The Birth of a Knitting Gamer

I'm so very proud of my friend Valerie for being a determined, surprisingly skilled brand-new knitting gamer. She asked me to teach her last week, and I was won over by flattery (N.B. - Flattery works wonders, all of you who want someone to teach you to knit! And cookies. Lots of cookies.). I could tell she was going to be bitten by the bug pretty hard, and that she's going to turn into a knitter of formidable talent. We've talked about my knitting before, and it was fairly clear that she's a crafty girl at heart, and furthermore, previous attempts at crochet had been met with confusion. Normally, bi-craftitude is fine with me, but this crochet confusion reminded me of others I've known who instinctively find one of the two really easy and the other more difficult. Unlike other times I've taught someone, this time I'm really going to start a fire.

Lesson one last week had both of us blinking up at the clock on my wall, struggling to understand where the last two hours went. Yes, my friends, it was that good. We went to one of my favorite local yarn stores and petted skeins while I gave her a quick overview of fibers, their uses, and how knitters tend to feel about them. Then we tore ourselves away from the yarn because we had caught the store briefly closed before an evening class...so sad it was! Michael's was at least able to provide acceptable beginner gear, so we purchased some (totally underrated) Paton's Classic Wool and a pair of US7 straights. I discovered that a dice bag...a simple rectangle of stockinette with garter ends, seamed up the sides...makes an excellent first project for the noob knitting gamer. Longtail cast on and the knit stitch were promptly taught, and our subject assimilated the skill like a born knitter. Purl required a little thought at first, but within a row or two she was turning out stunningly even stockinette. Mama was so proud!

Lesson two involved Baby's First Knitting in Public when she joined me for my knitting group this week. She made only minimal errors in a commendable six inches of stockinette without me, so we covered how to tink and, eventually, to great triumph, how to bind off and do a mattress stitch seam. There is no greater "high" for a baby knitter than to (1) finish a project and (2) be able to flash your very first FO around in front of a group of six knitters who all understand just how amazing that is. Further reinforcement came from her SO, who has already requested a dice bag of his own. When she confessed to me that, upon entering Michaels for a different purpose, she found herself with yarn in hand, it was a good feeling. When she went on to say that the only reason she didn't buy the yarn was that she couldn't find the knitting needle aisle, it was music to my ears. Baby's first brush with the urge to stash AND her first bout of startitis at the same time...in the first week? The force is strong with this one :).

The Valley of the Shadow of No Wool

I've been in a little bit of a slump lately with my knitting, so I'm not churning out the goods with the enthusiasm of previous months. I know this happens, and I know it never lasts, but there are just too many other things that need to be accomplished and knitting just isn't quite soothing my ills the way it so often does. Patience is a virtue and one that Knitting herself is most generous in bestowing on us, but the patience I need to wait this one out is just not appearing.

My knitting's suffering is primarily due to the fact that I have a new research project I'm carrying at work. Between learning how to use the automated slide stainer, performing literature searches for background information, and moving forward my previous project, my time at work is at something of a premium. The in-between times while waiting for something at work used to be prime knitting time, but now it's just not there. What time I do have is being hijacked by the need to study for Step 3, to be taken in October, and continue work on my Match application. It's no fun when things suddenly heat up like this, but it happens.

Another issue that is just killing my drive to knit is the fact that I made an agreement with my husband not to buy any more yarn until Wisconsin Sheep and Wool in four weeks. My stash is big enough to last, but I'm just not inspired. The large percentage of cheapass acrylic doesn't help, of course. I have projects in mind that simply cannot be done from stash and the projects that can be all strike me as blah. The pair of ribbed socks I have on the needles right now and the fancier socks for my husband are just not doing it for me. Poor guy...everything I have planned to knit for him ends up in the "I'm bored with this" pile. The most exciting, inspiring thing I've done with fiber lately is learning to spin, but I have not a single scrap of roving on which to practice and I'm not allowed to buy any yet! Aaaaaagh! Why, why did I do this?

Oh yes, and did I mention that it's summer, for heaven's sake? Even handknit socks are too warm to wear, and early Christmas gift planning rings just a little hollow.

Runners, I'm told, keep themselves going by fixing their vision on a point far down the track. They keep their eyes on the next goal and the next until the finish line is crossed. To what shall I fix my eyes? Wisconsin Sheep and Wool, of course, for one thing. I'm so excited about meeting the sheeps and the sheepiedogs, finding nice roving and handspun, and just having a grand time. But that is not going to be happening for a while. Instead, I'm looking forward to helping bring a brand new knitting gamer into the world...my friend Valerie. She too is a gamer and has asked to join our cul...er, I mean, hobby...after hearing my enthusiastic testimonials. We are going to go to a fabulous local yarn store and pick her out something nice, after which I will teach her to knit. Her first project: a dice bag...only fitting for a knitting gamer, no?

Ask the Knitting Gamer 2: Learning to Spin at a Gaming Convention

Hi all zero of you! Many apologies for the unexpectedly long hiatus, and the exact reasons for it are still a little unclear, so I won't explain. My husband and I have returned from Gen Con with a few new stories to tell, a few new games, a few new friends, and a few new skills. In order to avoid a super-long post with all the details, which are going to come out over time anyway, I thought this might be an opportunity to do another round of Ask the Knitting Gamer!

Gooooood morning, and welcome to round two of Ask the Knitting Gamer - the Con Edition. Shall we get started?

Let's.

(1) As a knitter, why would you want to accompany your gamer to a huge national convention like Gen Con? What bribes were necessary?

Conventions like Gen Con can be incredibly fun for a knitter, so there was little need for bribes. Although a little handpainted sock yarn couldn't hurt.

Aside from the charms of the con itself, with the wide variety of costumed persons, wandering minstrels, games to demo, and the like, there are non-game events sponsored by the Spouses Association. And many of these...are fiber arts classes! Yay!!! As noted in the title, I learned at this year's convention, in an introductory-type manner, the fine art of drop spindle spinning from one of these. There is, of course, a "knitting 101" and "crochet 101", but there are so many more, and there are more every year.

(1) Give us the straight dope then...Are the classes really any good? Would a person who already possesses some skillz in knitting and/or crochet actually want to attend, or are we the ones who teach this stuff?

They are surprisingly fantastic, and there are more than purely introductory classes. My spinning class was taught by a totally gifted teacher who happens to live about 45 minutes south of me, so I'll be seeing her at the state Sheep and Wool Festival next month, no doubt. Her teaching skill led me to crave my next hit of cra...I mean, roving. Despite the pure suckitude of my attempts at learning, she eventually got me to loosen my sweaty death grip and figure out what drafting really means. In sheer gratitude, I may end up feeling good enough about my spinning to send her some handspun someday. The best part of learning this at Gen Con was that I then got to sit down at the table where my husband was playing a game and watch all the other players stare at me like I'm the Second Coming as I practiced spinning.

(3) So, what else can the gamer-loving knitter do at Gen Con?

Live in the open crafting room!

No, I kid. There is far too much else to do to live with donated Red Heart. One can go on a haunted walking tour of the downtown Indianapolis area with a representative of the local Paranormal Society...if one was insufficiently surrounded by weird already. The vendor hall is full of a wide range of items, including a jeweler booth where I purchased a set of bronze DPN's, replicas of a set found in a 13th century grave in Estonia. One can sit down to dinner with a couple of gamers and find out that one of them has a knitter wife, and that the other is a gamer lawyer who enjoys discussing exactly what you can or cannot do with a purchased pattern. Last but not least, you could actually play a game. DM's are often amused by a player who knits during a Dungeons and Dragons run and may incorporate this into the character.

(4) What did you knit during Gen Con?

I finished a pair of plain socks and most of a plain, soft hat. Oh yeah, and I knit a little swatch of my very first handspun. I'm proudest of that.

My Knitting Heresies

Knitter's Review has a lovely forum, and there are some really interesting threads that get going on there from time to time. I'm in the middle of reading a thread entitled "Knitting heretics", in which people confess their real, less-than-politically-knitting-correct, opinions about what is supposedly knitting gospel. The Yarn Harlot, in her blog and in her published work, often likes to comment on what an amazing thing knitting is to bring together such widely varied people. There is no one thing that can be said about all knitters, who they are, what they like, and the fiber industry has a really hard time keeping up with us. Things everyone knows are popular are always going to draw detractors who think that holding a "nonconformist" opinion somehow improves their status or their life, but admittedly some things do not deserve to be popular sometimes.

In that spirit, I'd like to offer a list of my own "knitting heresies", which are of course only my own opinion. After weeding out "heresies" which are so common as to actually verge on orthodoxy (I hate novelty yarn, I actually like cuff-down socks with heel flaps on DPN's, I never swatch, etc.)

(1) I felt like the show Knitty Gritty talked down to me, and frankly to all knitters of some experience. Except for knowing how to physically make the knit stitch and perhaps the purl, there seemed to be absolutely no brain cells required of the viewer. Vicky Howell seemed very nice, but the kind of knitting celeb who would only be appreciated by those not too far on their journey into our craft.

(2) I absolutely hated every single project in the original Stitch and Bitch book and I'm not quite sure I'd recommend it as a beginner book even for the learning section. The recent "Superstar Knitting" followup, however has redeemed Debbie Stoller in my eyes, if only for the descriptions of some more advanced-ish techniques.

(3) I cannot stand garter stitch. Think it's ugly as sin and frankly looks cheap. Must have been the garter stitch Red Heart rectangles I was forced into as "beginner projects." Thank gawd I love my grandparents-in-law enough to make a giant garter-stitch log cabin acrylic-in-massive-numbers-of-colors afghan. It would not exist if I wasn't using my great-grandmother-in-law's 1970's dime store acrylic stash, in memoriam.

(4) I love the members of my knitting group and adore talking to them, but I'm often ambivalent about the act of getting in my car for twenty minutes to do what I was about to do on my couch.

(5) I'm currently making my first sweater in pieces. Don't think the top-down-raglan crowd is going to make any headway with me.

(6) I'm generally unaware of what "everyone" is knitting. It's not that I actively avoid things like Clapotis, I am purely clueless.

(7) I sometimes intentionally choose projects to bring to my knitting group purely for show. I hate this about myself, but I just soak up comments like "I'd never have the patience for that".

(8) Crocheted fabric strikes me as weird looking and one-note.

(9) I would love to knit in church if I could - I swear I'd actually pay more attention - but there's always my mother's voice in the back of my head saying "Are you crazy?"

(10) I love pooling and flashing in my sock yarns. Think it looks awesome.

Aaaand...there you go.

Victory For Birch, the Miraculous Shawl.

This is what Birch looked like when she was brand new. That was the first ball of Kid Silk Haze, after an unfortunate run-in with a certain spaniel whose name rhymes with Shady.

Fairly early in the process, I left our house with my husband to have dinner on our Friday Date Night, as usual. No big deal. As we were walking away, he reminded me that Birch had been left on the couch, rather than deliberately out of Lady's reach. I, being an idjit, insisted to him that this would be fine and that Lady was not in the habit of destroying things. We went on our merry way, enjoying dinner without a thought.

Upon returning, I saw it. Birch was on the floor, miraculously not off the needles. Not a stitch dropped, thanks be to wool. The formerly neat ball of Kid Silk Haze was spread out and undone, but again miraculously, not tangled. It took me many hours, but I was able to repair the damage.

Since Birch was cast on, I have completed one pair of mittens, one pair of socks, and a first sock of a second pair. One of said socks was the fastest sock I've ever done, at a solid two days. This shawl, during her production, has overseen my most prolific knitting month yet, and that includes last December, my first real Knitter's Christmas.

This is what Birch looked like on her way to glory. Yes, that's my desk at work. It's lunch, I swear it is.

I kept Birch going for longer and longer, building on the victorious energy with which I started her.

And here she is now, an incredibly incredibly miraculous, victorious shawl.

Welcome to the world, Birch.

The Most Boring Post Ever - I Dare You to Read It

With a fairly quick push, the Rockin' Socks for July are done...beautiful, beautiful colorway from Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock, and a very useful pattern from a fantastic designer. These are on my feet twelve days early, meaning I'm ready to cast on for the next Sock Club pair as soon as the package arrives next week. Score one more for the Victory of Birch...which appears to be the Neverending Shawl. Maybe it's sticking around to absorb as many other FO's in its web of victory as possible.

It's clear just how many of all zero of you care deeply about my weekend, so here it is. Saturday was my first day in so long that I just got to spend at home with my husband and my dog. No plans, no requirements, no nothing. It was delicious. Lady, the pooch, got a bath and now smells more like vanilla than dog, which is an improvement.

Sunday, I had to do my first reading at Mass, which turned into a really nervewracking situation for me because I ended up having to do my first two readings. And the prayers of the people and the announcements. With a priest who has never said Mass at our parish before. I was counting on having someone else to keep a little eye on to ensure that I'm doing things right, and ended up screwing up a time or two because I had NO safety net. Joy. Serving the Lord, crazy initiation challenge style.

In order to unwind, my husband and I ended up deciding to go to the Renaissance Faire, which was a lot of fun, but I had conveniently not been paying much attention to the extreme heat advisories. Baking heat, massive humidity did not make four hours walking around outside the most optimal of ideas, but luckily my husband and I enjoy the Faire so much that it was worth it. We saw a couple comedic shows, which were delightful, and enjoyed the food, drink, shopping, and funne at ye faire. In addition to last year's corset acquisition, I now have a lovely underdress for which Birch will make a lovely overskirt. Tada, boring description of weekend accomplished! Still no knitting pictures! However will I maintain my extensive readership? Who knows.

Astonishing Progress Against Knitting Friction

There has been some astonishing progress with the ol' sticksnstring lately, mostly because I stealthily cast on (and off) a pair of mittens for my 2 year old neighbor girl for Christmas (It's only five and a half months away, people!). She's absolutely adorable and I think every single preschooler NEEDS to have a pair of bright red mittens, preferably on a little fingerknit string to prevent mitten loss. They should be issued on their second birthday, just to ensure full penetration of the preschooler market. I picked up some Debbie Stoller Alpaca Love at Michaels on clearance a few weeks ago in bright red and bubblegum pink, which immediately gave me visions of a 2-row striped scarf and mittens for the Neighbor Cutie. Surprise, surprise...once I cast on, the mittens took about 2 hours each, and I'm slow. Armed with this knowledge, I suddenly feel a knitting binge coming on, with plenty of bright red alpaca/wool and two more toddlers among my coworkers to be recipients. This is going to be a doozy.

Also, among my FO list for the day is the first Rockin Sock, with the second being cast on as we speak. I love this pattern (Unisex Slip) and will probably return to it a fair amount from here on. That makes three, count 'em, three FO's in one day, which is a marvelous victory. When Birch is done, it will have absorbed so much knitting victory that I will have no choice but to drape it about my shoulders every time I knit for a deadline, just for the mojo.

All this thinking about progress has me looking back a little at my history with knitting. I learned the knit stitch, longtail cast on, and the classic bindoff from my mother as a child, but quickly developed a chronic low grade distaste for garter stitch, especially in rectangular forms. Since she felt she could not impart any further skills in this area, that was about all I had, so I dropped it. My college freshman roommate was a crocheter, but too mean to bother to teach me, so all that did for me was spur me to pick knitting back up out of spite, to have a competing interest. I struggled for years to understand book descriptions of the purl stitch until one day it clicked and my knitting world expanded.

This is the story of my knitting life...I learned almost everything myself through a process of beating my head against it until one day my hands just do it out of nowhere. I learned knitting in the round on DPN's when a friend in my medical school days made me a stethoscope cozy and pointed out where the pattern was online. Google those words and you'll find it too. I struggled and struggled and one day it just made sense for no reason. The seventeen inches of in the round stockinette per cozy was a perfect way to practice DPN use, and the widening at the top taught me another useful skill...M1 increases. My increases always looked like poo until I realized that a KFB was not the only one around. Learning to knit in the round was absolutely a watershed moment for me, in that it significantly widened the possibilities for me and made anything possible. That was when I met the crowning love of my entire knitting career - socks. Once I made a couple, I was hooked.

My hands suddenly learned to do two-handed stranded colorwork the very same way just a month or two ago...rather spooky actually. It was the same theme of struggling and struggling and one moment I looked down and the movements were smooth, different than other ways I had tried before for no reason I could fathom. Lately, I've been struggling and struggling against that absurd deadline on Birch and then suddenly the friction gave way and now I have three FO's. Knitting has friction, oh yes...now I just have to figure out the coefficient of friction and I'll be able to overcome it more easily. (Yes, I took physics in college. Yes, I'm making a physics-related point in a knitting blog. I'm just that cool.)