Monday, February 13, 2006

My penguin & birthday girl

Janeen at her birthday party. We had it at Fry's Roller rink. A lot of her school friends attended. Let me see if I can remember - Chase, Jessica, Alexis, Alexandria, Sean, Lisa, Katelyn (neighbor and classmate), Robbie, AJ, Jonathan, Victoria, Jason and I will try to remember the rest!



Janeen's class had a play at school. The little costumes they made were too cute. I just had to show her off.

Koigu socks





I finally finished my Koigu socks. They were too far done in the now infamous stockenette twist to turn back. But I like them anyway. The yarn feels so good on my feet. I've got to make more of these - of course with the correct stitch! They will be more strechy w/o my little twist.



Here are some other socks I've been working on:























And my sister's birthday socks:



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Saturday, February 11, 2006

Just call me twisted

I took my lovely koigu sock to a LYS today - and learn something new. Pretty amazing given I have been knitting for year and NEVER KNEW I TWISTED MY KNIT STITCH. Boy does that explain a lot. It explains why when I knit and purl it looks weird. My solution was to avoid it when ever possible and knit in the round. It also explains why knitting lace and the kitcheners stitch was so difficult. I knit continental, and after looking on the web apparently this is a common mistake for self-taught continental knitters. Good - I'm not too weird. I've done a bit of practicing to re-learn and I know how I do it now. And it does make the fabric look completely different!

I feel a bit silly - I'm dying to make something now that is knit correctly. Problem is I have too many projects 1/2 done with a twisted knit stitch!

Well - lessons learned:

1. You are never to old to learn, well relearn.
2. Just because it feels good, doesn't mean you are doing it right.
3. It's always good to ask an expert (although lots of people have looked at my knitting and didn't comment on what was wrong! Although my sister did come close a couple of weeks ago.)
4. Knitting the wrong way is still fun and addictive.
5. You can wear a lot of items that are knitted with a twisted stitch.
6. Now I can twist and untwist at will!
7. The fact that I now know my stitches in existing garments are twisted bugs me.
8. This explains why I had such a hard time with picking up stitches (the right leg would NEVER want to go in front), knit lace, and finish the sock with kitchner's.
9. Maybe I was sending a subliminal message to myself.
10. I'm glad I didn't teach more people (including my daughter) how to knit!