Welcome to the blog of a young male knitter!



Thursday, May 26, 2011

What's on my needles

It would be a lot faster to name what's not on my needles.

1.A WIP that is always within arms reach of me, especially when I am on the computer. Despite always being SO CLOSE, this sweater is far from done. I don't know what the pattern is, or what book it's from, but I do know that almost a year ago a knitting friend walked up to me with a pattern, told me that I should knit this sweater because it would look good on me. I tried it pretty soon after that, but I didn't get very far, despite the US 10's. The yarn was splitting, and I was using some pretty old Susan Bates needles that had the finish worn off of them. I ripped it out, and put the pattern away. I think I filled it under "I tell people that I'm working on it, but I'm not really" That file is filled with gifts for other people.

I was searching for a pattern that would look good with the CRAP that I am using for the . . . fifth time. I think the fifth time, I am starting to lose count, that's how many times that I have used this yarn. I bought it on sale, (ten bucks, it may be crap, but at those prices I can't resist a thing) so I have defiantly gotten my moneys worth out of it, like it or not.

It's a sweater that has graduated stripes; I mixed the gray from above with a little brown that I rescued from being crocheted into a terrible Goodwill fate. It seems to behaving, aside from the not getting done, and this is it's best look yet. I think that it just needed to be knit at a loser gauge. I might actually deem this sweater appropriate to be considered clothes.

Bad Yarn + Bad Pattern = A sweater that has a chance of becoming halfway decent. Who Knew?

2.(Dear God, we're only at two, I just wrote a novella about one sweater that isn't even half done) A Log Cabin afghan that is FAR from being done. This thing is no where near finished despite my best intentions to work on it daily. (I fall short a lot.) I plan to have nine squares with a thin border of applied I-cord. I am almost done with the second square. This thing has been on the needles for about a month. Last spring I made one that was very similar to it, but I gave it to some friends/relatives who really wanted a blanket from me,and they are some of the few people who I deem good enough to recieved a handknit of that magnitude. (They knit to.) I decided that I would then knit myself one, much later. The last time that I knit it I did so in less than a month. This time it will be WAY over a month, it's already been a month. I give it a LONG time. It's knit out of odd-ball acrylic, which means that none of the colors match, and that it will clash terribly once it is done. I say that it is part of the blankets charm. (Take that Hannah!)

3.(Seriously, three! Better go get yourself another cup of coffee; I knit a-lot, can you tell?)  The absolutely lovely Dublin Bay Socks! The lace panel is wonderful, and the plain bits make it perfect for while I'm reading, or waiting, but still interesting enough to be quiet time knitting. This will defiantly not be the last time that I use this pattern. The yarn is a Goodwill find that I paid two dollars for a fair bit of yarn. I do love me a good bargain, there will probably be enough for a little sweater after these socks.

4. Some more socks. This time they are a little bit more fancy, a pair of cabled socks that I am knitting up out of Comfort Berreco Sock Yarn. I can't remember the color way, because I tend to get kind of fidgety when I have a pile of paper on the coffee table the size of my head. I know that it is turquoise with the occasional stripe of brown or gray in it. I'm not doing the Self-impossed sock club, I just happen to be knitting a pair of socks a month, I'll tell you the sorted story of April later.

5. Just about the same this as many people are knitting. Wendy's Mystery Lace Knit a-long. I am so far behind on this thing that I might never catch up. (not really) I just need to knit the second clue, and if I fall a little bit behind, it will not be the end of the world. I am knitting it out of some recycled cotton that I think will make a great summer shawl for . . . someone that is not me. Anyone want a shawl?

6.A Baby sweater that is almost done. I literally can smell it. I just need to knit the edging on the sleeve, and weave in the ends. I'm worried about this sweater though. I think that with the red and white yarn that it might look a little to Santa-ie. That is why I'm stalling on it. Of course, I knit a whole sweater, (a small one none the less)  I don't really care if the thing makes that baby look like a space alien, they are getting, and the mother better at least pretend to love it.

7. Another Baby sweater, A lovely Totem jacket that will go to another baby. It's knit out of recycled cotton. (cotton is the easiest to unravel) It only has the sleeves to go, so I need to get moving on this one. It has been on the needles way to long. and I have ripped at least each part of it once. Can you say "fussy?"

There are a few more things that I know that I will never finish. I have a sweater that only needs one sleeve, and a blanket that is half done, along with a bunch of stuff that I wished that I had never started. I am constantly thinking about new stuff to start, (but stuff that I'm not going to start until I finish something; I am learning how to live with my serial case of Startitis.) and think about what I would rather be knitting. Let people whistle for their dishcloths, I'm a knitter with a PLAN!!

The sad part is that I thought of about four more things that I want to knit while I typed this.

I'm not loyal to a project, I just like to think that I am loyal to knitting in general. Because I wouldn't have started all this stuff if I really didn't like to knit. Either that or I secretly hate knitting, and just keep thinking that a different project would make me feel any better. My money is defiantly on the last one.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

It has been a while

And indeed it has been a while. To long really, I don't know how I let the blog go dark for this long. The key to being a good blogger is to post often, and I guess that would make me a bad blogger.

Since it has been a while, I think that the perfect thing for me to give you a list. They are easy to write, and fun to read, so I don't know why I don't do more of them. As a matter of fact, all blogs should be in list from. But you might not want to listen to me, I spend twenty minutes looking for a teapot today, only to find that it was three feet from the stove; I tend to be a little . . .  scatter brained.

1. I just finished something major in my life. it might prove to be very insignificant to the rest of the world, but it will always be special to me. The thing is, you remember that book that I was writing, I mentioned it a few times before, I sort of finished it. I say sort of because there is still huge amounts of work to be done that will probably be harder than the actual writing. I may never publish it, namely because I don't want to become some sell out (I want to be successful, just not to successful, I don't feel like I deserve it.) But for the rest of my life, I will have the memories of the blood, sweat and tears that I put into it.

I lead a small life here, important, but small. And the incredible high that I got when I finished it was unbelievable. Actually, I got the high about twenty minutes later, when I fist finished, I started at the screen and thought "Now what?"

2. I truly think that I was meant to be a writer. I have all the makings for it. I am a neurotic mess. I don't sleep very well, I have got a hobby that is both weird (weird for a young man) and time consuming. I am a long beard and a dozen bottles of wine away from being a hermit. I don't mind being broke, as long as I have plenty of food, and don't have to figure out how to get running water in a cardboard box. I usually like to read, and I tend to type pretty fast.

3. Knitting, now here is where we get down to the knitty-gritty and talk about what I really am supposed to talk about. This is called Garret Knits Ohio. Now that I think about it, I should have called it something like Garret Blogs Ohio, or Garret Knit A-Lot, or something like that. Maybe I should have left out Ohio and Knitting, and called it something it Garret! But that makes me sound like Cher, or Oklahoma! And while Ohio isn't the greatest state, I think Oklahoma is a worse one, (one word: tornadoes) and I don't want people thinking that I'm from there. Not that Oklahoma is a bad state, I just prefer Ohio, and preferring Ohio is defiantly a thing in my book.

4.This leads me to think about why the hell that I named my blog Garret Knits Ohio, if I don't like Ohio, and don't really like my name all to well. (I learn to live with it.) So what was it that caused me to name my blog after things that I don't like. Maybe I have some complex that causes me to bind myself to the things that I don't like. Or maybe I don't think enough. Or maybe I tend to think to much about these things, maybe it's all the coffee I drink.

5. What was I talking about?

6. I'm sure that it'll come back to me some day. If I can't remember it, then it probably isn't that important. Right?

7. I now that it has been about a week and a half, I must talk about that raging out of control, til it consumes me growing obsession addiction habit of that HUGE little gem known as Desperate Housewives. I just want to say that in the two hours of their finale (I didn't care for the way that they did two different episodes, even though I didn't think that they could have done them both at the same time, I probably would have screamed myself to death) I probably squealed like a little girl no less than five times. I just want to say that A) I can't believe that Felicia did that to Paul. And I also thought for sure that one of them would die, especially when Felicia saw that the siren was coming from a toy car. I hoped that it would be Paul, but I thought it would be Susan. But thankfully I was wrong and they both lived. B) Those girls cover up WAY to many murders. They make me think that it wouldn't be that hard; they make me want to cover up a murder scene.

That's all for now, I did have some other stuff to say, but I don't want to use up all the blog fodder at once. I MUST conserve the blog fodder, otherwise I will be gone for another two weeks, because there still isn't a lot going on.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Startitis

I don't like to admit this, but I am just like all other knitters. I make mistakes, (oh, do I make mistakes) I say screw it instead of fixing those mistakes. I have a sweater sitting less than a foot from me that needs two seams, some buttons, and the ends woven in, and it will be done. That is all that it needs, and at this moment I would rather crawl down to the corner store, and crawl back with a gallon of milk in my teeth than finish this sweater. It is a beautiful sweater, and one that I would love to wear one of these days. (or maybe in like four months when it is cool enough for a wool sweater) Yet, I cannot get this computer off my lap to do so.

Now, in fairness, I spent the morning doing a lot of necessary fact checking on my novel, (I hate calling it that, but that is what it is) and fixing the story line so that way it makes a little bit of sense. But still, I couldn't spare like ten minutes to just get a little bit done on it. I keep telling myself that I will work on it tonight. That I will work on it for at least an hour, but lets be honest, I ain't working on it.

I think that I might be coming down with a case of startitis. (Quick run for your lives, you don't want startitis!!) I suddenly don't care about how many WIPs there are on the needles (more than usual) and I find myself spending large amounts of time on ravelry. I am thinking about Elizabeth Zimmermann and acrylic in the same sweater; things are not pretty.

I started a little baby sweater last night, and that seemed to help a little, but that was only counteracted by my unraveling of a failed sweater (fourth time I tried to knit that yarn into a sweater, maybe it is trying to tell me that it doesn't want to be a sweater)

I think that I may start something once I finish working for the day. Of course I still have some weeding to do, but that can wait till tomorrow. Or the day after. Or until the weekend. Or until it is so hot outside that I don't even want to walk to the car, let alone work out in the garden in the 90+ temperatures. (And I also have a lot of dishes to do, and dinner to cook, but I can worry about that later)

Monday, May 9, 2011

I Won!!

You will never guess what I won (or maybe you can, it wasn't that hard)

I won a pattern collection from the Summer 2011 issue of Knitcircus!! From Wendy. Yes, Wendy Knits  Wendy.

Getting that email from her was like getting a cake (one with really fancy frosting) in my inbox.

While there are no patterns for men, there are still a lot that I would make, some great socks, and some great baby clothes. I don't know if I'll be making any soon, but when I do, I'll legally be able to show pictures of them.

Speaking of Pictures, here's one of some socks that I knit a little while ago. I didn't yak about them, because they were a gift, and I didn't want to share anything about them. The recipient reads this blog, and I knew she would give me hell (typo: heel, how ironic) if she found out about them.


The yarn was Berraco Sock, I don't know about the shade, but I do know that I lost the label. I liked this yarn knitted up a lot better than I liked it when it was on the skein. I don't know, but I thought it was to . . . dusty. But once I knit it, I felt like it just colored right up.

This was the first time that I knit a sock from the toe-up. I sort of have mixed feelings about this. I like the way that you can make the most of the yarn, and I like the way that the toe was increased (I found toe increases interesting, that just gives you a lovely window into how truly boring my life is)

I used the heel that I made up in the past. I wanted to do something similar to a short-row heel, but was to lazy to go online and look up how to make one. I just did some short-rows, and did a few decreases, and picked up a few stitches, and decreased a little more. In the end I ended up with something that was like the bastardization of a short-row heel, and a flap heel. I call it the Garret Heel.

Some one has probably come up with this before. (Maybe Cat Bordhi?) I am almost sure of it, but I still feel really clever with myself for thinking it out. I almost always use that heel now. Maybe one on these day, I will figure out how to do a short-row heel, but until then, I am quite happy with my Garret Heel.