Young Lady Bat

It's all finished and on my daughter's person now, just in time for the last day of high school... ever!  I was doubtful that I could squeeze in a handmade gift for her, but I'm so glad I did.  I enjoyed knitting it and thought about who she is and how she's grown with every stitch, hence the nostalgic posts of late.  Don't worry I'm not going to blubber about it today, instead I'll share a few things I learned about myself.

1) I'm kind of spacey.  

When I followed the pattern closely, this knit was a snap and worked up quickly.  My problem is that my usually scattered brain is now in overdrive and I could not stop having little zone out moments- the kind where someone waves a hand in front of your face and you don't even blink.  What saved me was to get it through my head that right now, as I am, I need to check the stitches on both sides of my markers, as I finish each row, to make sure they are the correct increase, knit stitch, or yarn.  If I was militant about it, things went smoothly.  If I was not, there was quiet sobbing (not really).  It only takes half a second to check this, right?

So, keep in mind that there are major changes and events happening in my family's life and normally I'd not find this so challenging.  The pattern is clearly written and produces a knit that looks just like the sample without any modifications.  If you are a normal person, you'll find it fun and just challenging enough to keep you interested.  That's why I'm about to cast on another one just for me- a no pressure version.  But I will also be casting on for the Harnett Tank because of something else I've learned about myself:

2) I'm fickle.  

Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that I was wining about how I was done with straight stockinette.  I couldn't wait to do lace and cables because "I'm so sick of this mindless stockinette!"?  Now that the Bombshell Shorts and Lady Bat are done, I'm saying, "Whew!  I just need something easy to work on... you know... something mindless..."

But, really, I do.  The new Netflix season of Arrested Development is coming out and I need a tv knit.

Back to the details on this knit:

If you didn't already know, it's Lady Bat by Teresa Gregorio who is just too cool.  She wrote the Ghosts ebook I talked about a few months ago and has designed knits that are in everyone's FOs or queue.  She has a very interesting design aesthetic.  There's nothing bland among her designs... nothing.  I cannot believe I haven't knit one of her patterns (so many are in my favorites or queue) until now.  It was time to right that wrong.

I used size 3s on the body to get gauge and size 1s to knit the ribbing.  I used long circulars for magic loop until it was large enough to move to 24" size 3 circulars. 

I knit an XS because it is for my daughter who is extra small, however, when I make mine I will still use this size because I like the fit for me too, even though I'd usually be a size small.  See an awful photo here.

It took eight balls of Knit Picks Shine Sport in robot to make this instead of the recommended seven, but my gauge wasn't quite as tight as the pattern sample and may be the reason for that.

One thing to keep in mind that I have mentioned before is that rows 8- 12 seemed to knit up tighter for me than rows 1-7 so I made sure to knit a bit more loosely on those sections.  It really evened the chevrons out.  I can block it out further if I want, but unblocked I think it looks fine.

Since it is knit from side to side, I had to remember to keep my gauge consistent from start to finish so both arms are the same length.  Keeping the final sleeve ribbing as tightly knit as the first is another thing I had to watch.  I considered just decreasing a few stitches before that final sleeve ribbing, but decided I could block the first one out a little if they weren't the same.  

I used a basic knit/ purl bind off for the bottom ribbing, instead of trying anything fancy.  The stretchy and sewn bind offs made it look too floppy.  I also picked up a few less stitches on the bottom because of the whole scatter brained thing, but I thought it worked out well since my daughter is very small.

I love that I made something this cool!  Now, to make my own and actually wear it, which brings me to the last thing I realized about myself as I worked on this top:

3) I put all of this time and energy into making some really great things, then I take them off, carefully fold them, lay them in a wardrobe like the Shroud of Turin, and put my old ratty shorts and tank top back on.  It's as if I think I'll ruin them with wear.

I mean, I am outside a lot and it's insanely hot and humid most of the year here, but I have summer knits that could at least see the light of day.  I can always wear these holy relics around the house, right?  So, I've started giving my poor mind a break and having multiple projects that require varying levels of concentration going all the time; then I'll make sure to wear them, even if it's just to watch tv and knit.

more on Ravelry and Flickr

Quietly Hopeful

These are of one of my daughter's closest friends.  I had the honor of shooting her graduation photos.  I'm posting the ones I like best, not necessarily the ones that make the best senior portraits.  I wasn't really sure what I should write here when posting, and probably would have said nothing, but all of this graduating and moving away from home business has me a little wistful.  So I digress.

I look at my daughter and her friend, here, and remember when I was eighteen.  It doesn't feel so long ago.  I realized that I am not grieving her leaving our home anymore, but have had a tightness in my stomach remembering when I left home and wishing it had been different for me.  I was not like my daughter.  I didn't know I was lovely.  I didn't speak with confidence and easily accept when I was ignored.  I didn't feel very useful and wasn't joyful unless I was running (literally and figuratively).  But, I held onto the promise that maybe, one day, my life would be "good".  Good meant joyful, wanted, useful, and part of something that "worked."  Somewhere along the way during a family tragedy I had missed the message that I was already capable of being those things, and it wasn't until my own daughter was born that I began to realize God meant that for me all along.

It's not enough to have food and shelter, or companionship and things to do.  Not really.  Just as it isn't enough for some children to feel so special and at the center of everything that they lack humility.  My desire as a girl and for these girls, is that they feel their place in something larger than themselves, in God's plan.  There's the responsibility of acting their part along with the joy of being an integral, wanted participant.  They need to hear about this from us when we "sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up." (Deuteronomy 11:19)  It should be a natural, extension of who we are and everyday life.  I hope that I have given enough of this to my children.

These last few were my favorites, taken just for my personal fun in the ugly lot next to my house before she went home.  They are beautified only by this girl and the sun.  They seem quietly hopeful to me, and that's what I'm feeling.

(more on my Flickr)

Knitalong Updates

I set my Bombshell Shorts for the Pour Moi KAL aside to finish Lady Bat as a gift in the Spring Tops, Tanks, and Tees KAL; however, I've run out of Shine Sport yarn and so am setting this top aside now.

I don't know what was up with me knitting this top, I made more mistakes that I had to fix than I have in years.  My husband said he hasn't seen me like "this" in a while.  "This" means talking to my knitting as I try to unknit three rows worth of just a small section but get lost in the lace and can't find my way out.  Nice. It really is a simple lace repeat, I guess the increases and decreases threw me.  Or maybe it's an impending graduation and all the events and life changes that go along with it.  But I have learned to check the stitches at each side of my markers to make sure they're correct after finishing every row.  Every row.  Otherwise, I forget a YO or a decrease or something and get to the end of the next row before discovering it.

(on instagram and flickr and ravelry)

Another tip about keeping the chevron pattern even is that on all the rows with yos and knit2togtbl , I threw my yarn very loosely and knit together with a lot of slack.  It felt counterintuitive, but it really evened the chevron look out.  It may also be the reason I need an extra ball of yarn.

Back to the shorts.  Since I just picked them back up and have unknitted the wastband to decrease and reknit it at a tighter gauge, there's little progress to show except this sad little worn pattern note that has followed me around the house for a couple of weeks.  It gets squashed in the couch cushions and blows across a room like an old tumbleweed across an arid landscape.  You can see by the wear on this paper that these shorts had some intense cabling.  It was so worth it, but I can't say that I'm sad to throw this little pattern shred away.

Goodbye pattern shred.

Kind of Perfect Day

For my Mother's Day gift, I got to do some things I love.   There was chocolate, flowers, a small tool kit, and the rest of the Mars Trilogy.  Then, we headed to one of my favorite places to go on a Sunday, after Church (minus my daughter, who was working)...

...where someone experienced the beach for the first time and didn't really love it.

I also relaxed and read The Great Gatsby for the first time while working on the startlingly vivid tanline on my legs,

had a long run with my most willing running partner,

witnessed crazy kite skillz,

and, you know what's coming, I knitted on a small beachy project- the Twin Cities Headband, which happens to be 50% off thru Saturday with a special coupon code, along with all of the designer's other patterns.  I also snagged the Traverse City Tube Top.

I used some Rowan denim from my stash and I think I'll really like how this turns out in denim.

Then, as if all of that weren't enough, everyone watched Star Wars with me because I couldn't see it on May the fourth.

more on my instagram and Flickr

DIY Circulars and Double Points

I love the look of beautiful, wooden circular needles, polished to a shine.  Since most of my knitting is circular and most of my wooden needles are straight, I thought I'd try making my own.  It wasn't hard at all.  Even if you whittle them by hand, you can easily make one pair in an evening.

So, I scanned my needle inventory (glad I took the obnoxiously long amount of time required to catalog them on my Ravelry page) and decided I needed sizes 17, 35, and 50 in varying lengths.  However, since I was going to all the trouble of being crafty, I may as well make some wooden double points in smaller sizes, too.

Let me just say, the tutorial I used, by Rosemary Thomas, is great.  That makes mine superfluous, but since I am using slightly different materials and like to fill space, I thought I'd share anyway.

What you need:
dowels in the correct diameter
a saw (I used a miter saw, but any rusty old hand saw will probably work fine.)
a sharp knife to shape the needles (or pencil sharpener or radial sander)
Sand paper in a few different grits
tape measure
beeswax or paste wax

Additional supplies for circulars:
round weed eater line for any size needle tip (works best but usually comes in garish colors) or large flexible plastic tubing for larger needle sizes (I couldn't find a type that was flexible enough for me)
strong glue (I used Gorilla Glue)
scissors
table clamp
a drill
a drill bit the size of your tubing or weed eater line

First you need to decide what your dowel size should be to get the proper needle size.  I went with:

1" for size US 50

3/4" for size US 35

1/2" for size US 17

3/8" for size US 13

5/15" for size US 11

1/4" for size US 10

I knew that I wanted the larger needle sizes to be circulars and the rest for double points.  Then, I had to decide what the actual length of each double point and circular needle tip should be.  I chose 8" for doublepoints and 4 3/4" for circulars tips.

I measured and marked my dowels, then cut each dowel into the correct length.  

 (See my manly arms?  My husband did the cutting, but anyone can use a miter saw.)

I then clamped each needle tip to a work bench and drilled about 3/4" into the center of one end.  (A note: if you are using large tubing as your needle cord and will drill a larger hole, you may want to use a smaller drill bit first to make a "starter" hole, ensuring the larger bit goes in evenly.)

Now comes the fun part.  Since I whittled mine by hand I started shaping the cord side of my circular tips first, being careful not to whittle it down so far that it weakened the wood around the hole.  When it was almost the right size, I moved to the needle end to work.  I then alternated between the two ends trying to get a little symmetry while making the needle end sharper.  The same applies for double points, only you don't have to worry about making the hole in one end collapse.  

I really just had to play with it to get a feel for using a knife.  I was literally on the porch whittling like an old timer.  All I needed was some chewing tobacco and to say things like "Time  was..." and "Back in my day..."

Now if you own a heavy duty pencil sharpener (for little sizes), a radial sander, or even a blade grinder, honing down your ends would be easier.  We are missing a part to our radial sander and I wanted to feel earthy with a knife anyway, so I carved my first few needles.  You can see they are not perfectly shaped, but I like them.

Now it was time to use my sandpaper, from the most course to the finest on the needles.

I followed with a couple of coats of paste wax (beeswax would work just as well) for some shine.

At this point the double points were finished.  If you don't want circulars, stop reading here and go use those double points to make a hat.

 If you do want circulars, however, you need to make another decision: what lengths should the cords be?  This was an easy step for me.  I always use 24" circulars.  But having a 16" and 40" would be nice too.  I'm not sure what I would make with magic loop on size 50 needles, but I have tons of dowels now to find out.

When cutting my needle cords, I kept the length of my needle and the 3/4" amount of cord that would be fitted inside each needle tip in mind.

In other words:
 24"(total length) - 9 1/2" (combined needle tip length) + 1 1/4" (for the bits of cord that will be glued inside the tips) = amount of cord needed for my 24" circular.

 Or you can do like me and just stretch the needle tips and cord out next to a tape measure and guess.  Snip them with scissors.  If you are using plastic tubing be sure it is the very flexible kind.  I didn't really like this tubing on mine.

 I, then, roughened 3/4" of the end of the tubing by partially cutting into it with the scissors.  I used them to nick it and make the cut bits flare outward slightly. The messier it was, the more surface for the glue to adhere to.

 Next apply a bit of glue and shove it into the needle tip.  Allow it to dry.  You can always sand any bits of glue that are visible, but I found I could pick them off with my fingernails just as well.

You are now the proud owner of a one-of-a-kind, earthy, survivalist chic, handmade circular needle set.  Now bring out the bulky yarn and knit that old Twinkle pattern you always wanted.

What I learned was that I prefer weed eater line to tubing, but most weed eater line is an ugly color, and pencil sharpeners can't handle poplar.   You can find other colors of line online.

So in two evenings, for the price of one and a half sets of wooden circulars, I have two sets of circular needles and one set of double points completely finished and ready to use.  I also have a big callous from whittling and a bunch of cut dowels waiting.  I could easily cut one or two sets an evening when we usually sit outside and talk, but my son did say he'd bring the rest to shop class and hone them down as a Mother's Day gift (Yay for wood shop!)

(my flickr and Ravelry)