Day 10: Boredom is Good

How can being bored be a good thing? It can make you a better knitter, that how.

• Learn a New Method:  I have been working on a Short Row cowl which is taking rather a long time to knit. Because I was bored I started looking on the internet for at all the ways there are to knit short rows. I can now work 6 types of short rows and did just that in my project. Not bored anymore.

• Decorate the Sides:  If you have miles and miles of stockinette stitch to work in the Body of your sweater, consider working a stitch pattern in a panel at each of the sides. Not bored any more. Side Pattern Vest

• Better Borders:  If you're working down your Top Down sweater and need something to keep you going, look through your stitch dictionary and find a really fantastic stitch pattern for the Bottom Border and the Cuffs. Worked a Slip Stitch pattern for a ShirtTail bottom border (from the Need A Circular Yoke book). Not bored any more.

• Knit Theme Socks:  Knit socks a lot? Looking for a cool stitch pattern to put in your next pair? Look through your Stitch Dictionary with someone or something in mind. What stitch pattern reminds me of my grandson? Or which stitch pattern represents Marriage, Life, Winter Fun, the Beach to me. These remind me of Fall, Pine Cone Socks.

Get bored and see what happens,
Deb

Day 7: Is there a Wrong Way to Knit?

How many ways do you know how to knit?

Sometimes I have someone in my class that knits in the combination continental method (wraps her purls from underneath and knits into the back of her knit sts). This means that her K2tog is our SSK and vice versa. As I try to explain the reversal of these stitches, the question of the correct way to knit comes up. Is there a correct way?

There is definitely a way of knitting which makes it easier to follow North American patterns. There are ways of knitting which make it easier for other knitters to help you when you run into problems. But a right and wrong way to knit? As long as the fabric looks good and has no crossed stitches on the stockinette fabric, I don't think there's any wrong way.

There are advantages to knowing other ways to knit. I get tendinitis in my right elbow quite often. The cure is rest. Yay, right, no knitting, like that's going to happen!! On my way home after hearing this terrible news, I thought "what if I changed how I knit, that might work". So I knit for 2 weeks working the Portuguese method and the elbow pain went away. Wow, just like that.

Mix it up. Try a new style of knitting. Work across the knit row with one style and the purl row in another style. Work one project with your main knitting style and a second project in a different style. It can't hurt.

Deb
P.S. Thanks Jill, Sharon and Liz for your comments. I'm glad to hear you're knitting everywhere you go. I take my sock project with me when I buy a new purse because the project has to fit or I can't buy the purse no matter how much I might like it.

Day 6: 3 Ways to be a Creative Knitter

You have knit one or many sweaters. Now its time for you to put all those hours of knitting into action and use your knowledge to make a new design by adding a little something of your own to a pattern you bought. Start small and see how it works. Then go to town. Use the written pattern as a jumping off point to create sweaters unique to you.

1.  Add a new element to the pattern. Add a stripe or work the borders in a different colour. Add a stitch pattern down the centre of the sleeve or down the sides of the Body. Work one of your favourite stitch patterns under the bust or vertically down the centre Front and Back.

2.  Turn something on it's side. Instead of working the Shirttail bottom border at the Front and Back of your sweater, work it at the sides of your Body to make the sides longer. Work a 3-button raglan opening in the Yoke at one of the Raglan lines for a diagonal button placket. Make the bottom of the sweater asymmetric in some way. Exaggerate the waist and hip shaping for a different look.

3.  Combine an element from 2 different patterns you've bought. Work the yoke from one and adjust the stitches to work the Body of a different pattern. Work your top down as a cardigan for the yoke with buttons, join it up and work the body as a pullover. Make your sweater into a capelet or shrug. Use the border patterns from another pattern. Work a collar onto a pattern that isn't written with one.

Have some fun,
Deb

Day 4: Why write a blog?

If I were a super hero, I would have an "I" emblazed on my chest. Not an I, as in me, me, me. But an "I" for Introvert. What would my super powers be? Not to leap high buildings. Not to save damsels in distress (although possibly to save knitters in distress). My introvert super powers would be somewhat understated and might be the power to generate design ideas in solitude.

But even an "I" super hero cannot live entirely without other people and certainly not without other knitters. We need to engage in the big wide world, while sitting at home of course (where else would we be).

Blogging means I am not alone with my obsession with sticks and yarn. Blogging means I can hear what you think. Blogging means I can be the Introvert I am, connect to you and other knitters and still sit in my house, surrounded by my favourite thing, knitting.

The question might be why not blog?
Deb

Day 3: Your Voice

I'm supposed to write in my own voice. I find this hard to do. I would like to write like I talk. That's our voice. But I can't gesture and wave my hands around while writing. It just doesn't work.

So here I am today in Hartford, CT at Sts East. I left this morning at 8am and arrived at 4:30pm. Does this seem like a long time to go 600km (I got that off my airline site)? How our expectations of travel have changed. I could have driven in the same amount of time but I do love to fly. That moment when the plane leaves the ground does something for me. Here we go!

I have never flown in such a tiny plane, except in a bush plane. When I booked with Air Canada I anticipated something a little bigger. It was a full flight, 18 people, 18 seats! Can you believe it?

The woman across from me was knitting. How great is that. She wasn't going to the knitting show, but back home. She sort of apologized for being a beginner. I envied her. She's starting on a great adventure. So much to learn, so many garments to knit, so much fun ahead. It would be so exciting to be at the beginning with all of that ahead.

Tomorrow morning I begin my class on designing a Top Down Raglan for yourself. I expect a very interesting day.
Deb

Day 1: A Bigger Life

Day 1:  Tell an inspiring story that invites us to live a life that is bigger than the one we're living now.

I am still in awe of the wonderful work Elizabeth Zimmermann did (Schoolhouse Press). I always think of a bigger life as a life spent out there, in the big world, not in a small town living in an old schoolhouse. From this schoolhouse she influenced many knitters to take a "look" at their knitting, take a chance, add a little something of your own to their knitting and knit without seams! Yes, I got hooked right there.

All her books, the Wool Gathering newsletters and especially the original Spun Out series have wordy instructions and percentages instead of line-by-line instructions, although she does include them in her books under the title of "blind follower" instructions. That always makes me laugh. I learned to knit using her books and many designers, including myself, still follow her percentage system to this day. If you want to begin designing your own sweaters there is no better place to start than the EZ Percent System.

Any time you step the littlest bit away from the line-by-line instructions we're all so used to now, something happens, the garment becomes yours. Go for it, change the ribbing, add a stitch pattern, add on a collar. You are now a co-designer. I invite you to proudly proclaim this title.

Deb
Do you have an inspirational story to tell?
Have you knit an EZ pattern? Have you used the EZ Percent System?