be hard in this case, since you can use almost anything), budget it, buy it and get it shipped in as needed, and knit a gauge swatch. For now we'll call this the brooding phase, where we plot what we want to do. December, I'll start listing participants and make a button and all that jazz. January one (okay, January two, we need a day to recover from our hangovers) we will measure our gauge swatches, calculate our key stitch number, and cast on for the hem.
Anybody got a suggestion on a name? I'm thinking 'steeked jaket knit-along', which is really obvious and lame but the only thing popping into my mind.
There was also a question about whether or not people without blogs would be welcome. Absolutely! I'll even post your photos here, if you'd like. The more the merrier.
Otherwise...
Bells asked if I know how to tat. No. I want to learn, but alas, this seems to be the one thing I can't learn out of a book. The last time I tried, I had to cut myself loose and the husbeast laughed and laughed and laughed. Does anyone know of video available on the 'net, showing basic tatting, that I could watch? (I know at least one person reading this knows how to tat... ever thought of doing video? heehee) I've got a couple tatting shuttles around here, and enough thread to get through to armageddon. I've even got books. All I need is know-how. (Isn't that always the way?)
We will not discuss my crochet skills. (Grandma crocheted. She despaired of me. I swear I've got a learning disability that involves crochet.)
***Today was the ten-thousandth hit on my blog. You guys rock. Thanks for reading.
Last of all, I'm now working on the infamous wrap (the one that's been started four times, with three different yarns?) and you know what? It's amazing how fast things knit up on size nine/5.5mm needles. I just boggle. Sit down to watch some TV, and wham, there's two inches done. And balls of yarn knit up really fast when there's not five thousand yards there. Amazing. Just amazing.
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7 comments:
My mom did some tatting courses at the local museum in Smiths Falls (small town near Ottawa, you don't really want to go there), maybe you could find a local heritage museum or textile museum with a similar program.
How about Jacket Steek-along?
The thought of tatting makes my eyeballs threaten to explode. Sorry.
you can't crochet? Oh my. And here I was thinking you were a goddess who could do all things.
Wait til you see the bookmark I just made with #20 cotton. I'll post photos in a few hours.
I'm almost salivating with the desire to learn to tat now. I think I've been moving towards more delicate stuff since you made your doily.
"Steek Freaks?" Oh, crikey...I don't know. It's been a long day!
Suddenly I want to learn to tat. This is not good.
I don't know what to call it, but I'm in!
Your wish is my command -
Sharon's tatting videos:
http://www.gagechek.com/slb/
(Click on "demo" and I hope your internet connection is faster than mine!)
My tatting technique is not exactly like hers, but it makes the knot. And to put this into knitting terms, if you do the "backwards loop cast-on", and switch from hand to hand, those little lark's-head knots you get on the needle are exactly how needle-tatting is done.
No, needle-tatting is not cheating. Any route that gets the skill you want into your head is a good route. (Says the knitter who started out on a homemade knitting frame only 3 years ago!)
Can you link us back to the brown and red sweater so we can choose colors better? I like having a visual picture in my mind.
You rock!
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