since working at Tolt Yarn and Wool i have had the muchly good fortune of meeting so many knitty folks. some are designers, some are not, some have been knitting for donkeys years and some have not. does not matter, for what matters is i am left in awe of each and every one of the folks who pass through the doors. in awe because they all have something i do not yet have and alas, i am not sure i ever will have. they all have a love of knitting. now do not get me wrong, no sirree, i do so love knitting and i so want to be a knitter, but alas, i fear knitting and me, me and knitting, may never be.
(yes, there is a fair bit of 'alas' and 'woe is me' going on around here today)
that being said, i have not given up yet and i have two knitty things on the go at the mo. i thought i might share, as after all it is wednesday and what better day to share a yarny tale or two
knitty thing one:
two weeks ago a lovely dearie came into the store for tuesday morning stitch circle and as is the norm, wearing a lovely knitty creation which i 'ooohed and ahhhed' over and then realized it would be perfecto for my up and coming travels. she kindly shared what the pattern was, (knitters are the kindest folks) the yarn she had used and off i went on my knitty path. the pattern was Churchmouse's knitted shoulder cosy. i studied the pattern and i thought, hurrah hooray! what an easy peasy knit this would be. i noted many folks had said they managed to knit it in an evening. i noted i could knit it thin or thick. oh truly easy peasy and quick too! i hurried home from work whilst plotting and planning in my head.
i arrived at stitch circle that evening armed with the pattern and knowing i wished to go chunky or go home. i settled for Cascade Eco bulky (or is it aran, good grief, i should know this by now) in cream and daringly added a rowan tweedy number in fingering weight to give an oatmeal feel to the overall look. i boldly ignored the swatching and jumped right in. oh my favourite thing to do is knit in the round, just knitty knit knit without a care for a purl, but then it dawned on me, this lovely cozy has a garter stitch look but alas, being in the round required every other row to be a purl row to then have a result that looked just like you had knit every row (still with me?).
oh woe is me.
my little knitty easy peasy hopes sunk to my clogs.
it takes me 4 times as long to purl a row as to knit one and this is picking not even throwing. after two hours and one inch of knitty fabric coming off my wooden sticks i wondered if a 'one evening knitted cozy' would ever be mine.
after two weeks, i had 6 inches of oatmeal to my name. me and my oatmeal knitty project were not friends, my oatmeal found me rather a dull slow knitter and in turn i found my oatmeal to be rather dull to look upon. i had four weeks to make my shoulder cozy before i travelled, i had now eaten up two of those weeks procrastinating and knitting like a snail. i looked at the pattern, the pattern looked at me. i required 10 more inches and even my maths told me, at the speed i was working, i would be taking 3/4 of a cozy on my travels. and still this did not spur me on...
however, the knitty gods had not given up on me yet, on sunday they sent a bright almost neon with a hint of ugly, little ball of fingering yarn to rescue me.
this yarn found me via their messenger, Anna at work. at the time i had no idea what i would do with my 40g of 'i love you but don't know what to do with you' yarny gift, until i got home that is. where upon my eyes fell upon poor oatmeal stuffed in his project bag. ah ha! of course, perfectly perfecto timing. just as one little ball of fingering tweed was coming to an end and i was in the process of needing to join another but without any thrillingness, a little gift from the gods suddenly turned a 'dull' knit into a 'daring' knit. oh Tif, i thought to myself, how daring, how thrilling to add a bit of 'ugly neon but not quite yellow' yarn into your cozy of oaty-ness. who are you? what madness what creativity... what a knitter you are!
and so i did, and in just the space of a few days, i am almost up to 10 inches of my cozy, being spurred on by a jolly colour and a daring 'can do' attitude.
we have gone from bleargh to bravo, me and my knitty make.
we have plotted and planned a little crochet edging along the bottom,
we have plotted and planned our marvelous travels together, keeping each other warm and comforted, we have plotted and planned it will not look like i am wearing a giant tea cozy and small beings will not point to me in the street and exclaim "mum, mum, why is that old woman wearing a ginormous tea cozy?"
and all was well, me and my knitty cozy, we were one, we were like all the dearies who come in the shop, we were knitting, we were in knitty love, we were... until yesterday.
oh yesterday. oh alas, oh woe is me.
i went to work and was immediately sidetracked from my 'big riding high knitty neon oatmeal dreams' yarny path....
(knitty thing two coming to a rambly blog near you, tomorrow)
