For the record

I think the Colts have a really good chance of beating the Patriots today... I'm so sick of hearing about the almighty, unstoppable Tom Brady. There is so much hype around here. Apparently if you have tickets to this game you can sell them for $4000. Every single national commentator thinks the Patriots are going to slam the Colts and I just think that's dead wrong.

Yes it's true they're putting up a lot of points, but they really haven't played anyone this year who is all that good. There is no way they're going to be scoring 5o+ points against the best passing defense in the league. Peyton Manning is playing smarter than Tom Brady. Who cares if you win by 12 points or 25? I'm not saying the Colts are definitely going to win, but it's at the very least a close match, and I think the Colts will pull it out.

I have knitting to post later, but I have to get this in here now. Off to finish my longies and watch the game.

Workshop fun

I was lucky enough to get to spend a day with Beth Brown-Reinsel on Sunday. The author of Knitting Gansey's, that Beth Brown-Reinsel.

I took 2 workshops, neither of which were techniques I was dying to learn, but I signed up anyway because, it's Beth Brown-Reinsel. How can you not?

The first class was Twined Knitting. Basically this means you knit with both ends of a ball of yarn, and twist them a half twist between (nearly) every stitch. It creates a nice dense fabric. There's more about it in a good Knitty article here.

I have no pictures because I completely forgot my camera. Eric graciously agreed to take a couple pictures from his phone and send them to me.

I have to say I really enjoyed the twined knitting once I got the hang of it. I found it very difficult at first, because it's done by holding the yarn in your right hand, and I am primarily a continental knitter. I can do both hands for colorwork, but I almost *never* purl right handed.

Once I got over the hump though, I was pretty fascinated. It was good for me to learn something I find difficult to do.
I finished my wrister. It's a little big, but not as much as I thought it would be. They don't look all that much different from traditional knitting, but it's much thicker.












In the afternoon workshop we learned several cast on techniques, a number of which were new to me. I really think some of these will become something I do often. I really liked what she called Cast-on 2, which is a twined knitting cast on. It's not super fast or easy, but it's cool.

The swatch on the left is stranded knitting, all done in ways that aren't my dominant way. Most of it is done with 2 strands in my left hand. Some is both strands in the right hand. Neither way is as comfortable to me yet as 1 in each hand, but it was an interesting experiment anyway.

Here's a phone picture of Beth doing stranded knitting.












Beth also talked about yarn dominance. Basically, it matters where you hold your strands of yarn. 1 strand makes slightly bigger stitches and 1 strand makes slightly smaller ones. I was already familiar with this, but these sweaters are a striking example. In the partially finished sweater on the left, the black is clearly dominant. In the one on the right, the red is dominant.

Oh, and Beth said my Stag Bag was beautiful, which was a HUGE compliment.

So it was a good day

Sheepy Soakers

Every time I produce a pattern it's a lot like having a baby. I've been feeling very pregnant with this one for the past few weeks and it's *finally* done.

It took a surprising amount of work, time and math to get this the way I wanted it.





Oh, and lots and lots of knitting.





I'm very happy with the result and the fit, but it sure wasn't easy!

The pattern is now finished and available for purchase.

It is 16 pages long, and fully illustrated.

Includes instructions for 3 waistbands, 9 cuffs, and 4 drawtrings.

6 sizes from newborn to toddler. There is also a customization option. You will have to do a little math so grab a calculator.

Knit in the round, without short rows (the shaping is done by the leg hole placement toward the front. When you bring the legs down it puts more room in the back.)

Includes clear instructions and pictures for grafting and picking up stitches.

Price: 5.75

This pattern (and all my others) are now available for immediate download at Sheepy Time Knits

I cannot explain this

I don't know what happened to these pant legs.

These have the same number of rows.

They were made on the same needles.

By the same person (me)

With the same ball of yarn.

?
When bad things happen with gauge.

Obviously, I need to re-knit one of the legs. But I don't even know which one to rip out? Was I really tense one day and knit particularly tightly? Or was I really loose? Who knows.

I know I know...

Not enough blogging. But there's been other stuff, like, you know, knitting

There have been lots and lots of Sheepy Soakers. This isn't even all of them. Pattern development is going on.

More on that later.
There have been pants
And there have been hats
My husband shaved his head this year and when it got cold his hats were too big for his head so he needed a new one.

And more hats

I think this picture actually captures the color of Molly's scarf, and I finished her matching hat.

There are more hats/mittens/scarves in the works outfitting the rest of the kidlets for Indiana winter.

Q&A

So I'm really bad about answering questions in the comments. But here they are anyway

A couple people asked me how many Borg references there were in my Ravelry post

The answer is 3

1- Eventually every yarn ever spun and every pattern ever designed will be assimilated within the Ravelry universe and then the knitters can take over the world!

2- You can become one with your projects.

3- Cause, you know, it's Ravelry, and I can't resist.
Resistance is futile.

Critterknit (my blogless friend who moved to Texas, and frequent commenter) asked in the same thread:
Okay, I have to know. What is the leafy shawly thing in the pic toward the beginning of the post? It looks wonderful!

It's something I made for my mom when I was 17 and has come back into my possession to repair and block. When I get around to doing that I'll post pictures :)

A couple people asked what happened to the Noro pants. The answer is, they're still sitting in my inventory bag with a bunch of other soakers and pants. I haven't added anything new to Etsy because I'm setting up http://www.sheepytimeknits.com/ and when that gets done I will have everything put there.


Janet asked in reference to my mentioning her not so obvious math skills:
The evidence to the contrary is my obvious attractiveness and wealth of personality, right? Not my self-professed issues with arithmetic?

To which I reply that she outted herself as being bad at arithmetic in the name of her very own blog, so she shouldn't be surprised when I point it out :) I think it's cool, actually.

Maryann wants to know how much yarn you need for an XL Sheepy Soaker.
I just made one with a skein of Lion Wool and had exactly enough, but not enough to make the drawstring. Lion wool is 2 3/4 oz and 143 yards.

Robin asked:
Now... when a pattern says to basically add stitches after you've been knitting something... like you cast on 8 and knit those for a bit and then add 9 more stitches to the work... what's the correct way to add those 9 stitches to the needle? I did that recently and it worked but ... I know I did that wrong.

without seeing the pattern I would have to say either thumb method of cast on or cable cast on. Knitting Help has an excellent page of lots of cast on methods here
http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/


Loraine (sadly blogless) says about my picking up stitches post:
Interesting thoughts, Mandie. How long did it take you to do this? I do the same thing and spend a lot of time researching and much more analyzing everything.

It's really hard to quantify that. It stews around in my mind for a few weeks, but not a lot of conscious thought goes into it until the end.

Holly (also blogless) from Fishers (nearby) wants to know where I yarn shop.
Answer: Locally, either Stitches & Scones in Westfield or Mass Ave. Knit Shop in Fountain Square (which should NOT be judged by it's poor web site). Both stores have great selection of yarn and good service. I'm about equally spaced between them so I go to either, but not often. I also shop online, a lot, and am a big buyer of coop yarn especially for my store inventory.

I really dislike that other store on the north side so much I won't even mention it's name. But if you want really hard to find very expensive yarn (like itty bitty balls of yarn for $85, or there's a huge skein of cashmere in there for almost $300) and sold to you by people that may or may not know anything about yarn or knitting, in sa store owned by an overentitled member of a racing family, and then wound for you into a ball that is so impossibly tight and will stretch your yarn out all to hell, well drive down 86th street for a while around the Keystone area and you'll find it.