Rounding the heel

It’s starting to look like a sock. Getting through all the awkward stages of creating the heel feels like rounding rounding a very small scale Cape Horn, what with the backtracking and dropped stitches, not to mention the occasional lack of conviction, disbelief, and baffled rereading the instruction. I still think the way this sock […]

Rawr! I’m a sock

It only took four tries over the course of a week to figure out how to knit the bit of triangle that shapes the heel. Now it looks like a purple stripey mouth gaping to eat up my time. Too bad, sock monster. No knitting for you for a few days.

The sock flaps

Since one of the purposes of knitting a sock means I have something to do on the subway, I was knitting on the subway the other day, and someone asked about “that little red thing.” I explained my row counter, only to find another knitter nearby, watching me! We geeked out about knitting and socks. […]

Sock in progress

I really should have known better than to buy a skein of sock yarn just because I like the colors. It seemed logical. It’s best suited for socks, so I should knit a pair of socks. I looked up some basic sock patterns, bought needles and jumped in. Then I got the skein tangled so […]

Shoveling Prevention

During Boskone, I was knitting steadily in the back rows. It seemed very important to finish my mittens to ensure that I wouldn’t need them. A couple nights ago I finished the thumb and thought, That’s it. It’s not allowed to snow! Then it snowed anyway. And I groused. Then it rained long to wash […]

Snow Prevention Mittens

This is what I was knitting while I waited for my car the other day. Mittens. I think this picture captures the more confusing aspects. The needles are going every which way, you’ve lost track of where the yarn is, and you generally feel all thumbs in your work. Even so, one is done, and […]

Now, my gloves match

Finished reknitting my glove last night. It only took three hours of TV to do the knitting and then another 40 minutes to do the bindoff. I knitted until my hand ached and more. I wanted my glove back.

Taking a glove back to square one

Now that I’m done with my scarf, I can fix this glove. I found what row I wanted to take it back to, and ran a thread of dental floss through the stitches as a lifeline. It took me so long to undo the bindoff that when I got to the point where I could […]

Scarf 2.0

Tada! Or maybe it’s Phew! I just finished reknitting my first scarf, which also makes it my second scarf, I suppose. Now it’s nice and flexible and soft and long and flat. Totally worth the effort. And as usual, I learned a lot.

Fingerless gloves

Some say the essence of writing is rewriting. The essence of the physical act of writing is planting your butt on the chair and sitting still and thinking. The only bit of you that’s moving is your fingers on the keyboard. So why is it that when I get up, my butt is warm, the […]